1912 Iron and Steel Institute: Visits to Works
Note: This is a sub-section of 1912 Iron and Steel Institute
VISITS TO WORKS.
Kitson & Company Limited
Airedale Foundry
These works were founded in 1839 by Mr. James Kitson, the father of the late Lord Airedale, for the purpose of locomotive engine building, and the records of the firm represent the history of the development of locomotive engineering from its commencement up to the present time.
The present members of the firm are:—
- The Hon. Edward C. Kitson, Chairman.
- Mr. E. Kitson Clark, Managing Director.
- Mr. T. H. Brocklebank and Mr. Maurice M'Clean Bidder, Directors.
The machinery in the works is specially designed to deal with locomotive details, and the shops are generally equipped with the ordinary engineers' machinery of modern design, which does not require special comment.
In the erecting shop there were in course of construction at the time of the members' visit large mineral engines and tenders for the Great Central Railway, goods engines and tenders for the South Indian Railway, and a combined rack and adhesion locomotive for the Argentine Transandine Railway. The boiler shop is of a specially large size, being in two bays, 67 feet wide by 370 feet and 385 feet respectively, with a cross bay of 47 feet wide. The erecting shop, equipped with 45-ton cranes, is divided into two bays, and is capable of dealing with the largest locomotives that are put into service on any main line. Much interest was shown by the visitors in an old punching and shearing machine, which has been in operation at these works for sixty-four years. At the conclusion of the visit the members were entertained with tea and light refreshments by the Company in the Board Room.
John Fowler & Company (Leeds), Limited
These works are situated in Hunslet, about a mile from the railway station, and cover ten to eleven acres. The principal manufactures are — steam cultivating machinery, thrashing engines, road locomotives (steam and internal combustion), tractors and trailers, traction wagons, steam and road rollers, boilers, horizontal engines, under-type engines, winding and hauling engines, portable railways, and narrow-gauge locomotives. The number of employes is over 2000. The visitors, on their arrival, were received by Mr. W. Sheldon, one of the Directors, and by other heads of the firm. Prior to inspecting the shops the guests were conducted over the large and commodious drawing office and planning rooms. A tour was then made through the works, where the visitors were shown agricultural machinery and locomotives in course of construction. They also witnessed the rolling and welding of traction engine wheels. In the foundry an inspection was made of the cupolas and moulding machinery. A visit was also paid to the brass foundry, pattern rooms, and erecting shops. At the conclusion of the visit the members were entertained with tea and light refreshments in the Company's offices.
Messrs. Joshua Buckton & Company, Limited
Well House Foundry, Meadow Road, Leed
These works were founded by the late Mr. Joshua Buckton in 1842, and were registered in 1883. Mr. J. Hartley Wicksteed is the Chairman, Mr. Christopher James and Mr. Norman D. Lupton, Managing Directors, and Mr. Frank L. Watson, Secretary. The speciality of the works since their foundation has been the manufacture of self-acting machine tools, and the firm has turned out considerably over 11,000 of these, varying in weight from 5 cwts. to 220 tons, and composed of individual pieces up to 30 tons weight cast in their own foundry. Their chief specialities are lathes and planing machines for general heavy and medium work, gun lathes, turbine lathes and boring machines, armour plate planing machines, testing machines for all kinds of materials and capable of applying tests up to 500 tons in tension, compression and torsion either on test pieces or on complete structures such as chain cables, girders, or bridge members, radial and other drills, boring machines, slotting machines up to the largest sizes, hot or cold sawing machines, shearing machines for all classes of work (including hot steel blooms), and numerous special tools for iron and steel works, arsenals, dockyards, locomotive and general engineering works. These tools are made either for electrical or belt drive.
The works are entered by way of the foundry, in which both green and dry sand castings are made. Two 30-ton steam cranes command the floor.
Two cupolas, ranged side by side and fitted with receivers, are used alternately. The foundry is lighted with mercury vapour lamps.
The main shops are covered by two bays, 290 feet long by 35 feet and 50 feet respectively. The building is very lofty, with glass roof and glass sides, being, it is believed, the first shop in the North to be so constructed. With the heavy nature of the work to be dealt with, it has been found more convenient to dispose the various machine tools throughout the erecting shop. This, of course, applies to the heavy tools, the lighter tools and the automatic machinery being assembled in a side bay. Here also is the tool room and gauge department, whilst a side gallery above is devoted to small tools and light fitting. Some of the tools are of exceptional sizes, such for example as the 25 feet by 12 feet by 12 feet four-tool box planer, and its neighbouring machine - a planer with a 32-feet table. Amongst other tools in course of building, mention may be made of a 48-inch centre gun lathe, with a 100-feet bed; an exceptionally heavy slotting machine for forge work, with a 50-inch stroke and capable of taking work up to 10 feet in diameter, the table being mounted on compound slides; a 30 feet long by 10 feet by 10 feet planer, specially designed for planing armour-plates; a moving-column duplex side planer; a 100-ton testing machine; a heavy shearing machine, &c. &c.
Messrs. Hathorn, Davey & Company, Limited
Sun Foundry, Dewsbury Road, Leeds
Messrs. Hathorn, Davey & Company's works, Leeds, are the modern outcome of a business established rather more than sixty years ago by Messrs. Carrett and Marshall, from whom it was acquired by Messrs.
Hathorn & Davey in the early 'seventies and converted by them into a limited liability company at the beginning of the present century. The business was primarily established for the manufacture of pumps, and pumps have been throughout, and still are, the Company's speciality.
The Davey patent differential gear was introduced and largely employed both for new pumping-engines and for application to existing ones instead of the old-fashioned tappet gear.
The firm makes a speciality of pumping machinery of all kinds.
A pump was on view under efficiency test by a special electrically driven 100 horse-power plant in the testing shop.
Among the different types under construction are the following:—
Horizontal, differential, triple-expansion mine pumping-engine to raise 75,000 gallons per hour from a depth of 165 fathoms, steam superheated 150 degrees.
Electrically driven, three-throw, accumulator pressure pumps for mines and docks.
Centrifugal and high-lift pumps for mining and other work.
Vertical triple marine type pumping-engines for waterworks, &c.
An engine of this type designed and built by the firm holds the world's record for fuel economy.
Horizontal waterworks pumping-engines, &c.
At these works all the processes can be inspected, from the design to the complete erection of the various kinds of pumping plant.
The workmen's entrance and gateway entrance front on to Dewsbury Road; entrance to the offices, however, is by Jack Lane. From the managerial and general offices the drawing office is reached, and this is connected by an iron bridge with the pattern shop, below which is the pattern stores; both the pattern shop and stores are fitted throughout with sprinklers, to supply which a water tower has been erected. A corner of the pattern stores is given over to a Dennison bar-testing machine, upon which tests are taken and records kept of all material used. From the pattern stores, passing through the foundry yard—over which runways are in course of erection for the reception of a 7-ton Broadbent electric crane—on the right is the pump-testing shop. The test-plate is built over a well 30 feet in depth, so that depth of suction can be varied to meet requirements. The glass-covered generating station contains Westinghouse transformers through which the various voltages are obtained, whilst there is a range of motors for the various powers. The water pumped from the well is delivered into a series of tanks and thence flows back to the well, after passing through venturi meters, and, as a check, a series of V notches. The two systems of measurement agree within 1 per cent.
In the foundry, loam, green-sand and dry-sand moulding are practised; the Company, however, make a speciality of the last-named, and the drying stoves are as a consequence particularly roomy, being 26 feet by 16 feet by 16 feet. One end of the foundry is taken up with a casting pit 30 feet deep by 13 feet in diameter, in which cylinders, rams, accumulators, &c., are cast on end. The foundry floor is served by a 20-ton and a 10-ton electric crane. The foundry cupola has a melting capacity of 5 tons per hour, and is blown by an electrically-driven fan. Material is taken to the charging platform by hydraulic hoist, the exhaust from this hoist being delivered to a tank from which the boiler feed is drawn. Adjoining is the brass foundry served by a five-pot crucible furnace, where the Company make the whole of their brass fittings. From the foundry entrance is obtained to the works proper, which consist of three bays, two of which are occupied by machine tools and the third given over to assembling and erecting.
From the foundry the castings pass direct to the marking-out table.
Nearby is a special table which has recently been constructed for building up the crank-shafts in true alignment. In this department is a Niles vertical boring mill 12 feet by 6 feet. The weight of this machine is over 50 tons, and upon it a 6-foot cylinder can be bored perfectly round and parallel, all the motions being electrical throughout. Another machine in this department is a Kearns boring and surfacing machine, which has been adapted to deal with the Company's special design of mine clack boxes.
The shop also contains a large variety of up-to-date machine tools, to which, however, considerable additions are at present being made. Amongst the new tools to be put down mention may be made of a Norton grinding machine, with a capacity for work up to 18 inches in diameter. For the future, all work is to be finished by grinding. The erecting bay is served by two 20-ton electric cranes, the one working above the other. This gives the top crane a clear height of lift of 40 feet above the floor of the erecting pit for the larger work. The gallery of the erecting bay is laid out for the finishing of valves, &c., and contains the usual complement of small tools.
Of the work going through the shop at the time of the visit, special mention may be made of the pumping-engine for the Bigrigg Mining Company, Limited, Workington. This engine is of Messrs. Hathorn, Davey's surface triple-expansion, horizontal-tandem, differential, jet-condensing type, working, by bell-cranks two sets of ram pumps, the first set being 481 feet and the second set 890 feet from the surface. The arrangement of bell-cranks gives a delivery from the pumps on both the inward and outward stroke of the pistons. The engine is easily capable of raising 75,000 gallons of water per hour from a depth of 990 feet, with a steam pressure of 180 lbs. superheated 150° F. The steam cylinders are 27 inches, 42 inches, and 72 inches in diameter by 8-foot stroke, provided with balance slide valves actuated by Davey differential gear with safety trip motion. This gear adjusts the point of cut-off on each stroke to suit the load on the pump and the varying steam pressure, giving an automatic control with the highest possible range of expansion. The pumps consist of two sets of single-acting rams, each 17i inches in diameter by 8-foot stroke and fitted with a battery of six suction and delivery valve boxes, whereon the load is taken metal-to-metal and the joint made by overlapping rubber. The plant is a good example of the modern steam mining pump, wherein the greatest economy from the fuel burnt is obtained. The tandem triple-expansion design, with the heavy moving pump rods, allows for very early cut-off of the steam in the cylinders, giving the high ratio of expansion, which, together with the superheat, allows of the best possible economy being obtained in actual work.
In addition to the above, a number of large triple-expansion vertical pumping-engines were, at the time of the members' visit, in different stages of progress in the shops, several of them being on order for the Crown Agents for the Colonies, and others for the home market.
The members were received by Mr. H. Lupton, Managing Director, who met the party in the City Square and conducted them around the works.
THE HUNSLET ENGINE COMPANY, LIMITED
These works, which are situated in Jack Lane, were visited by a party of members on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 1. The works are on a part of the land which was formerly occupied by the Old Railway Foundry, a business which flourished prior to and in the early 'fifties, but fell upon evil times, and finally came under the hammer in 1859, when the site of the Hunslet Engine Works was purchased by the founders of the present Company, Messrs. George and James Campbell, who commenced building locomotive engines in 1864. Some ten years ago the business was converted into a limited liability company, of which the present management is vested in Mr. Alec Campbell (Managing Director), Mr. R. M. Campbell, and Mr. F. H. Lee. Mr. Brown is Secretary and Mr. E. Alcock Works Manager.
Previous to the formation of the Company, operations had been confined to building the lighter type of engines. Under the new management, however, preparations were immediately made for constructing the heavy main-line engines, to which end the old shops were remodelled and additional shopping erected. It is interesting to note that the Company have built engines for no less than thirty-seven different gauges of railway, ranging from 1 foot 6 inches up to 5 feet 6 inches.
The offices comprise the usual complement, with an extensive drawing office, all drawings being kept in duplicate. As a precautionary measure against fire, the originals are stored on steel racks in a specially constructed fireproof building, in which there are no windows, but which is electrically lighted. The fireproof door is connected with a fuse actuating weights, so that should a fire break out with the door inadvertently left open, the fuse acted on by the heat would release the weights and automatically close the door. From the drawing office we pass to the smithy, where the whole of the necessary forgings, with the exception of the axles, cranks and tyres, are made. Here also is the balling furnace for piling scrap; this is coal-fired and fitted with forced draught; it is served by a 20-cwt. forge hammer.
The smithy is also served by 10-cwt. and 5-cwt. hammers.
At right angles to the smiths' shop is the tank shop, which was formerly the boiler shop. The tools installed comprise punching and shearing machines, &c., all electrically-driven; in fact, with the exception of the steam-hammers, for which steam is raised in a Lancashire boiler at 80 lbs., the works throughout are electrically operated, current being taken from the Corporation mains at 2000 volts two-phase, and transformed at the works sub-station to 200 volts for both power and lighting.
In the machine shop are various forms of grinding machinery, amongst which are a Beyer-Peacock and a Norton grinder, for grinding the holes in motion work; a group of automatic and semi-automatic lathes and turret lathes; a heavy planing machine, recently fitted with variable-speed electric drive by the Lancashire Dynamo Company, the machine working on continuous current, and the transforming motors being carried on a platform at its rear. Other machines of interest are a Fairbairn-Macpherson frame-plate slotting machine, which is fitted with two heads, each of which is provided with a tapering arrangement; a Butler horizontal miller for milling connecting and coupling rods, and a Fairbairn-Macpherson 6-foot wheel lathe.
An interesting feature of many of the lathes is the installation of Lang's patent variable-speed drive. This allows the workman to get the correct surface speed for turning any diameter within the range of the lathe, however small the variation, without handling the belt, the same operation which changes the speed moving an index to show the diameter being turned. Briefly, the drive consists of pulleys, each built up of two cones, one of which is capable of sliding longitudinally; one of these sets of cones is carried on the shaft, to which is secured the fast and loose pulley, and the other on to the shaft connected to the main spindle through gearing. The cones are operated through a hand wheel and levers, so as to give an opposite longitudinal travel; thus a movement in one direction increases the diameter of the driver and reduces that of the driven, and by revolving the hand wheel in the opposite direction, the operation is of course reversed. A special form of belt is employed, which drives entirely by its bevelled edges. It might be assumed that the wear upon such belts would be excessive, but in practice this has not proved the case, and the drive is said to be entirely satisfactory.
A portion of the machine shop, fenced off by expanded-metal screens, is devoted to brass-turning and fitting. A lean-to building is occupied with a sand-blast apparatus (Tilghmans' patent); this is employed for scouring parts requiring painting. Nearby are the pattern stores, isolated from the other buildings, the heavier patterns being stored on the floor and the lighter on tiers of racks. All patterns are stored in order of number, and the racks also bear distinctive numbers. The pattern shop, which is a well-lighted and well-ventilated building, completes the old side of the works.
The new fitting shop and the new erecting shop adjoin each other. Tools worthy of note in the first-named are a 300-ton hydraulic wheel press by the Leeds Engineering Company, and a special vertical drill of the Company's own design for drilling through the wheel centres into the tires. The erecting shop is laid with wood blocks on concrete, and is served by two 25-ton electric cranes by Craven Bros. Amongst other work going through the shop at the time of the members' visit was the largest engine the Company have been called upon to build. This is a two bar-frame tank engine, eight wheels coupled, two-wheeled bogie leading truck, and four-wheeled trailing truck, with cylinders 18 inches by 24 inches, wheel-base 32 feet 6 inches, total heating surface 1937 square feet, and weight, when fully loaded, 73 tons.
The boiler shop equipment includes a hydraulic press for flanging shell plates, served by a coal-fired furnace; a pair of 8-foot bending rolls; a hydraulic riveter with 10-foot gap, and a Buckton shearing and punching machine. All these tools are driven by independent motors. In this shop is also installed a three-throw hydraulic pump and an Alley-Maclellan compressor, both motor-driven.
On the conclusion of the visit the members were entertained with tea and light refreshments in the Company's offices.
MANNING, WARDLE & COMPANY, LIMITED
BOYNE ENGINE WORKS, HUNSLET, LEEDS.
The works of this firm, which were visited by members of the Institute on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 1, are one of the oldest and bestknown works for the building of locomotive engines for which Leeds is famous all over the world, and so far back as the Exhibition of 1862 in London, Manning, Wardle & Co. gained the Prize Medal for the locomotive they then showed. The Directors of the present Company, which was registered in 1905, are Messrs. E. Wardle, A. H. Smith, and J. H. Evers; and Mr. H. Sanderson is the Secretary.
The Boyne Engine Works were originally founded in 1858, and from the first gained a reputation which they have consistently maintained throughout its history for productions of absolutely the highest excellence, not only in point of design to meet the varying requirements of different users, but also of quality of workmanship and durability. This latter feature is amply verified by the fact that it is a frequent occurrence for the Company to be asked for details of engines they have built twenty-five or thirty years previously, and which are being put on the market for re-sale. The works occupy an extensive acreage, and are well fitted with plant and appliances for the rapid output of tank locomotives and other similar classes of work, which form the Company's speciality, providing employment for several hundred workpeople. The various departments are commodious and excellently arranged for their particular duties, and the Midland Railway gives direct access by a siding, running into the works yard.
Manning, Wardle & Co., Limited, enjoy the confidence of both home and foreign buyers, being frequently consulted upon points touching peculiar exigencies of climate, &c. &c., and they are on the regular list of contractors to H.M. War Office, Admiralty, India Office, &c. &c.
To show the position which the concern holds for meeting up-to-date needs, it may be instanced that they supplied for the Sudan the first armoured locomotive (such as was afterwards used by the British troops during the South African War), and they are at present manufacturing a type of aeroplane engine which bids fair to take its stand amongst the first of British productions in this field of engineering.
On the occasion of the visit the members were received by Mr. Wardle and other Directors of the Company and shown round the various departments, tea and light refreshments being served on the conclusion of the visit.
J. & H. McLAREN
MIDLAND ENGINE WORKS.
The Midland Engine Works, at Hunslet, Leeds, are about one mile from the centre of the city, by the side of the Midland Railway, sidings from which enter the works. The business was originally established by the present proprietors—Messrs. John and Henry McLaren, by whom the members were received—in 1876 for the building of agricultural engines, but since then a considerable amount of success has been achieved in other branches of engineering. Some twenty years ago the firm commenced the manufacture of electric-lighting engines, in which a large business was done with municipal and other undertakings. Two such engines, each of 3000 h.p., are at work to-day in the electric light works of the Leeds City Corporation. Owing, however, to the recent great development in the traction-engine trade, the manufacture of stationary engines has been virtually abandoned, the firm now concentrating the whole of their energies on the agricultural section of their business.
The administrative building, where, on the conclusion of the visit, the members were entertained with tea and light refreshments, fronts on to Jack Lane, and comprises the usual offices, while from the same thoroughfare the works are approached through a gateway entrance. The works proper are covered by two bays each 300 feet long by 42 feet and 40 feet wide respectively, a division wall across the centre separating the boiler and the smiths' shop from the large machine and the erecting shops. The smiths' shop, in addition to the usual assembly of hammers, punching and shearing machines, &c., contains a hydraulic flanging press (H. Berry & Company), with a working pressure of 50 tons to the square inch, and also a bending press for coiling the superheater tubes, &c.
The machine shop equipment includes, amongst a range of up-to-date tools, Norton 14-inch grinders; Wilkinson two-spindle boring machines for boring motion barrels; a Parkinson lathe which, with a system of jigs, does all the work upon a clack box with one setting up; Keigbley lathes for boring and facing simultaneously; and a specially useful tool in the shape of a twin hack-sawing machine, employed for cutting out crank webs.
A central position beneath the gallery is occupied by the tool room and stores, the check system being adopted throughout the works for the issue of tools, &e. Grouped round the tool room are a number of vertical and horizontal milling and drilling machines, &c. A portion of the gallery is given over to turning out complete bolts, studs, stays, &c., practically the whole of which work is done on automatic machines. The fitting shop for motion work is also in the gallery. The floor of the machine shop is served by a 10-ton electric crane by Booth Brothers, current for operating which is generated by an E.C.C. motor, 230 volts, 70 amperes, which is housed on the floor level and driven by belt from the line shafting.
The boiler shop equipment comprises high-speed shell-drilling machines, vertical and horizontal hydraulic riveting machines, and also a portable hydraulic riveter. Side frames, &c., are cut out by the oxy-acetylene process, the installation being, by Messrs. Warden & Company. In addition to a Booth 10-ton overhead electric crane, which is energised in a similar manner to that of the machine shop, there is a very complete installation of jib cranes.
The erecting shop floor is served by a 20-ton Smith-Rodley steam crane.
In this shop are installed the plate-bending rolls, an end planing machine, and radial drills in connection with which are pits to facilitate dealing with the large work. The auxiliary shops comprise pattern shop, paint shop, marking-off shop, &c.
With the exception of the cranes referred to, the machines are operated from line shafting which is driven through eight ropes from a M`Laren 300-h.p. compound engine, run non-condensing. The hydraulic pumps are driven through gear from an extension of the engine-shaft. In the power house is also installed a horizontal compressor by the Consolidated Pneumatic Tool Company, which supplies air at 75 lbs. pressure for use throughout the works.
Steam is raised in a Lancashire boiler at 160 lbs. pressure, and superheated to insure dry steam at the engine stop valve. The boiler is fitted with a Triumph stoker, a bucket elevator delivering the coal from the hopper on the ground level to the shutes above the stoker.
Leeds Steel Works.
The Leeds Steel Works, where the members were received by Mr. A. S. Keith, the Works Manager, and Mr. D. Richards, form a branch works of Messrs. Walter Scott, Limited. They were founded in the early 'sixties by Mr. Joseph Ledger for the production of cinder pig iron, one blast-furnace being erected, with a water-balance hoist. A further furnace was erected during 1870-1. At a later date a certain amount of hematite was made from imported ores. The works were taken over jointly by the late Sir Walter Scott, Bart. the late Colonel North, and Mr. C. G. Murietta, by whom, in 1888, the business was converted into a limited liability company, of which the present directors are: Sir William Stephenson, D.C.L., D.L., Mr. Mason T. Scott, Dr. J. B. Simpson, D.C.L., Messrs. J. T. Middleton, Chas. T. Scott, and W. S. Vaughan. Since the formation of the Company the works have been devoted to the production of pig iron, its conversion into steel by the basic-Bessemer process, and the rolling of sections, a percentage of which is used in the constructional department adjoining the steel works.
The blast-furnace plant consists of four furnaces, of which three are in blast, No. 3 furnace being out for relining and thorough overhauling. It is worthy of note that although the latter furnace has been blowing on and off for the past thirty years, it has during the whole of that period never been entirely relined, though a new top and new wells have been put in. The furnaces-are each 65 feet high from hearth to charging level with 10-foot hearths and boshes 18 feet 6 inches diameter. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 furnaces have down-comers terminating in small circumferential dust catchers.
The blast is furnished by two Kitson blowing engines with 54-inch steam and 100-inch air cylinders by 5-foot stroke, one acting as a stand-by. The exhaust from each of these engines is carried to a vertical heater which raises the temperature of the feed water to about 190° Fahr.
A further Kitson blowing engine with 48-inch and 100-inch steam and air cylinders, respectively, by 5-foot stroke, and a Parsons high-pressure turbo-blower, which at 3600 r.p.m. is equal to a duty of 18,000 cubic feet per minute at 10 lbs. pressure, are also installed. The furnaces, however, are blown at 51 lbs., the blast being heated to 1500° Fahr. in nine improved type Cowper stoves, each 23 feet in diameter by 68 feet high to the springing of the domes.
The ores are calcined in six improved-type Gjers kilns, four dealing with Northamptonshire ores and two with Frodingham ores, the output per kiln being 400 tons and 700 tons respectively. The ore, &c. is conveyed to the furnace tops by steam-driven double hoist. The average output per furnace is 100 tons per day, but the make for the week has on occasion been as much as 2400 tons.
With the exception of the week-end make, the metal is poured direct from the furnaces into 15-ton ladles, and conveyed by bogies to the de-siliconising plant. This is of particular interest, as it is believed to be the only plant of its kind in this country. Its installation was found necessary, owing to the variable content of silicon in the iron made at the furnaces, which at times is as high as 2.25 per cent., and can be reduced by this intermediate treatment to about three-tenths of 1 per cent. before it is taken forward to the basic-Bessemer plant. The de-siliconising plant consists of two silica-lined 15-ton converters, served by a 35-ton Broadbent electric crane, the main' hoist of which lifts the ladle from the bogie and raises it to the mouth of either converter, into which it is poured by an auxiliary hoist. The metal is then partially blown and poured back into the ladle, from which the slag is allowed to overflow. The week-end make is re-melted in one of three cupolas, each of which is capable of melting down 100 tons a day. These cupolas are installed adjacent to the steel plant, as formerly the metal from them was run direct into the converters.
The basic-Bessemer plant to which the metal is next conveyed consists of four 10-ton converters, which are charged from a 120-ton metal mixer.
Spiegel is brought down in two cupolas installed at the end of the line of converters, the requisite quantity being poured direct into the casting ladle. The converters are served by a 50-ton crane, which travels their length over a narrow-gauge runway. There are two hydraulic cranes, each serving two casting pits. The converters, and also the de-siliconising plant, are blown by a pair of coupled John Fowler engines, with 36-inch steam cylinders and 53-inch air cylinders (water cooled) by 5-foot stroke; they run at 36 r.p.m., and blow at 25. lbs. Hydraulic power for manipulating the cranes and converters is supplied by a pair of Galloway pumps, which work at 650 lbs. pressure. From the casting pit the ingots are taken direct to the coal-fired reheating furnaces. From the reheating furnaces the ingots pass to the mill, which has 28-inch cogging and 32-inch roughing and finishing rolls. The cogging rolls are driven by a pair of geared Galloway engines with 39-inch cylinders by 5-foot stroke, and the roughing and finishing rolls by a pair of Davy Bros. engines with 51-inch cylinders by 5-foot stroke.
The output of this mill is from 1800 to 2000 tons of various qualities of steel per week, principally tinplate bars, joists, and tram rails. The latter are a speciality; the Company have had considerable experience in their manufacture since 1894, and have produced from time to time about sixty different sections, of which some fifty have been for Corporations and Councils in the United Kingdom. The Company claim to have a greater range of sections, both in tram rails and joists, rolled in one mill than any other establishment in the country. Many of, the rail sections rolled are of an unique character, whilst the sections of joists range from 18 inches by 7 inches down to 4 inches by It inches. The Company were also the pioneers of long lengths, being the first to produce—in the year 1902— rails 60 feet long. The first manganese steel rails rolled in this country were also produced at the Leeds Steel Works, a considerable quantity being rolled for points and crossings.
The slag produced at the blast-furnaces, which formerly went to the tip, is now passed through breakers—two " Mason" and three " Marsden " being installed—and disposed of for road-making, concreting, ballast, and other purposes. During the last four years a large business has been developed in the manufacture of tar-macadam, and at the present time this absorbs from 800 to 1000 tons of broken slag per week. Basic slag is also ground at a mill connected with the works.
The Coghlan Steel & Iron Company, Ltd.
Hunslet Forge.
At the Hunslet Forge the visitors were welcomed by Col. Charles Coghlan, C.B., the Chairman of the Company, and Mr. Graham Ford, Works Manager, and entertained in the Company's offices previous to proceeding on an inspection of the works. Each of the visitors was presented with an illustrated booklet descriptive of the works, and a handsomely bound diary for the coming year.
The works were formed early in the last century by Mr. Shaw, of Barnsley, who put down a small plant for the production of split rods and the manufacture of nails, a water wheel furnishing the requisite power.
The business was acquired in 1872 by Messrs. Coghlan & Dury, which firm, in 1889, was converted into the Coghlan Steel & Iron Company, Limited.
From the time the business was taken over by Messrs. Coghlan & Dury the works have been laid out more particularly for the production of high-class cable irons, to comply with Admiralty and War Office specifications, and also for home, colonial, and foreign railways, and all engineers' requirements.
A later development was the manufacture of steel bars of all sections, forgings up to 6 tons in weight, plates, and sheets.
Under the management of Mr. Graham Ford the works have, during the past few years, been practically remodelled, and are at the present time an excellent example of a modernised old works, where the most has been made of the available space, and a continuity of operations assured with a minimum amount of labour.
The plant consists of five mills, and these, together with the furnaces and auxiliaries, are all arranged in sequence, with the finishing banks and warehouse accommodation at the rear. Raw material is delivered by the Midland Railway to the Company's sidings immediately at the rear of the eight double puddling furnaces. Nearby are three ball furnaces, with an output capacity of 24 tons per shift. The two forge trains are each served by a 5-ton steam-hammer. The 18-inch rolls produce 3-inch, 4-inch, 5-inch, and 6-inch puddled bars, and the second train 8-inch, 12-inch, and 15-inch bars. Each train of rolls is driven direct by a 40-horse-power horizontal engine.
The 9-inch guide mill (four stands of rolls), fed by two coal-fired reverberatory furnaces, is driven by a 60-horse-power horizontal engine, the average output of this mill being about 40 tons in the 24 hours. The output of the 16-inch mill is about 25 tons per shift. This mill is furnished with positively driven rolls, and is direct driven by a vertical steam-engine, the furnace equipment being similar to that at the lighter mill. The steam-driven hot saw is immediately at the rear of the mill; an interesting feature of this saw is that the push is actuated by steam instead of hydraulically.
The hot banks for the whole of the mills are built of gratings over a hollow floor, under which the water from the rolls is allowed to flow. On the edge of the hot bank are the straightening machines and the reeling machine, the latter being driven by a 100-horse-power motor. Passing through the machines the material goes to a second bank, beyond which is the warehouse.
Still in line is the 22-inch sheet mill, in which sheets from 20 gauge to inch, and plates from i• inch to inch, are rolled. This mill is served by two reheating furnaces and a slow combustion 24 feet by 11 feet annealing furnace. The plate shears (Buckton, Leeds) are direct steam-driven. All sheets and plates are cold-flattened by a Craig-Donald patent flattening machine, which is also direct driven by a vertical engine. Each of the furnaces carries a waste-heat boiler, the working pressure being 70 lbs.
There are, in fact, only two coal-fired boilers on the works, and these are kept damped down as stand-bys. A complete system of telegraphs is also laid throughout the mill.
At right angles to the plate mill are two draw-benches for the production of pressed bright bars. This department is the most recent addition to the works, having been in operation for about twelve months, and the Company are turning out a very fine product in all sizes from I inch to 4 inches in diameter, which is highly polished and guaranteed true to within two-thousandths of an inch. The benches can develop a maximum pull of 50 tons and 18 tons respectively, and are given a rake which brings the wagon back to the starting position by gravity. Each bench is independently motor-driven. As already stated, the bright-steel plant has only been in operation for about a twelvemonth, but the management have decided upon a complete installation on a distinctly improved principle, which will enable them to manufacture bright steel to within even closer limits, and they will be able to deal with material of 1 per cent. in carbon and any alloy. The new system will necessite the erection of buildings and an entirely new plant, but the work is to be pushed forward with all possible speed.
At the rear of the draw-benches are two motor-driven polishing machines, designed on the latest principle, which ensures the finishing being done at a high temperature, thus releasing the whole of the stresses.
Beyond the mill is the roll-turning shop, equipped with two lathes. The soft rolls, it may be mentioned, are made of steel. In this shop is also a 30-inch Craven lathe for the rough turning. Parallel with the mill is the machine-tool department with its complement of lathes, milling, drilling, planing machines, &c., and adjoining are the pattern-making and wheelwright shops, above which is the pattern store. Beyond the smiths' shop is the test department, where a Buckton 50-ton testing machine is installed.
A careful record is kept of all tests, and the test-pieces themselves retained for not less than three months.
The forge department, which stands upon the site of the earliest operations, contains a 5-ton and a 50-cwt. steam-hammer, the larger being served by two furnaces, and the smaller by one furnace, whilst both hammers have an equipment of radial manual cranes. Each furnace carries its waste-heat boiler, so that the forge is self-supporting in the matter of steam.
Current for the works is taken from the Leeds Corporation to the substation on the works, where the transformers installed are equal to an output of 1000 horse-power.
THE MONK BRIDGE IRON WORKS.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, October 2, a party of fifty members visited the works of the Monk Bridge Iron and Steel Company, Ltd. They were met by the Chairman of the Company, Mr. F. J. Kitson, by the Directors, Lord Airedale, Mr. E. Jeffreys, the Hon. Roland Kitson, and Mr. H. H. Kitson, and by the Managers, including Mr. Ralph G. Scott and Mr. J. Tordoff. Refreshments were served on arrival, after which the visitors proceeded to inspect the various departments.
The works were established in 1854 by the late Lord Airedale and his brother, the late Mr. F. W. Kitson, and until the present year were carried on as a private company. They cover about 10 acres, and are situated on either side of the Whitehall Road, within three-quarters of a mile of the centre of Leeds and in direct communication with the whole of the six railways by which Leeds is served. They afford employment for about 1000 men. The principal manufactures of the Company are "Best Yorkshire " iron bars, plates, forgings, &c., steel forgings, cast-steel locomotive wheel centres, straight axles, crank axles, and special high-quality steel tires for locomotives, carriages, and wagons.
Entry to the iron works is by way of the administrative buildings. The Company are owners of blast-furnaces in another part of Leeds, where pure cold-blast pig iron is made for the manufacture of "Best Yorkshire." This is delivered direct to the refineries, of which there are two, to which blast is supplied at about 3 lbs. pressure by a horizontal blowing engine with 48-inch air cylinder. There is ample yard accommodation at the rear of the refineries, bounded by the Great Northern main line, the archways supporting the viaduct affording useful storage. In the yard are also the steam-driven scrap shears. The refined iron is broken, examined, and then passed to the puddling furnaces. There are eleven of the latter, each carrying a waste-heat boiler in which steam is raised at 60 lbs. pressure. The puddled iron is nobbled under two 70-cwt. steam-hammers, the average weight of the stampings being 1 cwt. The stampings are again broken up and once more examined before being piled for the bloom, which is taken to the bar mill and rolled into 2f-inch bars. These are cut up under one of the two Buckton direct-driven shears; they are then cross-piled in two gas-fired furnaces and forged into blooms of the size required, which varies from 100 lbs. to 600 lbs. in weight. For the heavier blooms there is a 5-ton and for the light blooms a 3-ton steam-hammer.
In the iron forge, which is placed between the puddling and the balling furnaces, connecting-rods, piston-rods, and hammered bars of all types are forged up to 6 tons in weight, a 10-ton forge hammer being served by two jib cranes and two gas-fired furnaces. The mills are contained in two separate buildings, the space between them and the hammers serving as a bloom store. In the first of the mill buildings two mills are ranged side by side. One is a 10-inch three-high bar mill, driven by a horizontal engine with 30-inch cylinder, and served by two coal-fired furnaces, with waste-heat boilers which supply the mill engine, and the other a 14-inch two-high mill driven by a compound beam engine with 40-inch and 48-inch cylinders.
This engine also works a train of forge rolls. The furnaces for this mill are gas-fired, the engine taking steam from the waste heat boilers at the puddling furnaces. The steam-driven hot saw and the cropping shears are placed central to and serve both mills. The loading siding runs along the side of the building.
A 19-inch bar mill is contained in a separate building. This is served by four gas-fired furnaces, and has an equipment of hydraulic jib cranes. It is driven by a horizontal engine with 36-inch cylinder, and reversed by a patent clutch. A loading siding runs the full length of the mill buildings, so that the finished material has only once to be handled.
The steel works on the opposite side of the road are approached through a gateway entrance, on the right of which is the timekeeper's and weigh-clerks' offices, and on the left the managerial offices, together with a well-equipped laboratory. The lighting of this building is remarkably good, and is intensified by the walls being lined with white bricks. Below is the test house, containing a machine of the double lever type, designed by the Company's engineer. It is equal to a 60-ton strain on a finch test-piece, but for high-tensile work 1/4-inch test-pieces are always employed.
The steel foundry is a very lofty and well-ventilated building under the same roof as the steel furnaces. Steel is manufactured by the open-hearth process, the two furnaces having respective capacities of 30 and 20 tons, Raw material is loaded to the surface stage direct from the trucks. The casting pit is served by a 30-ton Vaughan electric crane, the runway of which also extends over the Harmet press. Above the casting pit the ladles—of 30, 20, or 10 tons capacity, as the case may be—are conveyed along a line of rails, and in the pit ingots are cast up to 2 tons. Compressed ingots up to 8 tons in weight for forgings for cranks are cast in the pit in connection with the Harmet press. After filling, the moulds are conveyed in pairs by a hydraulic creeper to the press, where they are subjected to a pressure of 3 tons to the square inch, and as the ingot is tapered 1 inch in 12 inches, this pressure is considerably intensified. To freeze out the 8-ton ingots requires about six hours. Hydraulic power is supplied by Henry-Berry three-throw pumps, which are direct driven by a B.T.H. motor, and housed in a building immediately at the rear of the press. In connection with the pumps are high- and low-pressure accumulators, the initial pressure on the ingot being about 750 lbs. On either side of the pump-house are to be seen sample ingots which have been cut through vertically, the one cast in the ordinary way and the other compressed; they serve to show very graphically the excellent work accomplished by the press.
The foundry floor is served by two 30-ton Vaughan electric cranes, and the drying ovens are coke-fired. Metal for casting is delivered in the ladle to the centre of the foundry floor on a carriage which runs at right angles to the casting pit; the ladle is thence handled by one of the cranes.
Six Wilson producers, with charging platforms at the rail level, supply gas for the furnaces. An auxiliary shop contains a Clifton & Waddell 4-tool slicing machine and a Dean-Smith & Grace axle-turning lathe, both tools being direct-driven by independent motors. The tools are served by a 5-ton overhead Vaughan crane. The electric welding shop adjoins.
A further shop contains a powerful horizontal saw by Clifton & Waddell.
This is used for sawing the heads off the cast wheels, and is driven from a countershaft belt-driven from a motor.
Near the foundry is the annealing and fettling shop, which contains five coal-fired furnaces, each served by a trolley running upon rails, upon which the wheels are piled. Jib cranes are also provided, and there is a complete installation of pneumatic tools. Each wheel has two test-pieces cast upon it and bears a distinctive number, as every wheel has to pass rigid inspection before leaving the shop.
The forge, which is an independent building, contains a hammer with a dead drop of 15 tons, which is served by three furnaces. This hammer is employed to cut the ingots up, and also to make general forgings. The centre of the forge is taken up with a 2000-ton hydraulic press which with its two furnaces and jib cranes, assisted by two 40-ton overhead electric cranes, deals with the heavy forgings. Beyond this is an 8-ton flanging hammer with two furnaces, for flanging the tires, which from there pass to the fettling department, served by a Henry-Berry hydraulic radial crane. Gas for the forge is supplied by six Siemens producers.
The flanged blooms are now delivered to the tire mill at the other side of the works. Here they are reheated—the furnace being equipped with a hydraulic manipulator—and passed through a vertical roughivg mill and thence through the horizontal finishing mill. Both these mills are driven by the engine which operates the 19-inch bar mill. An oil bath is installed at the mill for use when required. On this side of the works is the forge for steel cranks, carriage and wagon axles, &c. These forgings are made under an 8-ton and a 2-ton hammer, respectively. Each hammer is served by two furnaces, and the cranes are hydraulic. • In addition to seventeen boilers arranged over the furnaces there are thirteen mechanically-fired boilers in groups of five and eight respectively.
The feed water is heated by two sets of Green's economisers and three Berryman's heaters. Power for operating the electrical machinery, cranes, &c., is taken from the Leeds Corporation.
On leaving the works the visitors proceeded to the power station of the Leeds Corporation, situated about a quarter of a mile nearer the centre of the town.
THE LEEDS CORPORATION ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER STATION.
Leeds Corporation Electric Light and Power Station
The works at which electrical energy is generated for the supply of light, heat, and motive power to the public of Leeds are situate in Whitehall Road, immediately behind the Great Northern Passenger Station. The site measures 10,960 square yards, and abuts upon the river Aire, along which coal is carried to the works in the Corporation's fleet of barges. The buildings have been erected in three instalments, and the older portions are now comparatively little used, a large proportion of the plant erected therein having been discarded and sold.
The new portion of the buildings is at the west end, and occupies a little inure than half of the total space. The boiler-house is immediately adjoining, and parallel with, the engine-house, which is bounded on the other side by the switch-room, &c. The boiler-house is 231 feet long by 82 feet wide, and is arranged to hold twenty-four water-tube boilers in four batteries, with an economiser for each battery. Sixteen boilers made by Babcock and Wilcox, Ltd., fitted with superheaters, chain grate stokers, and induced draught are already installed, and four others are on order. The largest of the boilers are each capable of evaporating 30,000 lbs. of water per hour.
The coal brought by water is mechanically unloaded and conveyed to the bunkers over the boilers, which bunkers have a storage capacity of about 3000 tons. From the overhead bunkers the coal gravitates through the measuring shoots to the chain grates, and the ashes are tipped over the end of the chain into the basement, their removal from whence is also performed mechanically by means of an ash conveyor.
The engine-house is 220 feet long by 65 feet wide and 42 feet high, and is spanned by a 30-ton electric travelling crane. When fully utilised it will hold plant having an aggregate capacity of 26,600 kilowatts. Its present contents are six generators, four of them driven by reciprocating triple-expansion enclosed condensing-engines running at 200 revolutions per minute, and capable of supplying 1400 kilowatts each as a continuous load. Each of these four sets has its own condenser, and provision is made whereby any condenser can be coupled at will to any engine. Two of these engines are by Messrs. Belliss & Morcom, Ltd., Birmingham, and two by Messrs. J. & H. McLaren, Leeds. The alternators are by the Electric Construction Company, of Wolverhampton. The two later sets consist of 3000 kilowatt turbo-generators, the turbine portions being of the well-known Parsons type, made by Messrs. Willans & Robinson, and the alternators by Messrs. Dick, Kerr & Company, Ltd. The speed is 750 revolutions per minute.
Foundations are being prepared for a 7500-kilowatt turbo-generator, now under construction by Messrs. Willans & Robinson, and Messrs. Dick, Kerr & Company. The speed of this set will be 1000 revolutions per minute. Each turbine has a separate condenser electrically driven.
All the alternators give out two-phase energy at a periodicity of 50 cycles per second, and a pressure of 2000 volts on each phase. A portion of the output is transformed at a sub-station in the works to three-phase energy, at a pressure of 6600 volts.
The switch-gear is by Ferranti, Ltd., and is of the latest "remote control" type, all switches breaking under oil. The bus bars are in duplicate, and are so arranged that they can by means of very powerful oil-switches be split up into sections in case of necessity.
The station also comprises a complete and well-equipped range of workshops for mechanics, joiners, &c., meter-testing rooms, and spacious stores for permitting the economical handling of materials. The capacity of the generating plant at present installed is nominally 15,740 kilowatts, but it is capable of supplying a considerably larger quantity in an emergency.
The capital expenditure upon the undertaking is £1,033,709, of which £410,003 has been spent upon the generating station.
The total revenue last year was £114,846, and the surplus profit applied to the relief of the rates (after providing for the repayment of debt and other charges) was £16,065.
Some of the principal users of the Corporation supply of energy as motive power are:—
- The Leeds Forge Company, Ltd.
- The Monk Bridge Iron & Steel Company, Ltd.
- Messrs. Kitson & Company, Ltd.
- Messrs. Fairbairn Macpherson.
- Messrs. Hathorn, Davey & Company, Ltd.
- The Hunslet Engine Company, Ltd.
and other engineering firms.
FARNLEY IRON WORKS.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, October 2, a party of members numbering sixty visited the works of the Farnley Iron Company, Limited.
Special cars on the trackless rail system were kindly provided by the Corporation for the conveyance of the members, who were welcomed by the Chairman, Mr. R. Armitage, and Mr. Ewing Matheson, who was accompanied by his son, Mr. A. G. E. Matheson, who acted as guide and conducted the visitors round the works.
The works, which were established in 1844, are situated at Parsley, about joining up miles from Leeds, on the main road to Halifax, the works siding up with the main line of the London and North-Western Railway. The works, as originally laid down about seventy years ago, were solely confined to the manufacture of " Farnley" iron, but since that time the Company has installed a large plant for the manufacture of glazed fireclay goods, and to-day they are known as makers of the highest class of glazed bricks, baths, and other glazed fireclay sanitary ware, as well as manufacturers of the " Parsley" brand of "Best Yorkshire" iron. The "Farnley" iron has a world-wide reputation, of which the Company are naturally very jealous, and which they spare no pains to maintain. Not only is the greatest care exercised in the selection and analysis of the raw material, and rigid supervision employed throughout the various processes, but exhaustive tests are also made, including bending and forging tests in addition to the usual tensile tests.
The offices front on to the main road, and attached to the administrative building's are the drawing office and the Works Engineer's office, the iron works being situated at the rear. Here also is the Works Manager's office and the testing department, where is installed a 50-ton "Buckton" testing machine. There is also a well-equipped laboratory where microscopic work can also be carried out.
The pig iron is delivered immediately to the rear of the two refineries, which are each equal to 50 cwts. at a cast. These are blown by a horizontal engine with 30-inch steam cylinder' by 7-foot stroke and a 7-foot compressor, blowing at 3 lbs. per square inch. A Parsons turbo-blower rated for 6000 r.p.m., is installed as a stand-by. Water for cooling the refined castings is brought by gravitation from a reservoir on a higher portion of the property; into this reservoir is also turned the cooling water used in connection with the Mond gas plant, while it further takes the overflow from a reservoir at the Company's mines, distant about half a mile. In connection with this last reservoir is an electrically-driven pump, controlled from the works, for which it supplies the boiler-feed water.
The Mond producer, together with the sulphate recovery plant, lies to the side of the blowing-engine house. With the exception of one reheating furnace and, of course, the puddling furnaces, this plant supplies gas for firing the whole of the furnaces at the iron works, as also for firing the kilns at the adjacent brick works. On the opposite side of the engine house are two Lancashire boilers, which are tar-fired with refuse from the gas plant. These, together with a Stirling boiler fired with waste heat from four of the puddling furnaces, supply steam to a common main from which branches are taken to the hammers and other steam-driven units.
The refined iron is delivered to the puddling furnaces, of which there are eleven. The puddled iron is made into slabs of about 100 lbs. each under one of the two 3-ton steam-hammers. The piling shop is served with two 6-ton and one 4-ton steam-hammers, together with two gas-fired furnaces.
Here the balls are piled three-high, reheated and forged into blooms. The blooms are then taken to the roughing mill and rolled into bars. This mill, a three-high, is driven by ropes from a 150-horse-power motor. The hot shears, which are driven by the same motor, are placed over a pit, in which rests a carriage. From the finishing pass the bars are delivered to the shears, cut into lengths, and fall into the carriage, which is afterwards raised by a crane, passed over the weighing machine, and delivered by an overhead runway direct to the reheating furnaces. A swivel arrangement on the runway enables the carriage to be delivered to the right- or left-hand furnace as may be required. The sheared bars are then cross-piled, and again welded under the hammer; for the heavier forgings two or more of the piles are welded together.
The reheating furnace for the roughing mill is coal-fired, and this also serves the plate mill, in which plates up to 6 feet 6 inches wide are rolled, this mill being driven by a horizontal engine. The plate shears are direct steam driven, whilst another set of "Jumbo" shears for the heavier material is motor-driven.
The mill plant, which is housed in a further bay, comprises a 15-inch two-high bar mill driven by a vertical engine, and an 18-inch three-high guide mill which is belt-driven from a motor, the drive being arranged on the crank-shaft of the old steam-engine. Each of these mills is fed by a three-door gas-fired furnace. The roll stores are situated immediately at the rear of the mills. The 3i-ton steam-hammer for forgings is served by a gas-fired furnace.
At the end of the mill buildings is an extensive warehouse and loading siding, which last is served by an electric jib crane. The siding is in direct communication with the main line, and there is also a complete network of railway track throughout the works, which is served with the Company's locomotives. There are the usual auxiliary shops, and also an extensive and well-equipped machine shop.
On the conclusion of the visit the members were entertained with tea and light refreshments in the Company's offices, before regaining the special cars placed at their disposal for the journey back to Leeds.
Greenwood & Batley, Limited, Leeds.
The works were established in 1856, and formed into a Limited Company in 1888, with a capital of £400,000.
The Albion works cover 10 acres of land, the shop area being about 40,000 square yards.
The works are divided into various departments, viz.:—
Tool Department.— For the manufacture of general machine tools, and special machine tools for the manufacture of munitions of war, mint machinery, bolt and nut-making machinery, and testing machines.
Oil Mill Department.— For the manufacture of machinery for preparing and crushing every kind of oil seeds, also baling presses.
Textile Department.— For the manufacture of machinery for dressing, preparing, and spinning waste silk, and Ramie, and other fibres.
Electrical Department.— For the manufacture of electric dynamos and motors, making a speciality of train lighting and coal-cutting motors.
Torpedo Department.- Making Whitehead torpedoes and parts thereof for the Admiralty.
Boot Machinery Department.— For the manufacture of various machines used in making boots and shoes.
Cartridge Department.— For the manufacture of rifle-cartridges.
Turbine Department.— For the manufacture of De Laval steam turbines for high pressure, mixed pressure, and low pressure; turbine blowers, fans, and exhausters; turbine motors for direct drive by ropes or belts; centrifugal pumps direct coupled to turbines and electric motors.
Moulding Machine Department.— For the manufacture of moulding machines for iron, brass, and steel founders.
William Johnson & Sons, Limited, Castleton Foundry, Armley, Leeds.
These works consist of machine and erecting shops and foundries.
Complete commercial plants have been erected for the manufacture of a special form of briquette from a mixture of either small coal or pitch, or coke breeze, coal slurry and pitch. The plant is also suitable for the manufacture of iron ore briquettes. This plant was working on the occasion of the visit of members of the Institute to the works. The visitors were therefore able to see the whole sequence of operations involved. The firm's specialities consist, in addition to coal, coke, and ore briquetting machinery, of machinery for the grinding of basic slag, slag cement. tar-macadam plant, slag reduction, and metal recovery machinery.
MESSRS. FAIRBAIRN MACPHERSON, WELLINGTON FOUNDRY, LEEDS.
The Wellington Foundry, Leeds, which was visited by a party of about thirty members on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 2, constitutes a branch of Messrs. Fairbairn Lawson Combe Barbour, Limited, of Belfast and Leeds. The Company, which was registered in 1900, manufacture every description of machinery for the preparing and spinning of flax, hemp, tow, jute, and waste silk, and for the manufacture of twines, and rope yarns, and the stranding and laying of hemp or manilla ropes. They are also makers of machine tools for general engineering purposes, and of special tools for ordnance and railway work.
LEEDS CITY TRAMWAYS.
Power Station.— This is situated in The Calls, Leeds, on the bank of the river Aire, from which water for boilers and condensing purposes is obtained.
The plant consists of three Hicks-Hargreaves horizontal, cross-compound condensing-engines, coupled to E.C.C. generators each of 800 kilowatts capacity, also one Fowler-Greenwood set of 650 kilowatts capacity. and one 800 kilowatt rotary converter; these machines generate current at 550 volts pressure, which is transmitted direct to the trolley wires.
There are also installed two 1000-kilowatt Curtis turbines driving three-phase alternators, generating at 6600 volts, 25 cycles per second; these supply current to sub-stations, where it is converted by means of rotary converters to D.C. current at 550 volts.
The boilers at the generating station, fifteen in number, are all of the Lancashire type, fitted with Bennis stokers.
Railless Traction.— This system was opened on June 20, 1911, and the route is from City Square to Farnley Moor Top, a distance of 4j miles.
The wires are carried mostly on bracket arms attached to poles placed at one side of the road, the wires being suspended over the centre of the road, so that the car can travel from one side of the road to the other without any danger of the trolley wheel leaving the wires. The cars, which were supplied complete by the R.E.T. Construction Co., Ltd., are of the single deck type, and are driven by two 20 horse-power motors through worm gearing on to a countershaft, and thence by chains to the road wheels.
THE OTTO COKE-OVEN COMPANY, LIMITED.
On the afternoon of Thursday, October 3, a party of about forty members took advantage of the invitation of the Otto Coke-Oven Company, Ltd., to visit their by-product coking plant at Crigglestone, near Wakefield.
The visitors were conveyed to the works, a distance of about fifteen miles from Leeds, in motor char-a-bancs provided by the Company. The members were met at City Square, Leeds, the starting-point of the excursion, by Dr. M. G. Christie, the Manager of the Company, and Mr. W. Greaves, Assistant Manager, who accompanied them on their journey. On reaching the works they were received by Dr. Walther Hiby, Managing Director, and under the guidance of this gentleman, and of Dr. Christie and Mr. Greaves, they were then conducted round the works.
In 1906 the Otto Coke-Oven Company, Ltd., took possession of and reopened the Crigglestone Collieries in order to carry out the by-product coking of coal from the mines. Owing to the thinness of the seams and the disturbed nature of the ground, the mining and selling of coal at Crigglestone is, in itself, unremunerative, but the profits on by-product coking have enabled the new Company to work the seams to approximately the full capacity of the two shafts—equivalent to 1200 tons of coal per day.
The large coal down to 1 inches is screened and cleaned on picking belts and sold for household purposes. The colliery equipment has practically remained the same as it was found when the new Company took possession, and does not deserve any special notice.
The small coal below 1 incises is brought from both shafts by india-rubber belts over automatic weighing machines to the top of a storage bunker built in ferro-concrete, which has a capacity of 700 tons, from whence it falls into the pit of the washery elevator, where it is mixed with coking slack from other collieries. In this way any desired mixture of coals of different coking quality is assured.
The washery is of the Luhrig type, 50 tons capacity per hour. The small coal is first sized into engine nuts, 1.5 inches to 7/8-inch; beans, 7/8-inch to 5/8-inch; pea nuts, 5/8 inch to 3/8-inch; small, 3/8-inch downward. The smaller sizes are washed in nine felspar washing boxes and then elevated into fourteen draining hoppers of 100 tons capacity each, where the moisture is reduced to approximately 12 per cent. by drainage. The washed nuts are either delivered into wagons outside the washery building, for sale, or they can be mixed with the coking small. The ash in the small coal is reduced by this washing process to 5 per cent. or 6 per cent. The shales which are washed out contain not more than 2 per cent. of free coal. The drained coking coal is brought by scraper conveyors and elevators to a Carr disintegrator of 35 tons capacity per hour, and then elevated to a crushed coal loading bunker of 300 tons capacity, which serves simultaneously for loading coal into the stamping box and also into tubs for filling the ovens from the top.
In this way coking trials can be made both with compressed and uncompressed coal.
In 1907 fifty waste heat ovens were built and also five experimental ovens, and to these recently have been added another twenty-five ovens on the regenerative principle.
The waste heat ovens (coking chambers, 33 feet long, 6 feet 10 inches high, and 21 inches wide in the middle) are usually charged with stamped coal. Through thus compressing the coal, a cake of over 9 tons can be charged into an oven, the coking time of which varies from thirty-four to thirty-six hours. The chambers of the new regenerative ovens are of different widths, in order to suit any class of coal, and are 8 inches higher than the waste heat ovens. These regenerative ovens are usually fed with coal from the top, through three charging holes, and levelled mechanically, but compressed charges can also be coked in them if desired. The coking time of the top-filled ovens is twenty-four or thirty hours respectively, according to the difference in widths of the coking chambers. The coke from both the waste heat and the regenerative battery is pushed through an open type quencher on to an inclined bench, and loaded into trucks mechanically over a coke conveyor and screening plant, but the two kinds of coke can be loaded separately in accordance with the requirements of customers. The yields of the mixture of coal treated are approximately 72 per cent. of coke, including breeze, 1.4 per cent. of sulphate of ammonia, 3.7 per cent. of tar and 1.1 per cent. of benzol and homologues (toluol, xylol and solvent naphtha). The distillation gases are collected in a gas main on the top of the ovens, and from there are drawn through the byproduct recovery plant, where the gases are first cooled and the gas liquor and tar is condensed. After this the gas passes through a special spray and a final scrubber for the full extraction of the ammonia, and afterwards through three benzol scrubbers, where it meets with creosote oil for the extraction of the kennel products from the gases. The gas thus freed from impurities and valuable by-products, is returned into the cellar underneath the ovens, where it is burnt in the oven walls, thus providing the heat necessary for the distillation of the coal. Each wall of the waste heat ovens is heated by fifteen Bunsen burners and the waste heat passes through two of the three Babcock & Wilcox boilers (150 lbs. pressure, 500° F. super-heat) of 4750 square feet heating surface each, before passing up the chimney. The accessibility of each heating point from cellars underneath the ovens is the principal feature of the Otto ovens, and this is the same in the new regenerative ovens, where the waste heat passes through regenerators which alternately pre-heat the air and thus save 50 per cent. to 60 per cent. of the gas which would otherwise be used for keeping up the temperature of the ovens. This surplus gas is used for firing four Lancashire boilers, 80 lbs. pressure, which form part of the old colliery equipment. The high-pressure steam obtained from the waste heat is partly used for the requirements of the colliery, washery, and the byproduct recovery plant, but mainly for the generating of electricity. Two sets of 500 kilowatts Westinghouse generators, 500 volt, direct current, form the power station, together with a 150 kilowatts generator as a stand-by.
While the ovens, both the waste heat and regenerative, are of the latest type, the by-product recovery plant in operation at Crigglestone has been superseded in recent years by Otto direct recovery plant, which can now be seen at work at a good many collieries in Great Britain.
One special object of the by-product coking installation has been that of experimenting on and testing coals for coke and by-products from any part of Great Britain. Continuously, bulk samples of about 300 tons of coal are received from collieries in England or Scotland, and are passed separately through the washery and through the ovens, where the coking quality— compressed or top-loaded and in chambers of various sizes—is ascertained under actual working conditions, as the test ovens are heated by the gases of the coal being tested. At present, a special plant is in course of construction for the exact determination of the yields of by-products to be gained from any test coal under actual working conditions.
On completion of their visit of inspection the members were entertained to tea. Each member of the party was also presented with an illustrated booklet describing the plant and the coking processes employed. Before leaving Mr. T. C. Hutchinson proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the Otto Coke-Oven Company, Limited, and to Dr. Hiby and Dr. Christie for their great kindness in giving the members an opportunity of seeing their works.
The vote of thanks was seconded by Mr. J. T. Middleton and carried unanimously, Dr. Christie replying on behalf of Dr. Hiby and himself.
Taylor Brothers and Co
CLARENCE IRON AND STEEL WORKS.
The Clarence Works of Messrs. Taylor Brothers & Company, Limited, which were visited on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 2, by a party of members numbering close on seventy, were founded about fifty-six years ago by the grandfather of the present managing directors— Messrs. G. R. T. and T. L. Taylor - and were originally laid out for the manufacture of "Best Yorkshire" iron. Eleven years later the works were extended, and the manufacture of steel was commenced. Since that time developments have necessitated frequent extensions to buildings and plant, and the works at the present time cover an area of about 10 acres. The manufacture of "Best Yorkshire" iron is still an important branch of the Company's business. Boiler-plates, bar iron of a variety of sections, crank and straight axles, piston rods and shafts are still made, whilst a large number of straight axles up to 15 cwts. in weight are annually sent out to the United States for use in the building of locomotives, this class of iron being known all over the States as "Taylor" iron. , The steel produced is manufactured by the acid open-hearth process, and forgings are made for guns, air-vessel tubes for torpedoes, in carbon, nickel, and nickel-chromium steel. Crank-shafts of various sizes are forged and finished, also piston-rods, connecting-rods, and propeller shafting for battleships, &c.
The works are situated on both sides of the Clarence Road, within a mile of the centre of Leeds.
The steel plant consists of two furnaces, one of 70 tons (which is at present being reconstructed), and one of 40 tons, the latter being an entirely new furnace of the Siemens improved type with hydraulically operated doors, &c., which has only just been put into service. Haematite and Swedish iron are used.
There are three casting pits, which are placed between and parallel with the furnaces. The pit for the large ingots, up to 70 tons, is placed between the two for the smaller ingots. These last, up to 50 cwts., are cast in groups of five, and as the casting, ladle is provided with two nozzles, 10 ingots are cast simultaneously. The casting pits are served by three electric cranes of 100, 60, and 5 tons respectively. The ingots are stripped in the pits by means of one or other of the cranes, the moulds being lifted by a set of dogs suspended from the crane engaging in lugs on the sides of the moulds. The ingots are then lifted from the pit, placed on bogies, and taken either to the stocking ground or direct to the reheating furnaces as the case may be. The slag bogies are also handled by one of the cranes and delivered to the tip by locomotives. Ten Wilson gas producers feed the steel furnaces, and also the annealing and heat-treatment furnaces.
These producers are conveniently placed near the furnaces, the charging platform being on the ground level.
As previously stated, the ingots are delivered direct from the pit to the reheating furnaces at the forge. The forge plant comprises an Armstrong-Whitworth 3000-ton hydraulic press which is served by four coal-fired reheating furnaces and a gas-fired annealing furnace, whilst two 60-ton electric cranes command the floor. Here forgings up to 80 feet in length from ingots up to 70 tons in weight are dealt with. There is also a 1500ton Whitworth hydraulic press, served by four furnaces and a 30-ton electric crane, where the smaller forgings are made. There are four heat-treatment furnaces in connection with the plant, of which two are coal- and two gas-fired. Four oil baths for work up to 20 feet in length are adjacent to the furnaces, and served by a 14-ton electric overhead crane.
The forgings pass to the large or small machine shop, as the case may be, in each of which is a spacious marking-off table. The large machine shop is divided into two bays. For the heavier tool bay there are two cranes, each of 30 tons, with a 10-ton crane for the lighter tools. The machine-tool equipment includes a 42-inch Greenwood & Batley lathe, with a 70-foot bed; two 36-inch centre double lathes by Craven Brothers, with back and front tool rests; a Fairbairn 36-inch lathe; a gun-boring machine to take shafts up to 80 feet in length; a trepanning machine, where all ingots for hollow forgings are cored; a heavy planer by Buckton, and one by Craven Brothers, the latter being equipped with the Lancashire Dynamo Company's electric drive. There are a number of Dean, Smith, & Grace lathes, to which the motors are coupled direct, and horizontal and vertical boring machines by Sharp-Stewart. Band sawing machines are also extensively employed, and a saw-sharpening shop is attached to the department. All the heavy tools are driven by independent motors, and the light machines from line shafting which is motor-driven.
The light machine, or axle-turning shop comprises one bay served by a Niles 7-ton electric crane, and contains a number of up-to-date laboursaving machines for dealing with the particular class of work. Thus there are four ending and centring machines, into which the axles are fixed with a self-setting device, the ends of the axles being cut off to lengths, and the permanent centres put into them; the largest of these machines will take work up to 12 inches in diameter. There are also special lathes for roughing out journal and wheel seats: these have automatic cut-off, and carry a scroll former at the rear, which is also automatic in action. On these lathes there are six tools, i.e. three at each end of the work, which are operating simultaneously. A Buckton special slotting machine, which carries two tools, and a number of lathes complete a very fine plant. An adjoining building is occupied with a Buckton 50-ton testing machine, where tests are made for the satisfaction of the Company, and also to meet the requirements of individual specifications.
The central power station is situated on the steel-works side of the Works, and here are installed three Belliss & Morcom and Greenwood & Batley combined sets, each 850 amps., 220 volts, at 380 r.p.m. The steam plant at the steel works consists of four Babcock and three Lancashire boilers, of which two of the last-named are fired by waste heat, the working pressure being 150 lbs.
The ironworks are particularly interesting. The manufacture of "Best Yorkshire" iron cannot be hurried, and it is only when one has followed the various processes from the pig to the finished production that the costliness of the manufacture of this brand can be fully appreciated. The cold-blast pig iron is delivered to one of the four refineries—open furnaces, coke-fired and blown with cold-blast at about 3 lbs. per square inch. The metal is then tapped into cast-iron moulds, making cakes 10 feet by 4 feet. These, whilst hot, have cold water sprayed upon them to "kill" them, and render them easier to break. The cakes are next broken for charging to the puddling furnaces, of which there are seventeen.
The hot gases of each puddling furnace pass through a chamber en route to the chimney, and in this chamber the prospective charge is heated to a red heat. Each puddled heat consists of 3 cwts., and ten heats are made per day. Each heat is divided into four parts, which are passed under the shingling hammers and plated out into blooms or stampings 3 inches thick.
These, after being broken up, are piled into balls of 150 lbs. weight, reheated, and welded under steam-hammers into blooms 4 inches square. The furnaces for the shingling, welding, &c., are served by four steam-hammers each of 3 tons. The bloom is now passed through the mill and rolled into rough bars 21 inches square, which, after being cut up into 11-inch lengths, form the material for piling balls which are reheated and welded by lour 5-ton steam-hammers into suitable blooms for the rolling-mill, or forged at the steam-hammer, as the case may be. The rolling-mill for togging ingots for axle bars is driven direct by a horizontal condensing engine of 900 horse-power, and reversed through gear. The live rolls are driven electrically.
The mill is served by three coal-fired furnaces and a 14-ton overhead electric crane. The cogged bar is cut into lengths by a Henry-Berry hot saw, which is driven by two 60 horse-power motors. Immediately beyond the hot saw, and arranged in tandem, are three steam-hammers-7-ton, 5-ton, and 3-ton respectively—under which the ingots are forged into axles.
Each of the hammers is served by two coal-fired furnaces.
The mill plant, which is arranged parallel with the forge, consists of a 14-inch three-high bar mill, and an 18-inch two-high bar mill, which are placed one on either side of the engine house and coupled direct to a horizontal 600-horse-power engine run condensing. Three reheating furnaces serve these mills, and beyond them is an 8-inch three-high guide mill, which is driven by a horizontal condensing engine of 300 horse-power, and served by two reheating furnaces. On this side of the works, in addition to the three 30-feet by 9-feet waste-heat boilers, steam is raised in a battery of four Lancashire boilers, 30 feet by 9 feet, and another battery of four Lancashire boilers 30 feet by 8 feet, all working at a pressure of 100 lbs. per square inch. The river bounds one side of the works, so that an ample supply of water is available for cooling purposes, condensing and boiler feed.
Up to June of this year high-grade steel tires for locomotives, &c., were made at the Leeds works on an extensive scale. This part of the Company's business, however, has now been transferred to an entirely new works at Trafford Park, Manchester, where a modern plant has been laid down for the production of steel tires of all descriptions, and steel disc wheels for railway vehicles.
Frodingham Iron & Steel Co
On the morning of Friday, October 4, the concluding day of the Meeting, a party of close on 200 members and ladies left the Great Northern (Central) Station, Leeds, by a special first-class corridor train, to visit the works of the Frodingham Iron & Steel Company, Limited, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, and the new Immingham Docks of the Great Central Railway Company.
The departure of the train took place at 9 A.M., and Frodingham was reached at 11 A.M. Here the visitors were received by Mr. M. Mannaberg, Member of Council, the Managing Director of the Frodingham Iron and Steel Company, and proceeded, under his guidance and that of several heads of the various departments, on a tour of inspection round the works.
Ores.— The Lincolnshire ores worked by the Company occur in the upper part of the Lower Lias measures. At present only the surface ores are worked, being quarried in open workings, with a covering varying from about 6 inches to upwarc113 of 30 feet. The ore seam has a depth varying from 10 to 20 feet. The ore, field of the district extends in a straight line from north to south for about six miles, and the width at present worked varies from about 150 yards to about a mile and a half. The ore contains 18 to 30 per cent. of iron, the average being about 24 per cent.
The pig iron, which is manufactured from the ore, contains about 1.50 per cent. of phosphorus and about 2 per cent. of manganese, and is therefore eminently suitable for use in the basic open-hearth process.
Blast-furnaces.— There are four blast-furnaces of a total capacity of 3600 tons per week, of which two are 70 feet high, one 80 feet high, and one 85 feet high, the two latter being mechanically charged.
There are twelve hot-blast stoves of the modified Cowper type, 20 and 21 feet diameter and 100 feet high.
Blast is supplied by three single steeple-type steam-engines, one cross-compound Southwark type steam-engine, and four blast-furnace gas-engines (Koerting type).
The electric power installation includes three steam-driven generators and four gas-engine driven generators, having a total capacity of 3000 kilowatts. In addition to the utilisation of the blast-furnace gas in this plant, a considerable surplus is conveyed to the steelworks for use in Lancashire boilers.
Steelworks.— The melting shop comprises one 100-ton, one 150-ton, and one 175-ton tilting furnaces, two 25-ton, and three 40-ton fixed furnaces.
The first three furnaces are worked on the Talbot continuous principle.
The average output of the melting shop at present is about 3300 tons, but the total capacity is in excess of this. The slag from the furnaces is conveyed to a plan of seven ball mills, where it is ground to a fine powder and sold as a phosphate manure.
The rolling-mill plant consists of a 36-inch togging-mill driven through gearing by a two-cylinder reversing engine; a 30-inch finishing mill with three stands of rolls coupled direct to and driven by a three-cylinder reversing engine, and a 14-inch, three-high merchant and guide mill.
The togging-mill deals with the whole output of the melting shop, and practically the whole output of the cogging-mill is passed through the 30-inch or 14-inch mills, which have a capacity of approximately 130,000 tons of finished material per annum. This quantity is delivered in a full range of round and square bars, and sectional material including angles, tees, channels, flats, and beams. The smallest size rolled is inch diameter, and largest 18 inch by 7 inch beam.
The mills are equipped with an adequate plant for cold straightening and cutting material to exact lengths; also for the manufacture of cleated beams and compound girders, such as are required in a builder's specification.
There are also in connection with the works Ole usual engineering shops for fitting, blacksmith's, pattern-making, foundry, and locomotive repairing. • Over two thousand men are employed.
After having been shown round the various departments the visitors returned to Frodingham Station, where they were rejoined by the ladies of the party, who had, during the interval, been taken in motor cars to Normanby Hall, the seat of Sir Berkeley Sheffield, and the special train conveyed the whole party to Cleethorpes, which was reached shortly before 1 P.M. Here luncheon was served in the Pier Pavilion, the arrangements being made by Mr. R. Smith, the manager of the Great Central Railway Company's Royal Hotel, Grimsby. On the conclusion of the luncheon the President, Mr. Arthur Cooper, tendered the best thanks of the Members and Council of the Institute to the Reception Committee for the services they had rendered in making the occasion successful. On the previous day he had the opportunity of publicly thanking the Chairman of the Committee, Lord Airedale, and the members of the Kitson family, who had done so much work in connection with the week's engagements. There were three other members of the Committee to whom an expression of thanks was due. One was Mr. Mannaberg. When it was first proposed to visit Leeds he approached Mr. Mannaberg about it, and that gentleman readily promised to do all in his power to make the meeting a success, and further offered to invite the members to inspect the Frodingham works.
They were also indebted to Mrs. Mannaberg for having taken charge of the ladies of the party while the gentlemen were inspecting the works. Mr. Wicksteed had also been a prominent member of the Committee, to whom similarly their thanks were due.
Mr. J. H. WICKSTEED, in reply, spoke of the generosity and the spirit of fellowship and mutual help which characterised the Institute. The Institute seemed to him to be the most valuable of all the scientific societies.
It was undoubtedly more cosmopolitan than any other, and it had been delightful to him to mingle at the meetings and receptions and to come in contact with so many people from distant lands. Their members from foreign countries had ever displayed a generous willingness to contribute their experiences for the benefit of their friends in this country. He thought that some of the papers read and discussed during the week would make the Leeds meeting notable in the annals of the Institute, and that they would be often referred to in years to come. He moved a vote of thanks to the Great Central Railway Company for affording the members an opportunity of inspecting their new docks at Immingham, which he was sure would greatly interest them. Mr. HELLYER, Assistant Post Master, Immingham Docks, responded on behalf of the Great Central Railway Company.
Dr. J. E. STEAD, F.R.S., Vice-President, in proposing a vote of thanks to Mr. Lloyd, the Secretary, Mr. Sidney, the Assistant Secretary, and other members of the staff, remarked that he had never enjoyed a meeting of the Institute so much as the one they had held that week in Leeds. Everything had gone on satisfactorily, and there had been some enjoyable and delightful functions. The members were greatly indebted to the Reception Committee and to the Secretary and his staff.
Mr. G. C. LLOYD acknowledged the compliment and paid a tribute to the valuable services rendered to the meeting by Mr. J. F. Walker, the Hon. Secretary of the Reception Committee.
Immingham Dock
The special train left Cleethorpes at 2.20 P.1,41. arriving at Immingham at 3 P.m. Here the party alighted to visit the docks.
The King's Dock, Immingham, is the deepest on the East Coast. Its depth ranges from 30 to 35 feet in the dock basin, and it can thus cater for practically any vessel afloat. The modern cargo boat, however, is increasing so rapidly in size that the Great Central Directors have deemed it advisable to make full provision for meeting any demands which may arise. The dock, as it now stands, consists of a square basin with two long arms, running parallel to one another, on the western side; the total water-space, exclusive of locks, amounts to about 45 acres, and the full length of quayage to 5400 feet.
The ground on either side of the granary which stands at the eastern end of the dock has been left open for possible extensions, and thus at any time when it becomes necessary two more arms can be readily constructed, each of them running to about 1250 feet in length and 375 feet in breadth.
Those already in existence have a length of 1250 feet and a width of 375 feet.
The entrance lock has a length of 840 feet, a breadth of 90 feet, and a depth on sill at high water of ordinary spring tides of 47 feet, while the depth at low water of spring tides is 27 feet 6 inches. It will thus be able to admit any vessel which is likely to be seen on the East Coast for generations to come.
There are three sets of gates, of which the dimensions are as follows:—
- Outer gates: height 56 feet 6 inches, and width (of each leaf) 53 feet 6 inches.
- Middle gates: height 54 feet 6 inches, width (each leaf) 53 feet 6 inches.
- Inner gates: height 42 feet 6 inches, width (each leaf) 53 feet 6 inches.
The big power-house near the western jetty will supply the hydraulic force for the whole of the machinery, as well as the electrical current to illuminate the entire dock. For providing the hydraulic power wherewith to work the coal hoists, cranes, and capstans, there are four pairs of compound surface-condensing steam pumping-engines, each of which can deliver 700 gallons per minute at a pressure of 800 lbs. to the square inch.
Steel tubes, made by the Mannesmann solid drawn process, convey the pressure-water round to the machinery, while the return piping is constructed of the same material. The pumping-engines themselves, which receive their steam from nine two-flued boilers of the " Lancashire " type, are provided with two deadweight accumulators, each with a plunger of 22 inches diameter. These appliances automatically control the starting or stopping of the main engines, and are supplemented by two similar accumulators stationed at the south side of the dock.
Running out of the main dock itself, and so situated that vessels can enter it with absolute ease, is a graving dock with a length of 740 feet, a width of 56 feet, and a depth on sill of 23 feet.
The cranage installation throughout the estate is particularly well worthy of attention, by reason of its completeness and efficiency. On the north-eastern quay there are six 2-ton double-power huffing cranes, and one 10-ton crane of the same type, while a similar equipment has been provided on the eastern quay. On the western quay there is a 50-ton crane with luffing jib, while on the northern wall of the south-western arm there are ten 3-ton and two 5-ton cranes, all of the double-power gantry type.
The coal-handling plant consists of eight coal hoists, seven of them standing in a row on the south side of the dock, while the eighth is situated on the jetty to the westward of the entrance lock. Each hoist is capable of dealing with some 700 tons per hour, and one of them—No. 7—is movable, an arrangement which will render it possible to work two holds of a vessel simultaneously. In the storage and reception sidings close at hand no fewer than 9120 wagons can find a temporary resting-place, the full capacity being sufficient for over 11,600 wagons, carrying in all from 115,000 to 174,000 tons of coal.
There is a vast iron-ore field within twenty miles of the port, and special facilities will be provided for the manufacture of pig iron, steel bars, and rails.
The following are the principal dimensions of the Docks:—
- Area of dock property . . . . . . 1,000 acres
- Water area of dock with S.W. arm . . . . 39 ,,
- Water area of dock with S.W. arm and timber pond 45 „
- Length of dock property 21, miles
- Breadth of dock property 1 mile
- River frontage of dock property li miles
- Size of central basin . . 1,100 ft. sq.
- Length of southern quay 2,350 feet
- Length of S.W. arm . . .. . 1,250 „
- Breadth of S.W. arm . . . . . 350 to 400 „
- Extent of railway sidings and lines . . 170 miles
- Total capacity for 16,850 wagons
- Length of lock 840 feet
- Width of lock 90 „
- Depth of water in dock 30 to 35 „
- Depth of water on sill H.W.O.S.T. . • 47 „ „ „
- Depth of water on sill L.W.O.S.T. . . 27-6 ,, ,, „
- Depth of water on sill H.W.O.N.T. . . 43-6 ' ,, „
- Depth of water on sill W.O.N.T. . . 31-6:,
GRAVING DOCK.
- Length of graving dock . . . 740
- Width of graving dock . . 56
- Depth of water on sill 23
On leaving the Docks the party were taken by special train to Doncaster; and as the day's excursion was the last on the programme, several of the members proceeded by ordinary train services from Doncaster to their respective destinations, the remainder returning to Leeds.
The following works were also open for the inspection of the members during the week:—
THE YORKSHIRE COPPER WORKS, LIMITED
These works are probably the largest in the world solely devoted to the manufacture of solid drawn copper and brass tubes; they are the most modern and up-to-date of their kind, and are driven throughout by electricity.
In the manufacture of copper tubes the copper is first refined in a special department and cast solid in cylindrical form, the billets being pierced in a specially powerful piercing plant, the tubes being then drawn down cold in the usual way.
The brass tubes are cast hollow in the usual fashion in various mixtures and sizes, and then drawn down cold into brass condenser tubes, boiler tubes, &c.
Other specialities of the works are large diameter seamless copper drying cylinders, and the copper coating of rams, cylinders, &c.
The works have direct access to the main lines of the Midland, Great Northern, and Great Central Railways, and are also situated on the canal, where the Company have extensive wharves, thus being in direct communication by water with all the ports.
The Company possess the surrounding estate of some one hundred acres on the outskirts of Leeds (outside the Leeds rating area), a unique site for iron and engineering works, and the near future will see this estate a centre of industrial activity.
Samuel Lawson and Sons
HOPE FOUNDRY, LEEDS
Founded in the year 1812 by Samuel Lawson, grandfather of the present Chairman of the Company, this is the oldest concern manufacturing textile machinery for the working of flax, hemp, jute, and hard fibres such as manilla, sisal, &c., for the manufacture of ropes.
The original business of the firm was the manufacture of machinery for the working of flax, which is commonly known in the finished state as linen." The whole of the different departments are driven by electricity, generated by two Parsons' three-phase turbines, the power-house and the whole outfit being well thought out and arranged.
The works cover about ten acres, and employ roughly 2000 hands.
Machinery for making the largest sized ropes, as also for spinning the finest flax yarns used in the manufacture of the finest linen goods, is constructed in these works.
MANN'S PATENT STEAM CART AND WAGON COMPANY, LIMITED
Mann's Patent Steam Cart and Wagon Co
These works were specially built about eleven years ago for the manufacture of steam carts and wagons. There are five bays all under one roof, viz. fitting, machine, erecting, smiths', and boiler shops, forming one large shed. There is also a separate joiners' shop for making trailers, steam wagon bodies, &e.
The works are electrically driven from a power plant in the centre of the ground by 20-horse-power motors on each line of shafting. This plant also supplies current for electric light, cranes, &c.
The boiler shop is equipped with hydraulic press, rivetters, plate-edge planers, and the usual run of boilermakers' tools, and the fitting shop is fitted with gear cutters, special crank and vertical lathes, and other machine tools suitable for this class of work.
Besides steam carts and wagons, patching rollers, road tractors, and agricultural tractors are made.
THOMAS SMITH & SONS
STEAM AND ELECTRIC CRANE WORKS, RODLEY, NEAR LEEDS
Those works are situated about 4.5 miles north-west of Leeds. They are specially laid out for the manufacture of all descriptions of electric, steam and hand cranes, employing close upon 400 hands.
They are driven electrically, and the whole of the equipment is of the most modern and up-to-date description.
They can readily be reached by train to Calverley and Rodley, Midland, or Stanningley, Great Northern Railway, and also by tramcar from City Square, from whence there is a service every twenty minutes from five minutes past the hour.
MESSRS. JOHN BARRAN & SONS, LIMITED
The clothing factory of Messrs. John Barran & Sons, Limited, is the largest in the country, and has an output of several thousand suits of clothing daily. The floor space available is 24,700 square yards, or over five acres; the number of operatives employed is over 2000. The most striking feature of the new works is the cutting-room, which has a floor area of an acre and a half, where the cloth is marked out for cutting and subsequently cut to required patterns by a band-knife, the invention of Mr. John Barran, the founder of the firm.
Joshua Tetley and Son
Messrs. Joshua Tetley & Son's Brewery is situated on the south side of the river Aire, and is about half a mile from the Town Hall and railway stations.
At the side of the main entrance gate there is a range of buildings appropriated to inquiry and weigh offices, and to the office of the foreman of the yard, in front of which is a wide corridor, paved with Minton tiles, leading to the general offices. Nearly in the middle of the premises are the brew-house and fermenting rooms, where the principal processes connected with the brewing are conducted. Towards the east are malt stores, a great loading-out stage, with offices over, and numerous cask-washing sheds; and beyond, an open court, containing at various points in its circuit an engine-house, with all the steam-engine apparatus, an ice-machine house, cooperages, and a pumping-house; westward, range upon range of stables, dray-sheds, malt-kilns, and quite a village of industrial shops.
JOSEPH KAYE & SONS, LIMITED
LOCK WORKS, HUNSLET, LEEDS.
These works (established 1865) are situated in South Accommodation Road, Hunslet (close to Taylor Bros., Clarence Ironworks), and occupy an area of some 3370 square yards, employing about 250 hands.
Although manufacturers of every description of door and cabinet locks, they are mostly engaged in the manufacture of Kaye's patent railway safety door-locks and handles, which are now being supplied to most of the chief railways in England, and also many of the colonial and foreign railways.
Messrs. Kaye are well known as the inventors and makers of patent seamless steel oil-cans used throughout the world, 50;000 of which alone have been supplied to the British Navy.
MESSRS. ALF. COOKE, LIMITED
CROWN POINT WORKS, LEEDS
The Crown Point Printing Works are in the Hunslet Road. They cover an area of 8000 square yards, and close on 800 workpeople are employed.
The present works stand on the site of an older range of buildings which were burnt down in the year 1894, involving a loss at the time of £130,000.
Every description of printing is carried out at the works, and the establishment has a widespread reputation for its high-class printing. The roof is in three spans, the centre span covering a large well surrounded by galleries, and having a glass roof 50 feet wide.
MESSRS. WILSON HARTNELL & COMPANY, LIMITED
VOLT WORKS, LEEDS
Messrs. Wilson Hartnell & Co., Limited, was formed as a Limited Company in 1901 to carry on business (begun by Mr. Wilson Hartnell in 1889) as manufacturers of electrical machinery, also as power and lighting engineers.
Many of the earlier electric lighting installations in flour mills and factories in Yorkshire and other counties had already been undertaken by Mr. Wilson Hartnell, the first being in 1883.
The electrical work at present manufactured is for the most part A.C. and D.C. motors for power and lighting. Electric passenger lifts and goods hoists are also made and erected. A number of large electro-plating dynamos are made for home and abroad. The firm undertake important lighting and power contracts, and carry out the complete installation.
Governors for the control of valves, expansion gears, over-winders, &c., have been a special feature for many years, but especially during the last two years. The first "Hartnell" governor was made as long ago as 1871.
A new and powerful type of enclosed governor is shortly to be placed on the market In compiling the descriptions of the works visited during the Leeds Meeting, recourse has been had to the descriptions kindly supplied, for the purposes of the detailed programme of the Meeting, by the various firms concerned, amplified by the descriptions which have appeared in the Iron and Coal Trades Review, the Ironmonger (special number), Engineer, and Engineering, all of which published full reports of the Meeting.
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