Evening Star Newspaper, October 24, 1926, Page 83

ILLUSTRATED FE ATURES “Government Steel Production Here Is F BY GEORGE H. DACY. IN - WASHING steel, brass and cast fron refute the uni- versal belis{ that National Capital is a cf which never hun.s with industry’s Bong. A Govarnment stesl mili the navy yurd ‘ransforms scrap material, leftcvers and oibolete fit- tings and fixtuves into the finest grade of ordnance sieel 81er tesied by chem- ists. Effic.ency sach as is found in the most economicaily administered commercial piwn® marks Uncle Sam's steel and biass foundries. Plowshares a-e not beaten into munitions of war, but steel and brass in discarded forms are veritably born anew. Waste materials are reduced to moiten metals and eventually solidify again as valuable naval arma ment, nautical equipment and mari- time accessories Our navy uses a egnin the same basic materiais. t even are lost. for e'weiric used as menvtacy Naval sie: and their form under ~kiil=d s-porvision. Gases from liquefie Is are the only by-prodn-ts which escape. This economy In foundry practice and eteel and hrass produrtion is-a v and oil are < fu typical exumple of the saving which | the Unites fosters In its | shipbuild‘ng operations conducted economical administration of funds, despite public ¢p.nion to the contrary Our spotless Capitol, with its lofty pinnacla. and Washington's tallest monument overlook two speclalized foundries” at the navy vard. where the raw ‘naterials of America’s great est industry are produced exactly as they are made at smoke-smudged Gary, Ind., or soot-screened Pit burgh The romance of steel making, the glow and glamour of huge furnaces, traveling cranes delivering larg: charges of molten metal to accurat; molds, the steel-mill atmosphere o’ dust and grime. skilled workers toil ing at thelr trade of creating the most useful material known to industry you view these scenes during an in- spection trin thiough the only steel plant in the Dirtrict of Coumbia. One of the navy yard A massive structure of brick and strue- tural stecl, 600 feet long and 200 feet wide—makes steel and cast iron ex- clusively, whiie the o her. ahout one. half as large. specializes in the pro. duction of non-ferrous metals, such as brass. bronze, aluminum. copper and the ltke. Steel and iron castings which are made range in weight from one ounce to as much 45 tons. Some of these castings are so heavy that each is equivalent in avoirdupois to a maximum carload of su- h freight as lime or fertilizer shipped in inter- state commerce. In the brass foundre ahout 40 di%a ferent alloys and metal mixtures are made annually in the production of naval ordnance. Pronze castings which are produced as n-eded weigh anywhere from one ounce to 20 tons apiece. ates Navy and ordnance ok HE steel foundry Is equipped with a 30-ton open hearth fit nace and 8 6ton electrical furnace, as well as two large converters. all of which are emploved In the manufactu = of ord- nance steel As much as 100000 pousds of the finest' quality ordnance steei can be produced in one day in th's Govern. | ubjected | ment plant. This produst is to the severest tests to which steel is ever exposed A steel of the highest grade and classification is manufactured from scrap materials with a 3 per rent ad ditfon of pig fron. Secrap used thus as raw material in no respect jeopardizes the qualitv of the ultimate product for this serap 1= of as cuistanding auality as wil e the products inte which it is co ed The navy vard fo to making steel for o vides the large forging purposes and the various all- steels, such as nickel steel, chrome nickel and chrome vanadium, manufactured and used The Washington Navy Yard, being the special-purpose ardnance plant of the United Staies Navy, annually en gages in extraordinary t- ke. The steel foundry is complete’ squipped sdev. in addition tings. also pro ingots used for »th earbon steel are leasuring Light's Speed ARLY risers near Mount Wilson in California_hear a thin wall that grows 10 a high shrick ard In a few minutes dies down ag2in in the gray dawn. But they merely n-d, and re mark. “Michelson's at it again." When they hear that noiss they know that the worldfamous physiclan is again engaged in manipulating the apparatus by which he hopes to meas- ure the speed of light. down to more correct figures than ever hefore reached. The measurement of the velocity of | light is nothing new. The worli has known for generations that it is 186,000 miles a_second—tn the nearest | round thousand. But science is never contented with round numbers—she desires the most precise determination that it is at all practicable to attain In Prof. Michelson's present savs Sclentific American. a beam of light reflected from a rapidiv rotaring mirror is sent to another mirror at a distant station and returns after a mi nute fraction of a second to the spin ning mirror again. only to find that this mirror has turned in the interval 0 that the reflected rav is not sent | | back to the source as it would be. if the mirror were stationary. but in a different direction. This ro-ati ror method is a very powerfui one for | measuring extremely short intervals, of time. It is evident that for a complete an. | termination of the velocity of light we must measure three quantities: the| distance of the remore station. the rate at which the mirror is turning. and the angle through which the re flacted beam Is deviated. And. of course, to measure any ohe . with the highest precision !s h work. If, howeter. we ~ou'd get al by measuring two quanitias ins of three. the problem would be much simplified; and Piof Mi‘heison has done this In a very characteristic fashion by a device as simpl effective His rotating mirror is ma i its cross-section, at right angies to the axis about which it spins, being a reg ular polvgon which in the apparatus now in use has i2 sides. All the faces are accurately figured. polished and silvered, so that in one turn of the sxis 12 successive mirror curfaces come into the path of the light. If the mirror can be spun fast énoucgh, 1t is possille to catch the raturning beam of light, not on the surface from which it was onginally reflected but on the next. For example, the present distant station on Mount San Antonio | is some 22 miles from Mount Wiison. | Light takes about 1-4200ths of a sec- ond (2 round numbers) to make the g return journey. If the mirror is spun g mir- | | our | at| vard | 1ur-ace ashes | acs thus change | tput | Governmen: activities are | a& far as possible, under | foundries— | work, | { purpose | At every | boseopic system van adiust the speed 1 of | | for the heat treatment of steel cast- ings, 8o that when these supplies are ultimately deliverad to the machine shops they are ready for use. The latest types of insulated ovens are used in these heat treatment proc- | esses. In the conversion of machine-shop | trimmings. obsolete gun mounts and similar high-quality “junk” into new supplies of cnality steel, one-twentieth of the total metal which e molted consists ot new material, which is added to make the composition of the <teel exactly right. Many munitions of war which were semi-completed when the armistice was signed are now being used as raw material for steel The “scrap” is sent to from other natfonal navy ax well as from the Charleston, plant of the United States | Iron castine are used only to a very limited extent in our naval ord- nance. The cast{ron pa“ts made at the navy vard are used for the most part_in making tools. fix‘ures, new | machiner= and various esnipment for target practice. Dosnite th~+ more than 700.001 pounds of cast fron were nroduced Jast vear. the output of this material is really only incldental to the manufacture of steel and the non ferrous metals. The brass foundry at the nav: vard—a war-time necessitv—Iis of the latest design adanted for maximum nroduction at minimum effort. Brass is produced hv the crucible method. chich is as old as the brass industry if. as well as hv the modern elee- | tric furnace evetem. All the braas| produced is snhiect ta the most rizid It must comply with the stand. | specifications the same as though it were the product of some commer- ~ial plant. The inspection of Govern- ment-made metals is painstaking and | severe. The navy vard is so well equipped with the hest machinery and appli- ances that many types of finished | nroduct can be made directly in sand. This saves thousands of dollars by eliminating machineshop operations. at 350 revolutions per second (a possi- | ble rate). it will make just one-twelfth | of a turn in this interval. The re.| turning beam will find the next suc- | | cessive face of the mirror exactly where the preceding one was when it started and will therefore be reflected | along just the same path as it would | have’ followed if the rotating mirror | had been at yest. For faster or slow- | er speeds of revolution. however, it | will be deviated by varying amounts. With this arrangement. therefore. it 1 only nec<ssary to find the mirror- speed at which the reflected ray is sent back in just the same direction as from a_stationary mirror, and we |can then be sure that the light-time ' |1 exactly one-twelfth of the time taken by one complete revolution of the mirrox. | To get a precise determination, | therefore. only two things need to be measured—the distance of the mirror on the remote mountain and the rate | | of rotation of the spinning part of the apparatus. | The first of these has heen found, once for ali, by the co-operation of the United States Coast and Geodstic Sur- vey, which exscuted a special and precise trianguiation for the express The measurement of the second is accomplished with the ald of a tuning fork driven by electrical | means at a very uniform, known rate. vibration of the fork a beam of light from a little mirror attached to one of the prongs is reflected onto the revoiving mirror and thence to evepiece. If the periods of the fork and of rota mirror are exactiv the ! - assive veflacted faches i2t) an apparently s'ation. im hu if one Is going faster than the other by even tha minufest this imaze will appear to m of vihrath I move The rotating mirror is driven by a little compressedair turbine, which when running gives the ear-plercing &! k whith was mentioned at ths s‘art. An assistant with his hand on the throttla of this turbine and Mok- ing through the avepiece of the turbine and mirror so that the meges are stationary—that is. so that the period of the mirror is exactly that of the fork The original beam of light comes from a military searchlight of the highest power. It fe already known that the resuits of observation on many nights agree €0 well that we may hope for a final value which will be accurate well within 10 miles per second. and per- haps a good deal betur. | More than 600 ton | larger | daily. WASHINGTON, D. (., SUNDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 24, 192 6. 50,000 pound Bteet casti Found. All these parts and pieces are cast to size. Last year, 733,186 pounds of brass castings were made, of which at least | four-fifths were manufactured from | ordinary scrap and smal arms car-| tridge cases, salvaged from national rifle ranges. Practice bombs for usc in training aviators are now made | from old powder cans salvaged from the junk plle. The scrap is melted | down and then careful chencical tests | are made to determine its composi-| tlon. The data from these tests are| responsible for the production of high quality brass. The analyses show what materials have to he added to the molten metal to produce brass of the best quality. The scrap is con-| verted into ingots—bars of metal weighing 45 pounds apiece. The chem- | ical tests solve the secrets of ingot | composition so that the brass bars| can be used subsequently with the same safety and accuracy as a mix ture of virgin metal. i | * o ox % | HE strictest economy is practiced | in the steel and brass foundries, | even to the extent that sand. which’ formerly was discarded after being used, is now salvaged and reclaimed. of sand are saved annually_and restored to subsequent | use by the addition of such artificl binders as hominy " byproducts, corn flour, wheat flour and core oil. The utllization of ¢and again and again fo® the same foundry practices is a re cent industrial overy. which i.; now quite generally practiced in steel mills and brass plants. At the Washington pneumatic rammers, chinery. electric sfeves and traveling | cranes have replaced manual labor wherever possible. The goal has been the output of the best quality ma terials at the lowest possible costs. | Mechanical fingers have abetted this | economical policy. The foundry which came into with the birth of the navy yard away | back in 1799 has been growing grad. | ualiy from then to now. The smail original stee! shop gave wa: a plant and equipment which was able to turn out 6 tons of steel | About 1917, the new brass foun- | dry’ was built and the old shop was harnessed to produce more than sizht times as much steel daily as it had| formerly made. The two foundries at | present are operated hy a force of 150 | skilled experts. helpers and ordinary | laborers. These are the nucleus of a much larger force. which could be | readily mobilized during a time of emergency whenever the dogs of war begin to growl. The stock vard of the brass foundry ! and steel plant has on hand between | 4,000,000 and 5.000,000 pounds of serap | and_raw_material suitable ‘or future neeGs. This materia! is delivered to the navy vard both by rail and water, the bulk of the metal coming in from New York and Philadelphia. Lately the Chautau Thierry. an Army trans. port, steamed up the Potomac from the Atlantic to deliver 600 tons of pig fron—excess material from the New York Navy Yard, which was Navy Yard, molding ma- being | ‘quainred wit i steel | structure and to u‘%frfade inthe 2000 ton press . { transferred to Washington for ord nance manufacture. The Wachinzton public is not ac- the methnds and meas. ures followed in the manufacture of The following brief description of the navy-yard system of steel man- ufacture may be of interest. This condensed recital deals with steel pro. duction in an open-hearth tyvpe of fur. nace. This furnace is a solid wall brick structure 30 feet long, 15 feet wide and 35 feet high feet thick, being composed of special silica brick. Directly after a fur nace is completed, it is fired for two weeks in order to expand the entire facilitate the ad- Jjustment of its structural steel frame. “rom that period until the furnace finally wears out. the fire is never ex- | tinguished. It is kept burning on Sundays and h®lidays. Sand is glazed on the sides and bottom of the furnace in_one-hdlf-inch layers until an inner lining of glazed sand which is £ to 10 inches thick is provided. This sand prevents any of the molten metal from escaping through cracks in the walls when the fi ce {8 in service The process of stefl-making begins | The floor is 2 | U Y3 N Al in the forge shop. |at midnight the evening | the metal will be needed. peels”—great clawlike tac scr aumped on its Some of these pieces of “scrap” weigh 1 t> 2 tons. One part of pig fron is adred to 19 pacts of “scrap” as the furnace is charged for steel-making Thic mass js converted into a molten ed to traveling cranes carry the | steel p metal to the turnace where it is | which escapes from the furnace. This sand-covered floor. | liquid, the furnace tumperature rising | | process is completed. A long-handled dipper is finally thrust through a hole in the furnace wall, and a sample of the melted metal is withdrawn. The molten metal is poured into a_bucket of cold water and forms small shot. These shot are rushed to the chemical laboratory in one end of the steel mill to 3.000 degrees Fahrenheit before the | {and there tested and analyzed. A re-| port on the composition of the shot !is then speeded back to the furnace foreman. It guides him in making | whatever additions are necessary to produce steel which coincides with predetermined specifications. If the steel contains more carbon than is permissible, the essential amount of iron ore—pigiron is made Navy Yard Plant Makes One Million Pounds of Finest Ordnance Steel Annually—Economy Is Emphasized, for This Product Is Made From Scrap—Large Quantities of Cast Iron and Brass Also Produced—Fires Never Quenched in Mighty Furnaces—Foundry Equipment Complete—Science Aids in Steel Manufacture. Aluminum Bronze Ingot weidhing 7% tons. ingot of this material eVer cast in the United States. Largest before | from this material—is placed in lh-v the wall et ceom) i | of the furnace at the floor forks—at- | The oxvgen in this ore com- | bines with the excess carbon in the | to form carbon monoxide gas,' process is continued‘for six. to aight hours. Frequent samples are taken and analyzed. Sometimes the silicon | and manganese contents of the steel fall below required limits. These are replaced by alloys rich in these sub- stances. Many complications develop which increase the difficulty of producing high-quality steel of the correct com- position. Phosphorus and sulphur, commonly called the “poison” in steel, often cause trouble. Many of the components of steel are dealt with in very minute quantities. For ex- ample, the steel when molten may contain only three-fourths of 1 per cent of carbon. This amount must i be reduced to one-fourth of 1 per cent. In case the phosphorus and sulphur contents exceed five-hun- dredths of i per cent the entire con- tents of the furnace are rejected. "'V‘V'dh_en“m steel i cnn!m'lly m % Gflfl? leman by the lnauum & hole is cut in * | 8pecial oven so as to withstand the | fty. | enough so that the gases may escape . metal is poured into the forms. | | line so that the molten steel may | drain through a large spout into a| ladle or bucket of 30 to 40 tons c pacity. This ladle is then transport- ed by mean of an electric crane to| the various molds in different parts. of the shop which are awaiting the| steel These molds are made from | sands imported from New Jersey, New York and the Great Lakes. These sands are shaped on wooden | patterns and then are baked in a| rush of the melted steel when it is poured. The sand previously has been “tempered” by the addition of binders which increase its adhesive- ness and yet do not decrease its poros- ‘The sand molds must be porous through their walls as the molten The wooden patterna are made in a modera pattern shop at the navy yard. Many of them are of intricate design and call for extreme precision both in design and dimension, requir- ing the services of the most skillful pattern makers. These patterns range in ®ize T lilliputians to | crushed-steel | One is a 2,000-ton forging actor in Industry glants which demand 40 to 45 tons of steel. Special shrinkage allow- ances have to be provided in the construction of these patterns to compensate for the transformation of the steel from molten to solidified form. These patterns are made of the best grade of white pine, Philippine ma- hogany, cherry and maple. All the material is dried in a special Kiln de. vised by the United States Forest Service. The pattern shop produces practically all of the patterns for cast- ings involved in the fleet's armament. They include patterns for all castings made for airplane catapults. gun mounts, sights, turrets and various other naval ordnauce. * ok ok K LL the steel mill, foundry forging work at the Washington Navy Yard is scheduled to be deliv- ered at varlous dry docks and naval stations on specified dates when cer tain battleships, cruisers, destroy or submarines needing repairs or new apparatus will dock at those points. The various naval shops and foun- dries secure contracts for the manu facture of ordnance because thev win out in competition against commer- clal concerns. Our local navy yard has to underbld professional com- petitors on the production of much of the ordnance material which it makes. All this material is inspected as carefully as though it were made by a private concern instead of being produced in a Government shop for use on national ships of war. Brass is melted in graphite cruei- bles, which are placed in cylindrical furnaces, where they are surrounded by hot coals. The cartridge trim- mings and other brass “scrap” ar- dumped into these pots and heated t6 a temperature of from 2.000 to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit around wooden patter making the bra and other parts. All thi inforced. Tt is 4 common every conceivable shape of being carried on electric cranes about the navy vard brass foundry A spectacular feature of the steel casting output is the sand-cleaning room, where streams of steel shot under 100 pounds pressure are vol- in order to and are ured in forgir gs nd is re- ight to see and mold cl?an them for assembly td dry docks or ports. The man is dressed for the oc heavy canvas uniform. through which the fine sand’ cannot penetrate. He wears a heavy helmet made of copper and glass—quite similar to the diving helmets used in deep-sea diving. This helmet is equipped with a special air line which provides plenty of pure air for the operator as he works. shot the castings by use of hose. More than 25,000 ¢ large rubber stings of all | sizes and shapes are cleaned of sand each year in this novel manner. The forge shop at the havy yard is equipped with some of the largest steam hydraulic presses ‘made. which weighs 1,000,000 pounds large freight cars were required to deliver this press to the navy vard when it was purchased nine years azo. This mammoth press and its foundation cost more than $200.000—the largest piece of machinery ever delivered and mounted in the District. Electric cranes which are so sensi tive to thelr control devices that they seem to be endowed with human in telligence lift and c corrugated ingots of cast steel which weigh from 6 to 20 tons apiece as though they were no bulkler than ordinary paper weights. Mighty slabs of metal are moved as if by magic to whatever po- sitions are desired. By opening or closing an _electric throttle the “driver” of the herculean crane gov- erns its movements. Massive ingots are heated to forging temperature in specia] vertical or horizontal furnaces Then they are transported by crane power to the heavy forzing machines. In the largest hydraulic press the de. scending die exerts a pressure of 2,000 tons. Every time it strikes the red-hot metal it delivers a blow of 4.000,000 pounds. The strongest cast steel is shaped by this mizhty tool as though it were as malleable as pie crust. S URING the fiscal year 192526 this Government forge shop produced 3,952,722 pounds of forging for naval ordnance. A recent job consisted of the production of inch_illu- minating shells or flares. These flares are discharged during darkness so that gunners may benefit by their illuminative properties in making their shots. Eight thousand 5inch projec- tiles are now under construction Four thousand copper rotating bands for 144nch target projectiles are also under manufacture at present by a drop-forging process. Forgings for guns up to and including 5 inches di- ameter and 56 cal length can be made. A bronze-alumi ing forged into for submarine zun: weigh 15,000 poun the largest ever n They protect the g rosive action of s catapults—airplane for use on pleted recently, weig alloy is now be- ves as coverings These forgings apiece and are ie of this alloy. against the cor- i1t water. Three launching devices, ips—were com- 10 pounds | apiece in the form of rough forgings. Raw material as delivered from the foundry to the forge shop is in the form of large cast ingots The re- quired grade of materials for certain forgings is selected according to its chemical composition The material is heated in one of the furnaces to a temperature of about 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit—the customary forging temperature. A traveling crane then transports It to the steam hammer or | hydraulic press, where it is hammered and pressed to the required shape and dimensions. After the forgings are made according to specification they are accorded special heat treatment. ‘When this process is finished, they are subjected to expert visual inspection and certain physical tests. If found satisfactory, the forgings are then sent to the machine shop for finishing. ‘The Navy Yard forge shop has per. fected a unique method of making large ordnance rings. To manufacture these mammoth rings in solid pieces is a champlon achievement. These rings are not welded nor are they fused together by acetylene or elec- trical processes. They are manufac- tured from solid cast steel, which is shaped, slotted, curved, cut and mold- ed to form the completed rings by an inexpensive and efficient system of forging originated at the local navy yard. —_— Elephant Rickets. OW would you cure an elephant of rickets? The London Zoo au- thorities have been up against that problem, and they have turned to ultra-violet rays after finding that surgical boots did not straighten the bent, weak bones well enough. ¥or five minutes dally the elephant is drenched with ultra-violet rays from a powerful mercury vlporlhmp. \