Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1881 — A Huge Casting. [ARTICLE]

A Huge Casting.

ItevYarkSua ' ’‘ j The largest steamship cylinder in the world was successfully cast at the Morgan iron works. The proceedings attracted a number of spectators, and when the hour of casting approached a perspiring bodyguard anxiously followed Mr. John Roach as he dodged in and out and around the volcanoes of liqUid metal ready to be let loose Into the gigantic mould. For hours the molten fluid dazzled the eye as it streamed like water under the setting sun from the two cupolas into receptacles. beneath. An army of muscular and intelligent looking workman, three and three, staggered away from these receptacles in turn with large hand-ladles full of the mplten iron as coolly and unconcernedly as if they were dipping up croton. But a slip of the foot would have cost several lives. The ladles were emptied into two great tankladles connecting by tap with the mould, and also into huge crane-ladles swung by steam. “Won’t the iron in those ladles cool before the hour of casting?” said a grimy and dust covered spectator. “Bless ypu, no! A salamander ceuld swim around in it till he got cool ” said Mr. Roach. “Charcoal on top keeps the cold air from striking the iron.” At I:9b p. m. the great tank ladles were filled. The crane ladies hung poised to do their work. Showers of sparks went hissing through the air as unnoticed by the workingmen as if they had been snowflakes. At 1:40 p. m. the word was given, and the tank ladles were tapped into the great cylinder mould. The crane ladles creaked as they were swung round to complete the work. A fiery shower broke from all sides of the mould, and the spectators, who were perched on a scaffolding comparatively out- of the way, beat a hasty retreat. The casting was a complete success. f In three minutes after the tapping it was over. The cylinder stands about half out of its great pit, and crackled and flamed all the afternoon. It reaches fifteen feet below ground, and will remain red hot for a week. Nearly 100,000 pounds of iron was used for the casting. The cylinder is nine feet two inches in diameter and fourteen feet stroke, and is .for the new iron steamer now being built for the Old Colony Steamboat company. The two main shafts for the engine will be forty feet long and twety-seven inches in diameter, and will weigh 80,000 pounds. The steamer will be 384 feet long on deck, eighty-seven feet beam over guards, and seventeen feet six inches deep; will have a double hul>, six water-tight bulkheads', and ninety-six water-tight compartments, and will be fitted with steam .steering gear, steam pumps and heating apparatus.