Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 August 1896 — Bursting Fly-Wheels. [ARTICLE]

Bursting Fly-Wheels.

The bursting of a fly wheel is almost unheard of in England, notwithstanding the high speed engines we now have running, ,yet in the United States fly wheel casualties have become a matter of weekly report. lu England we hava many thousands of high speed cast iron tly wheels and very large wheels up to sixty thus weight running with very high periphery speed, and they all run safely, and yet lu the States they say: “The sudden advent of the electrical apparatus anil Its high speeds fouud people making fly-wheels of cast iron, with a narrow factor bf safety, or, indeed, no factor of safety at all, If we consider the impossibility of detee4iug- 4 strains and Imphrfleqtlo.ns, til'this material. No one can knowthw value of material molded into form at p temperature of 2.000 degrees and tiiqij cooled down to a 40 th ,0t this temperature, nor can they judjfe IriternrfF'Btnictura by aprface Indications. The fact is that cast Iron is not .suitable material for fly are to be driven at high speed.nor is it necessary to ijiake them of this material. There is not even tho claim of cheapness in their favor, If the methods of making such wheels of wrought iron and steel were once worked but.” Twenty years ago a Scotch firm, who had to make a large fly Wheel for a spinning mill, riveted up a box rim, made from rolled plates, and filled.lt with cemented masonry or “grout,” and did a very sensible thing.—Loudon Engl netpr.