The French system of pressing was taken up in the United States, and as early as 1865 the works of Lalance and Geoschein, at Woodhaven, New York, were in active operation on this principle. In 1866 a Birmingham man, named W. Page, son of an old Birmingham worthy, travelled to New York, and erected improved machines on the French system in the factory of Messrs. Ketcham and Co. These machines economised material, and at the same time quickened production.
In 1872 Mr. Satchell Hopkins, of Birmingham, after communication with Mr. Page, put down a number of machines on Mr. Page’s principle, including one which is even now the largest and most powerful of its kind. A similar form of machine was adopted by other firms, and there soon followed an extraordinary development of the trade hitherto known as the “Stamped Tin Hollow-ware,” but now as the “Pressed Bright Tinned Hollow-ware” Trade.
In another important branch of the trade, though there has not been so much scope for improvement, advance has not been wanting. The common and ugly japanned ware, in which stencil plates were largely used, has been superseded by “transfers,” and by an invention of Mr. Alfred Hopkins, the japanning of articles with backgrounds highly polished has been superseded by a dead, morocco-like surface, in low tones of pleasing appearance.
In iron plate working the only new mechanical appliance introduced since 1867 is a machine or series of machines for making buckets, by which the article is practically made in one operation. The low wages of workmen who make buckets, coupled with the low prices to which manufacturers have been driven by excessive competition, render the employment of these machines of doubtful advantage. Besides Birmingham, manufactories are established in Wolverhampton, London, Reading, Sheffield, and other towns.
Treatment of Waste.—The following facts are supplied by Mr. T. J. Baker:—Sheet iron scrap and lathe turnings are worked up again into sheet iron. Copper clippings and turnings are remelted. Copper scale is resmelted, as also brass clippings and brass dust. Gold scrap of the japanning department is sent to the gold refiners, and the leaf metal scrap to the bronze powder manufacturers. Tin plate scrap, after the larger pieces have been sold to the button makers, are “stripped”—that is, the tin is removed by immersion in hydrochloric acid. The resulting tin salt is used by calico printers. The iron scrap, after removal of the tin, is used for precipitating copper by the wet process. Tin oxide, known as “drop tin,” formed on the surface of the metal in the tinning pot, is, after recovery of as much of the tin as possible, sent to the tin smelter. Galvanizing dross, an alloy of zinc and iron, which sinks to the bottom of the galvanizing bath, is removed by a perforated ladle, and refined by distilling off the zinc. Zinc ashes, that is cinders which have fallen on the molten metal and absorbed zinc, is also refined by distillation. Flux skimmings, or that which is skimmed off from the galvanizing bath, is an oxide and chloride of zinc. This is put in a vat; stirred with hot water, the oxide falls to the bottom of the vat, but the chloride dissolves. The clear solution is heated with gas liquor, when zinc precipitates as carbonate, and the chloride of ammonium, now in solution, is recovered by evaporation. The solid residues are worked up in paint mills into zinc white.
Tools (Heavy Edge).—[A. Winkler Wills.]—(B. 656.) In addition to edge tools proper, such as axes, adzes, hatchets, and other articles, the trade includes pickaxes, spades, shovels, forks, hoes, augers, trowels, shipscrapers, &c. The number of patterns regularly supplied by the manufacturers of Birmingham and the neighbourhood is estimated at several thousands, each nation and almost each district requiring special patterns of its own. The character of the soil, habit of people and other circumstances affect the form of tool though used for the same purpose. The enormous hoe, with a blade nearly a foot wide and of the same depth, which is in universal use in Guatemala, would be useless in Valparaiso, because the soil is light in one country and heavy in the other.
A Brazilian axe is made thus:—A piece of bar iron is taken and the middle part thinned out under a light steam hammer to the thickness required to form the edge of the tool. The blank is then doubled over upon itself and the bottom part welded together. A bar of hard cast steel is welded on to the bottom of the blank; the steel being then cut off from the bar to a width corresponding to that of the blank. The embryo axe, by means of a steam hammer, is forged under tools of suitable shape fixed in the head of the hammer, the final shape being given by hand tools. The tool is now ready for hardening and tempering—the steeled end of the axe is heated to a blood red in a slow furnace and is then plunged into cold water. It is now tempered by slowly heating till it assumes the required tint. The tool is now ready to be ground, polished on a succession of wooden wheels or bobs, dressed with emery of gradually increasing fineness, and then to have its upper part japanned black, blue, scarlet, or bronze-coloured, according to the taste of the consumer.
The principal machinery employed consists of shears, “squeezers,” tilt and trip hammers, striking from 200 to 400 blows per minute, steam hammers, shearing and punching machines, stamps, rolls, and lastly, massive machines or presses of various construction, used for shaping the eyes of hoes, pickaxes, &c. The wood handles required for spades, shovels, &c., form a distinct branch of the trade. Hickory handles are almost exclusively used in the wedge axes so largely employed in India and the colonies; these handles are necessarily imported from the United States. Self-acting machines have during late years been introduced for the turning of ash handles for axes, hatchets, &c. The handles of spades, shovels, and forks are of ash sawn from planks, subsequently turned in lathes. To bend them, they are steamed and pressed into shape by powerful screws.
The only waste products are the scale or dross which falls from the heated iron, and the shearings or scraps cut off the tools. Both are sold to the ironmaster—the former for fettling his furnace, the latter to be worked up again into bar iron.