This material in bar iron, engine stay bolts, butt and lap-welded pipe and certain other products has long held a high place. Though not as strong as steel, its very excellent welding properties and comparative freedom from “crystallization” and treacherous breakage under long continued vibration or sudden jar have fostered its application in such products as stay bolts, chain-links, cable hooks and others where failure might have serious consequences. Too, it is thought by many that pipes, sheets and other articles of wrought iron resist the corrosive influences of moist air, soil, etc., particularly well. The cinder films in which the fibers are supposed to be encased are given credit for such protective influence.
“Box Piles” Ready for the Re-Heating Furnace
Though the product has always been a favorite with iron users, the industry has suffered during the last sixty years by reason of the high cost of manufacture, which has very largely restricted the application of wrought iron to certain uses for which first cost is not a main factor.
The production of wrought iron rails has rapidly dwindled since the year 1880, when they began generally to be replaced by rails made from Bessemer steel.
The Ball Going Into the “Squeezer”
Shearing the Muck Bar into Short Lengths for “Piling”
