An interesting paper on some of the leading American workshops was lately read before the members of the Manchester Association of Engineers on Saturday by Mr. Hans Renold. After expressing his opinion that the English people did not sufficiently look about them or try to understand what other nations were doing, Mr. Renold stated that he had visited that portion of America known as New England, and the works he had inspected were among the best in the United States. Among the many special features he had noticed he mentioned that in a Boston establishment where milling machine cutters were made he had found that £1 spent in wages produced as much as £30 to £40 worth of goods, the cutters being made at the rate of about sixty-four per hour by about a dozen men. Another noticeable feature was the exceptional care taken in storing tools in American workshops. These, in fact, were treated as if they were worth their weight in gold; they were stored in safes much in the same manner as we in England stored our money. He was, however, impressed by the fact that the mere understanding of the method of American working would not enable them to do likewise in England, because the American workmen had gone through a special training, and a similar training would be necessary to enable English workmen to adapt themselves to American machines. One very noticeable feature in American engineering shops which he visited was that all the machine men and turners were seated on blocks or stools at their machines, and the question naturally arose in his mind what would English engineers say if such a practice were adopted in their shops. In other ways he was also struck by the special attention devoted to the comfort of the workmen, and he was much impressed by the healthy condition of the emery polishing shops as compared with similar shops in this country. In England these shops in most cases were simply deathtraps to the workmen, and he urged that the superior method of ventilation carried out in the States should be adopted in this country by introducing a fan to each wheel to take away the particles, etc., which were so injurious. One very special feature in the United States was that works were devoted to the manufacture of one particular article to an almost inconceivable extent, and that heavy machine tools complete and ready to be dispatched were kept in stock in large numbers. American enterprise was not hampered as it too frequently was in England by want of capital; while in England we were ready to put our savings in South American railways or fictitious gold mines, but very chary about investing capital which would assist an engineer in bringing out an honest improvement, in America, on the other hand, it was a common practice among the best firms to invest their savings over and over again in their works, which were thus kept in a high state of perfection.
The above paper came in for some pretty severe criticism. Mr. John Craven remarked that although Mr. Renold had gone over a wide field of subjects, he had practically confined his remarks to Messrs. Brown & Sharpe's establishment, and while he (Mr. Craven) was ready to admit that so far as high class work and sanitary arrangements were concerned, Messrs. Brown & Sharpe's were a model, they could not be put forward as representative of American establishments generally. As a matter of fact, many of the American workshops were not as good as a large number of similar workshops in Manchester. Mr. Renold had referred to the extensive use of gear cutters in the United States, but he might point out that it was in Manchester that the milling machine was first made. Mr. Samuel Dixon said he had certainly come to the conclusion that no better work was done in America than could be and was being done in this country; while as regards the enormous production of milling cutters, that was simply an example of what could be done where large firms devoted themselves to the production of one specialty. With regard to the statement made by Mr. Renold that the American thread was preferable to the Whitworth thread, he might say he entirely disagreed with such a conclusion, and he might add that after visiting a variety of Continental and American workshops he should certainly not, if he were called upon to award the palm of superiority in workmanship, go across the Atlantic for that purpose. Mr. J. Nasmith remarked that whether English engineers were the inventors of the milling machine or not, it must be admitted that it was through this type of cutter being taken up by the Americans that milling had become the success it was at the present time. English engineers were very conservative, and it was only through the pressure of circumstances that milling machines came into general use in this country. When American inventions were brought to England they were generally improved to the highest degree, but he thought the chief fault of both American and Continental engineers was what one might call "over-refinement;" there was such a thing as over-finishing an object and overdoing it. If, however, American machinery was so much superior to what we had in this country, as asserted by the reader of the paper, how was it that cotton machinery, with all its intricacies, could be sent to the United States, in the face of American manufacturers, even though the cost was increased from 40 to 60 per cent.? At the present time it was possible for English machinists to secure contracts for the whole of the machinery in an American mill, and inclusive of freight charges and high tariff, deliver and erect it in America at a lower cost than American engineers with all the advantages of their immeasurably superior tools were able to do. Another speaker, Mr. Barstow, ridiculed the idea that the Americans could be so pre-eminent in the manufacture of emery wheels as might be inferred from Mr. Renold, when they had before them the fact that from the neighborhood of Manchester thousands of emery wheels were every year exported to the United States.
MODERN METHODS OF QUARRYING.
Mr. Wm. L. Saunders, for many years the engineer of the Ingersoll Rock Drill Co., and hence thoroughly familiar with modern quarrying practice, read a paper before the last meeting of the American Society of Civil Engineers on the above subject, containing many interesting points, given in the Engineering News, from which we abstract as follows.
As a preliminary to describing the new Knox system of quarrying, which even yet is not universally known among quarrymen, Mr. Saunders gives the following in regard to older methods:
The Knox system is a recent invention; no mention was made of it in the tenth census, and no description has yet been given of it in any publications on quarrying. The first work done by this method was in 1885, and at the close of that year 2 quarries had adopted it. In 1886 it was used in 20 quarries; in 1887 in 44, in 1888 in upward of 100, and at the present time about 300 quarries have adopted it. Its purpose is to release dimension stone from its place in the bed, by so directing an explosive force that it is made to cleave the rock in a prescribed line without injury. The system is also used for breaking up detached blocks of stone into smaller sizes.
Quarrymen have, ever since the introduction of blasting, tried to direct the blast so as to save stock. Holes drilled by hand are seldom round. The shape of the bit and their regular rotation while drilling usually produce a hole of somewhat triangular section. It was observed, many years ago, that when a blast was fired in a hand-drilled hole the rock usually broke in three directions, radiating from the points of the triangle in the hole. This led quarrymen to look for a means by which the hole might be shaped in accordance with a prescribed direction of cleavage.
The oldest sandstone quarries in America are those at Portland, Conn. It was from these quarries that great quantities of brownstone were shipped for buildings in New York. The typical "brownstone front" is all built of Portland stone. As the Portland quarries were carried to great depths the thickness of bed increased, as it usually does in quarries. With beds from 10 to 20 ft. deep, all of solid and valuable brownstone, it became a matter of importance that some device should be applied which would shear the stone from its bed without loss of stock and without the necessity of making artificial beds at short distances. A system was adopted and used successfully for a number of years which comprised the drilling of deep holes from 10 to 12 in. in diameter, and charging them with explosives placed in a canister of peculiar shape. The drilling of this hole is so interesting as to warrant a passing notice. The system was similar to that followed with the old fashioned drop drill. The weight of the bit was the force which struck the blow, and this bit was simply raised or lowered by a crank turned by two men at the wheel. The bit resembled a broad ax in shape, in that it was extremely broad, tapering to a sharp point, and convex along the edge.
