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"The Board of Ordnance and Fortifications" provided for under the act approved September 22 last was convened October 30, 1888, and plans and specifications for procuring forgings for 8, 10, and 12 inch guns, under provisions of section 4, and also for procuring 12-inch breech-loading mortars, cast iron, hooped with steel, under the provisions of section 5 of the said act, were submitted to the Secretary of War for reference to the board, by the Ordnance Department, on the same date.
Alfred Krupp lived to see Essen, his native village, grow from a population of 4,000 to a busy city of 70,000, where annually hundreds of engines and steam hammers produce thousands of tons of steel castings and forgings. Alfred Krupp built his own monument in the vast mills and benevolences of Essen, a monument more useful and enduring than marble or bronze.
They were much pleased, and I may add astonished, at its range, power, and docility. Besides showing them my own steam hammer, I took the deputation to the extensive works of Messrs. Rushton and Eckersley, where they saw one of my five-ton hammer-block steam hammers in full action. It was hammering out some wrought-iron forgings of the largest class, as well as working upon smaller forgings.
They moved freely, slipping about upon their curved points of contact and like a dozen little thinking hammers, the pyramid points at their ends beat down upon as many thimble shaped objects which they thrust alternately into the unwinking brazier then laid upon the central block to shape. A goblin workman the Thing seemed, standing there, so intent upon and so busy with its forgings.
Extending immediately below the camshaft is another vertical shaft, driven by bevel gears from the crank-shaft, and terminating in a worm which drives the multiple piston oil pumps. The cylinders are made from steel forgings, as are the valve chamber elbows, which are machined all over and welded together.
To finish the forgings at this rate, however, the machinists were obliged to work at their maximum pace from morning to night, and the lathes were run as fast as the tools would allow, and under a heavy feed. Ordinary tempered tools 1 inch by 1 1/2 inch, made of carbon tool steel, were used for this work.
Two holes drilled in the side of the hammer renew the air automatically in the spaces, X and Y, at each blow of the hammer. Figs. 4 to 6, on the next page, represent the medium size forging hammer, for making forgings in dies, swaging and tilting bars, and plating edged tools, etc.
Before that time a serious obstacle in the way of building up the navy was the lack in the country of manufactories necessary to the construction and armament of a modern war-vessel, namely, that of steel forgings for the heavier guns, of armor for iron-clad vessels, and of secondary batteries, which are an essential portion of the armament.
From the proof-room Hamilton's guide led him through different parts of the works, where various machines were employed in preparing and finishing the rough forgings he had seen made and annealed.
Rail Road Iron 22,344 " Merchant Iron 11,396 " Boiler, Tank and Sheet Iron 2,676 " Forgings 4,125 " Nuts, Washers, Rests, Nails and Spikes 5,607 " Machinery Castings 18,250 " Wire 865 " Making a total of 76,300 tons. To produce this it is estimated that 225,000 tons of coal and coke were consumed.
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