Iron bar

“ Steel has no fiber and for this reason it cannot be split as was the wrought iron bar shown in the illustration of page 92.
It will have been noticed that only small amounts of iron can be refined at one time. This, indeed, has been the unfortunate part of wrought iron manufacture, for it may readily be seen that production of any such material in lots as small as a quarter ton results in labor costs which are almost prohibitive in these days of machine-made goods. Not only is the output of a furnace small but much skill and judgment are necessary for the production of a high grade product. ”

“ With this instrument, the iron is beaten, until the mass has been considerably extended, when it is cut into several pieces, which, by repeated beating and forging, are extended into bars, as we see them [250] for sale. The tilt-hammer weighs from six to twelve hundred pounds, and is most commonly moved by water power.
5. For manufacturing bar-iron directly from the ore, the furnace is similar in its construction to the one just described, and the operations throughout are very similar. A fire is first made upon the hearth with charcoal ”

“ A second hasp, similarly constructed, secures the lowest of the three bars; but, as that bar is behind, and not in front of, the shelf to which it belongs, the arrangements described above are reversed. One lock and key serves for the ironwork belonging to the three shelves.
Fig. 76. Iron bar and socket, closed to prevent removal of the bar: Hereford.
The chains are made of links of hammered iron as shewn in the sketch (fig. 78) which represents a piece of one of the actual size. There is usually a swivel in the centre, probably to prevent twisting. ”

“ This may be wrought out as in Fig. 5. The use of a bar of iron or steel is as shown. The bar is usually about 2 in. in diameter and several feet in length, so that it will rest firmly on a base of wood or stone. Then the bending is effected as at F, about the bar E, by repeated blows with the hammer. After a little practice, it is possible to describe almost any kind of a circle with the tools. The bar can be bought at an iron dealers for about 40 cents. From the junk pile of junk shop one may get a like bar for a few cents. ”

“ It is, therefore, always preferable to bore and tap the ends of such bars, and to screw in a wrought-iron or steel plug, taking care to screw it in very tightly, so that it shall not at any time become loose. The centres should be well drilled and of a comparatively large size, so as to have surface enough to suffer little from wear, and to well sustain the weight of the bar. ”

“ Naturally they pulled the bar of iron although separated by two heavy layers of wood, as there is no insulation which will stop magnetic waves, thus closing or opening the door at the will of the operator. The poker and the heavy overstuffed chair were caused to travel about the room in the same manner, the latter probably having iron bars inserted in the legs, by utilizing other electro-magnets fastened beneath the floor and concealed by this plasterboard. ”

“ As might naturally be expected, the principal ironmasters, when they heard of Cort's success, and the rapidity and economy with which he manufactured and forged bar-iron, visited his foundry for the purpose of examining his process, and, if found expedient, of employing it at their own works. Among the first to try it were Richard Crawshay of Cyfartha, Samuel Homfray of Penydarran (both in South Wales) , and William Reynolds of Coalbrookdale. Richard Crawshay was then (in 1787) forging only ten tons of bar-iron weekly under the hammer ”

“ Even miners’ tools are much wanted, the only ones in use being the iron bar and the hoe. The common miner’s pick would in many cases be serviceable, and bucking-irons [65] would reduce the matrix much more effectually than beating it with stones, which is the only mode now practised. It is a most unfortunate circumstance, and very detrimental to the interests of the miners, that whatever is made of iron is so dear as to be beyond the means of the inhabitants to procure, nor have they any substitute for it. ”

“ Heat can also be produced by the impact of imperfectly elastic bodies as well as by friction. This is the case, for instance, when we produce fire by striking flint against steel, or when an iron bar is worked for some time by powerful blows of the hammer. ”

“ The boring bar is one of the most important tools to be found in a machine shop, because the work it has to perform requires to be very accurately done; and since it is a somewhat expensive tool to make, and occupies a large amount of shop room, it is necessary to make one size of boring bar answer for as many sizes of hole as possible, which end can only be attained by making it thoroughly stiff and rigid. To this end a large amount of bearing and close fitting, using cast iron as the material, are necessary, because cast iron does not spring or deflect so easily as wrought iron ”

“ The patent further describes that "as the workman stirs the metal," the scoriae will separate, "and the particles of iron will adhere, which particles the workman must collect or gather into a mass or lump." This mass or lump was then to be raised to a white heat, and forged into malleable iron at the forge-hammer.
Such was the stage of advance reached in the manufacture of bar-iron, when Henry Cort published his patents in 1783 and 1784. In dispensing with a blast, he had been anticipated by the Craneges, and in the process of puddling by Onions ”

“ Thus, when combined with carbon, in varying proportions, substances are produced, so different, but each so valuable, that they might almost be regarded in the light of distinct metals,—such, for example, as cast-iron, and cast and bar steel; the various qualities of iron enabling it to be used for purposes so opposite as a steel pen and a railroad, the needle of a mariner's compass and an Armstrong gun, a surgeon's lancet and a steam engine, the mainspring of a watch and an iron ship, a pair of scissors and a Nasmyth hammer, a lady's earrings and a tubular bridge. ”

“ Bar iron did duty on all the eighty-eight hundred miles of American and sixty-five hundred of British railway; not many, if at all, more than are now laid, in this country at least, with steel. This poetic and historic metal has become as truly a raw product as potatoes. ”

“ About the close of the last century the great improvement in the manufacture of bar-iron was introduced by passing it through grooved rollers, instead of hammering it on the anvil; but in our own time the invention has become most important. ”

“ A bar of steel, if rubbed with the natural magnet or loadstone, acquires the same property, and if the bar be suspended horizontally or poised on a pivot, it will settle only in one definite direction, which in this country is nearly north and south. If a narrow magnetized bar be plunged into iron filings, it will be found that these are attracted chiefly by the ends of the bar, and not at all by the centre. ”

“ Bars of wrought iron are packed in layers, each bar surrounded by charcoal, and the whole hermetically sealed in a fire-brick vessel luted on top with clay; heat is then applied until the whole is brought up to a bright orange color, and this heat is maintained as evenly as possible until the whole mass of iron is penetrated by carbon; usually bars about three quarters of an inch thick are used, and the heat is required to be maintained for three days, the carbon, entering from both sides, requiring three days to travel three eighths of an inch to the centre of the bar. ”

“ They are formed under the tilt-hammer, and differ in substance from bar-iron in nothing, except that, having been imperfectly forged, the fibres of the metal are not fully extended, nor firmly united. The blooms are manufactured in the interior of the country, where wood is abundant, and sold by the ton, frequently, in the cities, to be converted into bar or sheet iron. ”

“ The celebrated mines of Danemora produce the finest Swedish iron, and only a limited quantity is allowed to be produced each year. All the steel-iron used in England is imported into Hull. Bar-steel is manufactured by heating the iron, divided into lumps, in pots, with layers of charcoal, closely covered over with sand and clay, for several days. By this means the iron is carbonized and converted into what is commonly called blistered steel. The heat is kept up a longer or shorter time according to the hardness required. ”

“ The quantity of iron now produced in England, exceeds that furnished by the rest of the world united, and does not fall short of 800,000 tons. It has a value even in its raw state of near four millions sterling, and is of far greater intrinsic worth, in consequence [Pg 373] of the spur which its abundance gives to every other branch of industry.
Bar iron is at the present day principally manufactured from the pig. The process originally used for this purpose is called refining. The fire in which it is performed is a forge, similar in form and character to that employed in blooming. ”

“ Whereas iron has a value in itself considered. It fells the forest, tills the soil, annihilates time and distance, and underlies the whole economy of domestic life; for our readers will bear in mind that steel is only another form of iron.
[Pg 19]
The value iron acquires under the hammer is something wonderful. It is said that a bar of iron worth $5 is worth $10.50 when made into horse-shoes, $55 when made into needles, $3,285 made into penknife blades, $29,480 in shirt buttons, and $250,000, in balance springs of watches. ”

“ It is impossible to assign the limits between these three forms of iron, or their relative proportions of carbon, with ultimate precision; for bar iron passes into steel by insensible gradations, and steel and cast iron make such mutual transitions as to render it difficult to define where the former commences, and the latter ceases, to exist. In fact, some steels may be called crude iron, and some cast irons may be reckoned among steels. ”

“ The merits of the invention seem to have been generally conceded, and numerous contracts for licences were entered into with Cort and his partner by the manufacturers of bar-iron throughout the country. [7] Cort himself made arrangements for carrying on the manufacture on a large scale, and with that object entered upon the possession of a wharf at Gosport, belonging to Adam Jellicoe, his partner's father, where he succeeded in obtaining considerable Government orders for iron made after his patents. To all ordinary eyes the inventor now appeared to be on the high road to fortune ”

“ Hunter's, at Fredericksburgh, makes about 300 tons a year of bar iron, from pigs imported from Maryland; and Taylor's forge on Neapsco of Patowmac, works in the same way, but to what extent I am not informed. The indications of iron in other places are numerous, and dispersed through all the middle country. The toughness of the cast iron of Ross's and Zane's furnaces is very remarkable. Pots and other utensils, cast thinner than usual, of this iron, may be safely thrown into, or out of the waggons in which they are transported. ”

“ The sheet iron so popular in America for parlor stoves and stove pipe, comes from Ekaterineburg and its vicinity, and is made from magnetic ore. The bar iron of the Urals is famous the world over for its excellent qualities, and commands a higher price than any other. Great quantities of iron are floated in boats down the streams flowing into the Kama and Volga. Thence it goes to the fair at Nijne Novgorod, and to the points of shipment to the maritime markets. ”

“ When the bars are of hard or finely polished steel, no perceptible wear can be detected in them, even after they have been in daily use in factories for twelve months, whereas bars not so bushed might show considerable wear in that space of time. The packing, to be effective, should be sufficiently close to prevent as much as possible friction of the steel with the cast iron needle bar ways. Lubrication of the steel is insured by keeping the hemp packing moistened with oil. ”

“ A more important and useful improvement has superseded the last; the process of rolling, which will be hereafter described, has been introduced, and by means of it a bar may be drawn out at a single heat, and at far less expense of manual labour. Such establishments exist at Dover and Rockaway, New-Jersey, which receive the iron completely reduced from the neighbouring forges, and fashion it into bars.
A forge fire, and, consequently, the process of blooming, is insufficient to convert poor ores, or those that contain much earthy matter, into iron. ”

“ I think not, as channeled iron is in almost as common use as bar iron, and hardly any framed work is made where stiffness and lightness are required but that it is used, because it is the stiffest form in which iron can be used in carrying a load between two points, either suspended or in the form of a _____; and wherever a compressible strain occurs, or cross-strain, or any other strain than a purely tension strain, it is the cheapest iron to use, and it is in common use under such circumstances. ”

“ The mode of upsetting, widening, and shaping the ends of the bars is by placing the ends, after the bars have been rolled into proper shape and size, and the ends heated, into a die-box of the regular form, and then firmly locking them in place, and with great power pressing them up endwise with a movable head-die until the hot iron fills the die-box. ”