Irons

“ Time and strength are wasted in attempts to use cool irons, therefore allow them time to get thoroughly heated before you begin to iron. Set up the board in a place where it will not be in a draught, as this quickly cools the irons. ”

“ Flat-irons should be carefully kept from dampness, which soon rusts them. Leave them standing on the end; they soon spoil if set on the face. If they become rusty, scour with emery till quite smooth, or, if past your skill, send to an emery factory and have them ground smooth. ”

“ Individual Tools. The individual plane-iron is not absolutely necessary. It is very desirable since the plane is in constant use. To make use of the same irons class after class is unjust to the good worker. He will spend a good part of the period getting his iron in condition only to find when he comes again the next week that it all has to be done over again. ”

“ The author next referred to the great excellence for chilling purposes possessed by some American pig irons, and to the fact that iron of a given carbon content derived from some ores and fluxes differed much in chilling properties from iron holding a similar proportion of carbon—free and combined—derived from other ores and materials. Those irons are best which develop the hardest possible chill most uniformly to the desired depth without producing a too abrupt line of division between the hard white skin and the softer gray body. ”

“ Waxing roller
of mangle.
178. Flat, or Sadirons. Irons are of two kinds—those which must be heated on a stove, and the self-heating ones. The weight of the iron governs the amount of heat it will absorb, and this is the amount that it will give up in ironing. Heat is needed to dry clothes, and as the cloth can be smoothed best when damp, but will wrinkle again unless dried while smooth, heat is essential to the ironing process.
The weight of the iron helps in the smoothing process. The heavy irons do the best grade of work, but are harder to manipulate. ”

“ Cooling a very hot iron by immersing it in a pail of water is bad for the iron, and is a careless practice besides; it is rectifying a neglect with a violent remedy.
If irons are rough or troublesome about sticking, scrape and wipe them clean, then rub their bottoms and sides with a piece of beeswax tied in a cloth. In the country, rub them on a sandy place in the garden path. ”

“ Upon a close examination of the specimen that I had brought away with me in my bag, home to the Hermitage, and by consultation with my book, I felt convinced that I had discovered what is called magnetic iron; that is, iron ore that is most universally dispersed over the earth. The action of the compass added to this belief, and the limestone formation was exactly fitted to this kind of ore, which is the same as is generally called the Swedish iron ore, one of the best-known irons in the world. ”

“ The grey varieties of cast iron are called foundry irons or foundry pigs, while the white varieties are called forge irons or forge pigs, from the fact that they are used for conversion into wrought iron. ”

“ Sharp irons are formed according to the shape, which is designed for the sole or heel; these irons are placed on a pair of wet hides, and brought under an iron press, which is worked like those in the mint. The boys who distinguish themselves by their industry and good behaviour, are placed in the first class, and carry on the left arm a brass plate, with the inscription, first class, as a mark of distinction. Those on the contrary, who have endeavoured to escape, drag a chain with a heavy iron ball. The period of detention in this institution is left to the discretion of the commissioners ”

“ Now so it is, that divers persons, by subtilty and undue sleights and means, have deceivably imagined and contrived instruments of iron, with the which irons, in the most highest and secret places of their houses, they strike and draw the said irons over the said fustians unshorn ”

“ The iron, when once heated, retains an even temperature as long as the current flows, and the laundress is, in consequence, free from the disadvantages of a slowly cooling iron, and of frequent substitution of a warm iron for a cold one. Electric irons are particularly valuable in summer, because they eliminate the necessity for a strong fire, and spare the housewife intense heat. ”

“ One iron will do two or three with one heatin'; sometimes, if th' iron handlers work fast, two irons will stamp th' whole eight. You'll laugh when you see 'em comin' out, all branded, eight to a clip; an' th' work ain't near so hard. There ain't no holdin', nor ropin', nor throwin'. Here we've toted half a dozen Question Mark irons up here, an' they ain't hardly saved us any time. You've got plenty of [323] time to put up a chute before we start on yore thousand—if you don't, we'll be a week on 'em, an' a week's too long. ”

“ I wish wearing flat-irons on our heads would keep us from growing up. But buds will be roses, and kittens, cats,—more's the pity!" ”

“ The specifications describe and drawings illustrate (1) a top angle iron member with a perforated surface or flange hanging downward so as to fit into slots at the top of the upstanding irons; (2) recesses in the base member providing a snug fit for the bottom part of the upstanding channel irons. ”

“ The ends of the irons can be inserted in file-handles that may be purchased at a hardware store for a few cents each.
Fig. 1. Fig. 2.
A is a sharp-pointed iron for outlining; B is a round-pointed one for broader work; C is a stub for bold work, and measures three-eighths of an inch in diameter; D is a [172] curved background tool, and is used for burning in the grounds, or shading, in order to make the design stand out boldly.
With these tools and a spirit-lamp and rest, such as is shown in Fig. 2, some very good work can be done ”

“ I′ron-bound, bound with iron: rugged, as a coast; I′ron-cased; I′ronclad, clad in iron: covered or protected with iron.—n. a vessel defended by iron plates.—ns. I′ron-clay, a yellowish clay containing a large quantity of iron ore; I′roner, one who irons; I′ron-flint, ferruginous quartz; I′ron-found′er, one who founds or makes castings in iron; I′ron-found′ry, a place where iron is founded or cast.—adj. I′ron-gray, of a gray colour, like that of iron freshly cut or broken.—n. ”

“ Their goosing irons they heat them not in the fire as we do; but hath a pretty device. They make the body of the iron a great deall thicker then ours, which is boss, [190] and which opens at the hand, which boss they fil wt charcoall, which heats the bottom of the iron, which besydes that its very cleanly, they can not burn themselfes so readily, since the hands not hot. ”

“ It specifies six ores in Missouri; gives their respective characteristics, and tabulates the quality of the iron when produced by smelting with charcoal, and coke, or coal, for the four irons technically known as foundery-iron, mill-iron, Bessemer-iron, and steel-iron. As a contribution to economical geology, it is valuable.
Half-Hour Recreations in Natural History. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. Pp. 31. Price, 25 cents.
This is Part III. of Mr. Packard's series, "Half-Hours with Insects," which we have already mentioned in the Monthly. The author here considers the relations of insects to man. ”

“ Mac-Morlan or some other person will take the matter up; he will be detected, convicted, and will tell all in revenge!’
While these racking thoughts glided rapidly through Glossin’s mind, he observed one of the lights obscured, as by an opaque body placed at the window. What a moment of interest! ‘He has got clear of his irons! he is working at the stancheons of the window! they are surely quite decayed, they must give way. O God! they have fallen outward, I heard them clink among the stones! the noise cannot fail to wake them. ”

“ For I mean to roam and think and make great irons red-hot. ”

“ There is the iron in the ore; there are the great stores of pig-iron lying ready for use; there are the vast bridges which span our rivers and straits; there are the thousands of miles of railway lines; there are the countless wheels and pieces of machinery; there are iron vessels on every ocean, and objects of every size made of iron, from the smallest nails up to hundred-ton guns. There is also at this moment, and every moment, a good deal of hot iron on the earth. ”

“ When seen partially lit up by the glowing masses of white-hot iron, with only the rays of bright sunshine gleaming through the holes in the roof, and the dark, black, smoky vaults in which the cumbrous machinery was heard rumbling away in the distance—while the moving parts were dimly seen through the murky atmosphere, mixed with the sounds of escaping steam and rushes of water; with the half-naked men darting about with masses of red-hot iron and ladles full of molten cast-iron—it made a powerful impression upon the mind. ”

“ If primitive man were slow to learn the use of iron it was not because this metal was scarce, for iron is everywhere. "Wherever, as we go up and down, we see a red-colored surface, or a reddish tint upon the solid substances of the earth, we see iron—the bank of red clay, the red brick, the red paint upon the house wall, the complexion of rosy youth, or my lady's ribbon. Even the rosy apple derives its tint from iron which it contains."8 But although iron is so abundant it is seldom found in its pure or natural state. ”

“ It is a fact perfectly familiar to iron-founders, that when a mass of solid cast-iron is dropped into a pot of 21 molten iron of identical quality, the solid is found to float persistently upon the molten metal—so persistently that when it is intentionally thrust to the bottom of the pot, it rises again the moment the submerging agency is withdrawn. ”

“ It is needless to speak of wrought iron, which can be made into any form you like, and of any size and thickness, from the stem of an anchor to a leaf, and chased or engraved, polished or lacquered, tinned or gilt. I am happy to say that wrought-iron work is receiving great attention again both from architects, painters, and iron-workers, and can be made nearly as well as it ever could. ”

“ There is no such thing as iron at an instant; to be iron is a character of an event. Every physical constant respecting iron which appears in scientific tables is the register of such a character. What is ultimate in iron, according to the traditional theory, is instantaneous distributions of electricity; and this ultimateness is simply ascribed by reason of a metaphysical theory, and by no reason of observation.
5.5 In truth, when we have once admitted the hierarchy of macroscopic and microscopic equations, the traditional concept is lost. ”

“ But it must be admitted that the highly-heated pieces of iron bear a very small proportion indeed to the total mass of iron in the world at any moment. No doubt there are many tons of iron now white-hot, but there are many millions of tons of iron once white-hot, but now no warmer than the air around. ”

“ There is iron in its very infancy to be seen in some—proto-iron we call it—which we are able to produce ourselves by exposing ordinary iron to the intense heat of the electric vacuum spark and there disrupting it into a simpler mode which the spectroscope detects as it detects it in a star. ”

“ Primitive furnace for smelting iron ore.
Not many of us have ever seen iron, the pure metal, soft, ductile and white like silver. As soon as it is exposed to the air it veils itself with a thin film of rust and becomes black and then red. For that reason there is practically no iron in the world except what man has made. It is rarer than gold, than diamonds; we find in the earth no nuggets or crystals of it the size of the fist as we find of these. But occasionally there fall down upon us out of the clear sky great chunks of it weighing tons. These meteorites are the mavericks of the universe. ”

“ We know that iron is a chemical element—the chemists write it Fe for short, after the Latin word "ferrum," meaning iron—it is one of those substances which cannot be separated into anything else but itself. It can be made to join with other elements; for instance, it joins with the oxygen in the air and forms scale or rust, substances known to the chemist as iron oxide. But the same metal iron can be recovered from that rust by abstracting the oxygen; having recovered the iron nothing else can be extracted but iron; iron is elemental. ”

“ The transcendant importance of the subject must be an excuse for adding a few words to the statements which we made last week about the new iron French ship of war. When we say of iron, it is meant that she is protected all over with an iron cuirass, which renders her impenetrable to shot or shell. ”

“ Prescott, “just remember three things: fuel, blast, and hammer—power, of course, behind the hammer. It’s the different variations that men have been making on those three things that have brought iron where it is to-day.
“Iron ore has so many things besides iron in it that the problem has always been how to get the impurities out.
“The old blacksmiths used to put it in the fire and hammer it; put it back in the fire and hammer again, until they worked most of the other things out. They made what is called forge iron. ”

“ Such extensive applications of iron for purposes so diverse have been rendered possible only by the greater facility and cheapness of production, together with the better knowledge of the properties of the substance and increased skill in its treatment, that have particularly distinguished our century. Apart again from the constructive uses of iron, it enters essentially into another class of inventions of which the age is justly proud, namely, those which utilize electricity in the production of light, mechanical power, and chemical action ”

“ Iron, at a red or white heat, when quenched in a direction parallel to the north and south, also acquires polarity without the touch of the magnet, as if the parts of iron being put in motion by ignition, and afterward recovering themselves, were, at the moment of being quenched, more Susceptible and sensitive of the power emanating from the earth, than at other times, and therefore as it were excited. ”