Rolling mill

“ Even in the iron industry where could a line be drawn-at the end of mining the ore, the production of the pig-iron or steel ingots, when the rolling mill operation is completed, fabrication on order or at some stage of manufacture into standard merchandise? ”

“ Two types of rolling mills can manufacture ribbon from aluminum alloy slabs prepared from lunar anorthosite. The first or regular type of mill consists of a series of rolling stands with lead-in roughing rollers and finishing rollers at the end. Input slabs travel through one stand after another and are reduced in thickness at each stand. Each stand rolls the slab once. High production rates result. A second option is the reversing mill. Slabs are routed back and forth through the same stand several times and are reduced in thickness during each pass. ”

“ One man runs each of these mills. He cannot start the machinery in motion and go away, like the man who has charge of a rolling-mill, but he must stay in the place all the time, and feed the stones to the machinery that crushes them into grains of various sizes. He shovels the powder into a large hopper, big wooden wheels go around and around, and the powder passes between zinc rolls and through sieves of various sizes. ”

“ The chief occupation of the factory rolling mills now is to receive the iron scrap from the various workshops, such as clippings, shearings, punchings, and drillings, with all the old iron proceeding from the breaking up of worn-out engines and vehicles. ”

“ These mills produce mild steel bars, window sections, angles and channels and other metal products used in building construction. Although some rods and bars are shipped abroad, principally to South-East Asian countries, the steel mills rely heavily on domestic sales which have suffered from the recent decline in the building industry. Several rolling mills produce brass and aluminium sheets and circles, most of which are used for the manufacture of consumer goods. ”

“ There are 734 saw-mills, 77 wagon and carriage factories, 6 iron furnaces, 7 iron foundries, 11 lime-kilns, 4 potteries, 68 tanneries, 6 turpentine distilleries, 2 rolling mills, 5 paper-mills, 12 furniture manufactories, 3 rice-mills, &c. The manufacture of rope, bagging, twine, tobacco, ice, sashes and blinds, agricultural implements, boilers and machinery, fertilizers, &c., is carried on more or less extensively. ”

“ By that time the tin mill was on its feet. The town of Elwood had grown from a country cross-roads to a city of the first class. As president of the union, I had steadily gained concessions for the workers. We were getting paid every two weeks. It is not practical to pay oftener in the tin trade. A man's work has to be measured and weighed, and the plate he rolls on Saturday can not be cut and measured in time for him to get his pay for it that week. For the pay envelope is handed to him Saturday noon, and his Saturday's rolling will not go through the cutter until Monday. ”

“ Among the iron-making and iron-working establishments in operation in 1871 were 3 blast furnaces, 2 large rolling mills, 1 nail manufactory, 16 engine works, 5 boiler works, 4 stove and hollow ware founderies, 4 steam forges, 4 manufactories of bolts and nuts, 1 car wheel foundery, 1 chain manufactory, 3 edge tool factories, 1 malleable iron foundery, 1 saddlery hardware factory, 3 builders' hardware factories, 1 iron pipe foundery, 3 general founderies, 1 scale factory, and 2 safe factories, employing altogether over 5,000 men. ”

“ It is in a coal and lumbering region, and makes extensive coal-shipments. Its important manufacturing establishments are sash, door and nail factories, coffin and casket works, a rolling and a planing mill, silk-mills, dye-works and railroad-shops. ”

“ Nine-tenths, or perhaps ninety-nine hundredths, of all the flour consumed in Great Britain is made in roller mills, that is, mills in which the wheat is broken and floured by means of rollers, some grooved in varying degrees of fineness, some smooth, their work being preceded Roller milling. and supplemented by a wide range of other machinery. All roller mills worthy of the name are completely automatic, that is to say, from the time the raw material enters the mill warehouse till it is sacked, either in the shape of finished flour or of offals, it is touched by no human hand. ”

“ Just as a burning forest is a magnificent scene with a dismal sequel, so the saw-miller’s industry, though it finds a paradise and leaves a rubbish-yard, is, while it goes on, a picturesque business. Like many forms of destruction, it lends itself to the exertion of boldness, strength, and skill. The mill itself is probably too primitive to be exactly ugly, and the complicated machinery is interesting when in action, albeit its noises, which at a distance blend into a humming vibration, rise near at hand to tearing and rending, clattering and howling. ”

“ We are so absorbed in the tumult of mass output that we scarcely realize the part played by the old mills in rearing the cornerstone of our vast industrial activity. The phrase, “horse power,” now geared to myriad millions of units, in all likelihood, began with the horse-operated grist mill. A horse provided the power. The creaking water wheels with their rhythmic splash, were the outposts of the hydroelectric age which has harnessed rivers and falls and wrought marvels of production the world over. ”

“ The value of its factory products in 1905 was $17,146,338 (14.3% more than in 1900) , the more important being those of steel works and rolling mills ($4,528,907) , blast furnaces, steam railway repair shops, cigar and cigarette factories ($1,258,498) , foundries and machine shops ($953,617) , boot and shoe factories ($922,568) , flouring and grist mills, slaughtering and meat-packing establishments and silk mills. ”

“ Most of us today, when we think of power, think of electricity, gas, or steam, but it is very simple to consider the water in an ordinary little stream and the amount of power it can deliver.
Although the machinery built by the early millwrights was a bit crude, nevertheless it was functional and worked with efficient success.
On a recent scouting trip George and I took through Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, we visited a few restored mills. One of them was in Rowley, Massachusetts, just off the Main Road, called the “Jewel Mill”. ”

“ Since air flows through with the grain the flour is not heated very much. This type of mill is small, very fast, intermediate in price between steel mills and stone mill, lasts a long time, but when grinding, sounds like a Boeing 747 about to take off. ”

“ The roller process has almost entirely driven out all other processes. Now and then we see by the roadside an old fashioned mill with the upper and nether stone, but we seldom see one that is prosperous and thriving. Millers, like everybody else in these days, do business on a large scale and to make flour on a large scale they must use the roller-mill. Thus the hole in the rock in which a handful of grain was laboriously crushed has, through long ages of growth, become the great factory in which thousands of barrels of flour are made in a day. ”

“ A faint streak of light was apparent through a crack in the boards.
"That must be where their workroom is," Frank whispered.
The sound of machinery in motion continued.
"We've struck them at the right time," said Joe, in a low voice. "They must do their work at night."
"We've got to make sure."
"How can we get inside the mill?"
"The willow tree. We'll have to climb it and drop down on the roof."
"What if they hear us? We won't have a chance to get away."
"They won't hear us," said Frank confidently. "The walls are of stone. Anyway, the sound of machinery will drown out any noises from outside. ”

“ So much is this the case that in one of our largest mills it is deemed preferable to move the middlings from one end of the mill to the other by means of a hopper bin on a car which runs on a track spiked to the floor, rather than to employ a conveyor. A mill built as I am going to describe would require from fifty to sixty horse-power to run it, and including steam power and building would cost from $10,000 to $12,000, according to location. ”

“ Some mines cannot be economically operated without the treatment of the ores upon, or close to, the mining property. With certain sorts of low-grade ore, or with those kinds of ores that may be concentrated before shipment, provision should be early made for the erection of appropriately designed mills. We say the subject should be considered early, but we do not advocate the premature erection of any mill. ”

“ To grind their grain, the villagers used hand mills with crank and gear, or a communal mill, usually built of oak, driven by power transmitted through a solid oak shaft, banded with iron as reinforcement, to internal gear wheels of elm. ”

“ The richest portion is carried at once to the crushing mill, the poorer is thrown into another shed below, to be broken up and further picked, and the mere stones are wheeled off to the rubbish heap. The ore being broken small is thrown into the crushing mill, and passed once or twice through it, being returned to the mill by an endless chain of iron buckets, which dip into the heap of crushed ore below, and, carrying it up, empty themselves into the mill. ”

“ Hundreds of feet of fuse, hundreds of detonators, and pounds of candles were thrown away. Men would climb high in the mine to their work only to return later for some tool needed, or because their supplies had not lasted through their shift. If near the close of hours, they would sit and gossip with their fellow-workmen. Drills and hammers would be buried in the stope, or thrown over the dump. Rock would be broken down with the ore, and the mixed mass, half ore and half rock, would be divided impartially and sent, one-half to the dump and one-half to the mill. ”

“ Everyone likes to play in the water, so we went to work about August 1, 1960. You can well imagine the condition of the mill. Windows were shattered, the sills were powder, the roof practically gone, and the building had a definite cant to the east’ard. It really looked hopeless.
Fortunately, most of the ancient machinery—the stones, gears, brakes, and chutes—were still intact, even the miller’s little desk where he kept his records, and the ancient bin for storage.
The beams, the corner post studs, etc. are of tremendous size and all mortised, tenoned and dowelled, and hard as rock. ”

“ Proceeding on Saturday 25th July at 5 in the morning—at six we were three miles below Neisanger’s, abreast of Old-town creek on the right, and a floating mill owned by an Irishman named Pickets. These kind of mills are of a very simple construction—the whole machinery being in a flat, moored to the bank, and the stones being put in motion by the current. They have but little power, not being capable of grinding more than from fifteen to twenty bushels of wheat per day. ”

“ The river, which here falls 28 feet in half a mile, is crossed by two railroad and two other bridges and by a dam of granite, 900 feet long and forty feet high; canals on either bank conduct the water to the mills. The mills, some of which are among the largest in the world, manufacture cotton and woolen goods, cloth and paper; and engines, boilers, machinery, clothing, hats etc. are also produced here. The woolen goods industry is of first importance, employing more than 11,000 people in two mills, while a third mill, making both cotton and woolen goods, employs over 5,000. ”

“ A third set of rolls, also starting near the soaking pits, send the product out of the distant door of the steel mill in the form of great flat plates to make the boiler of a locomotive, or a marine engine, or the sides of a steamship, and yet other sets of rollers will make square rods which finally pass under heavy shears and are chopped into pieces called billets or blooms. These pieces of steel are the raw material for other mills which may make wire, nails, or manufacture steel of any other of a thousand forms. ”

“ The mills in which the ores of the Comstock lode are reduced, are all built on the same general plan. When the tourist has visited and examined one mill, he has seen them all, both great and small, so far as regards the processes in use for the reduction of the ore. Some mills are more conveniently arranged than others, however, and while in some machinery is used which is somewhat behind the age, in others will be found in operation in every department machinery of the latest and most approved pattern. ”

“ In this neighborhood miners are earning from half a dollar to two dollars a day. There are several large quartz mills not far from here. Common labor is worth ten dollars a month.
September 17. Spent the day in botanizing, blacksmithing, and examining a grist mill. Grist mills, in the less settled parts of Tennessee and North Carolina, are remarkably simple affairs. A small stone, that a man might carry under his arm, is fastened to the vertical shaft of a little home-made, boyish-looking, back-action water-wheel, which, with a hopper and a box to receive the meal, is the whole affair. ”

“ Leading from the mill down into the lake was a sort of small railroad track, sloping like a little hill. And in the middle of the track, and extending up into the mill, was a big chain.
“What’s that for?” asked Ted.
“That chain pulls the logs up from the river, along this inclined runway, into the mill,” answered Mr. Martin. “Once the logs are in the mill they are put on a sort of platform, or on a traveling cradle, and then machinery pushes them close to the big buzz saw and they are cut up into boards.” ”

“ There seems to be a strange diversity of opinion as to the extent of the participation of machinery manufacturers in the financing of the mills. A mill man of Anderson, South Carolina, said that the machinery people have played a larger part than the commission houses in the establishment of Southern mills; that the machinery business was at a standstill in New England at the time of the great activity in mill building in the Southern States, and the machinery manufacturers began to look about for mills to equip. ”