AMERICAN NEW CHAINS.

Kumara Times, Issue 1384, 9 March 1881, Page 3

AMERICAN NEW CHAINS.

The American Chain Company of New York are manufacturing chains on a new and patented manner of construction. The patent of the new company consists in putting one-quarter more material iu the ends of the links, inhere the strain and fiiction occurs, than on the sides* where the strain is not so great. They use the same amount and weight of material in a chain of a given size, but claim that by their process it is .increased in si length 50 per cent., and in durability 100 per cent. Public competitive tests have been made to show the comparative btrength between chains of ordinary make and those which are made by this company. An ordinary chain of an inch in diameter stood a tensile strain of 10 tons, while a patent chain of the same size stood a strain of 16| tons before breaking. An oi'dinary inch chain broke under a strain of 27 tons, while a patented chain of the same size stood a strain of 42 tons before breaking. The new chains have been used in the lighthouse service along the Atlantic coast for the past year as an experiment, and, it is stated officially, that after being in use that length of time they were fit for another year’s service, although the ordinary chains which have been used heretofore have been renewed yearly, the constant motion of the buoys to which they were attached having Worn a chain* in some cases, down to a quarter of an inch at the end of the link.