MADE IN NEW PLYMOUTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 193, 5 August 1908, Page 4

MADE IN NEW PLYMOUTH.

OKEY AND HOLLO'S FOUNDRY. One of the must siitisftu-t«n->- indications of tihc growth of a town is the advancement of its businesses. .Some businesses shoot ahead, make a biff fuss, swell like a bubble, ami burst like a bubble. That's generally because there is something wrong with the management, or because the business has rot been wanted. Others grow gradually, increase solidly, and keep on growing. The Taranaki Foundry has been giwfng steadily for years past, A couple jf years ago the linn had to greatly mlargc its premises to cope with the special work arising out of the petroleum boring operations. Now every inch of the space is wanted, and more. .Mach-

inery that a few years ago was sullicient for the requirements had to be passed in favor of more modern appliances, Siud now the foundry is i'uliv up-to-date. Tlw clang, clang," clang ii; the various hammers, the roaring of the blasts in the furnaces, the throbbing .if the 8-h.p. steam engine, together with the whirr-r-r of the lielting, and a hundred other jioises almost made the >eporter despair of hearing anything else when he visited the place the other da». But by degrees the noises seemed to become less or the hearing became accustomed to them, and Mr. Rollo's remarks became audible. The driving-power for the whole of the foundry is derived from an 8-h.p. steam engine, which has not only to run the machinery, but also to drive the fans which provide the air blasts to take.J the place of bellows at the smith fires, and the heavier blast at the furnaces. A steam hammer does away with much manual labor, but not all. Another labor-saving device which could hardly be done without is the punching and shearing machine, the mere application of a lever being sufficient to cut through I %-inch plates of steel like a cutt-r through tobacco. A screwing machine

puts the threads on bolts up to two inches in diameter, without exertion Lo the operator. Turning screws in the 01- ' dinary smith's shop is hard labor com- ' pared to the easy operation here, but it can easily be imagined that if this work had to be done by manual labor a huge staff of men would be required for this department alone. Four driving machines are set up, and large- rap-idly-revolving emery wheels for -grinding the castings and putting a bit of finish on them. Castings in sand are necessarily a bit rough, but by means of this wheel they are smoothed off and practically polished. The lathes are huge affairs compared with the wood lathes in use at the woodware factories. Then are four of them, for turning steel up to 12-inch centres. Turning steel is a very interesting operation to watch. IV> bably few of our people who see circular steel rods about have ever troubled their heads about how it is done. Th >y can probably imagine that iron is mil trimmed and smoothed and turned with the ordinary turner's chisel. Tn process of construction is a big travelling crane for use in the foundry, the increase ';i heavy work having made this an imperative necessity. ' As can be imagined, an iron foundry is not the neatest place, in the world. There are bars of iron here, there, and everywhere. Broken pieces of machinery, brought in for renewal, lie in different places. Great pieces of work, in process of completion, • cumber the ground here and there. Articles await-' ing the finishing touches before delivery to the customer occupy another spac>. The earth floor is dusty, or sandy. And over all is a grimy coating of dust and soot inseparable from a factory where the fires are open for the most part and the smoke therefrom prefers the roof ventilators to the chimneys, and refuses to leave until it has assisted in the 'blackening of the men's faces, which aiv ready and waiting to receive the soot. for working at the furnaces and swinging sledge hammers has a tendency to induce profuse perspiration. Fancy heating a square bar of iron, about. lOin by lOin. until hot through, and then standing off with a hammer and biff—banghammer at it until it assumes the new shape required! It's hard work. The foundry does not confine itself to repairs of which we spoke just no .v. Cooper's skim-milk weighers arc made here for Messrs J. B. MacEwauandCo., and the McGowan milk hoist is another well-known production of this firm. Agricultural implements, such as Cambridge rollers, etc., are turned out in large quantities. Tn the moulding department the range of work seems to he unlimited. The operation of casting steel is simplicity itself—when one knows how. First, the pattern must be made by a patternmaker, and then the exact counterpart of the article required must be made in sand from the pattern. This is a work that involves considerable technical skill and forethought, for the difficulties to lie encountered are many. The matrices into which the moulten metal is poured in order to obtain castings of definite outlines are invariably of sand or iron. The. former embraces all the ordinary iron castings, whilst iron matrices are used only in small and unimportant sec tion. Sand is eminently adapted ter casting metals into. No material can take its place, because there is none that is at the same time plastic, porous, and firm, adhesive and refractory. Plasticity is necessary in order that the matrix may lie moulded in any form, intricate or otherwise. Porosity is essential to permit of the escape from the moulds of air and gases generated by the act of casting, and firmness and adhesiveness are required to withstand the liquid pressure of the molten metal. A matrix must also be refractory—able to resist the disintegrating influence of great heat, and the chemical action of the hot_iron itself. It must moreover be cheap, readily available, and not difficult to manipulate. All these qualities are possessed by certain sands, and not by any other materials. The sand has to be rammed into the pattern lo obta ; n the counterpart, and the pattern then carefully lifted awav. The mould must then be blackened and dried, the blackening mixture filling the intertices of the sand, and thus presenting a better

"skin" to tlii> moll™ metal. The iron i< molted liv fierce heat in Hie cupola fur uaee and conducted into the moulds, whore it remains nil night to cool and harden. All this scorns delightfully simple T)iit it can readily be imagined that in the easting or moulding department of a foundry there is need for the minutest accuracy, especially in easting parts of inacliinon' which would not run line if a hair's breadth out of correctness. The Taranaki Foundry is one of outmost important businesses, with a eoaneetion embracing practically the whole of Taranaki. and it gives eniploymont to a considerable numlier of hands.