From the Alexandria (Va.) Gazette |
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May 22, 1861 |
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The Quality of Iron Rails |
Quality not quantity; it the
essential for economy in buying rails. How hard we have striven to
impress this fact, -- so well known to every workman or employee on a
railway, -- upon the hard heads of some managers. Now it is a fact
that rails costing $80 per ton may be really cheap, while others
costing 20 may be actually very dear. There is the same difference in
the quality of rails, that there is in boots and shoes. An expert can
readily detect the real value of rails as well as some railway
managers can tell the quality of a piece of roast beef or mutton they
are masticating. Just remember this fact; there is no company so rich
that it can afford to pay for poor material for the superstructure of
its line. In England the necessity of employing good iron for rails,
is now, generally acknowledged, that, in order to insure a superior
quality, one of the greatest railway companies have established works
to manufacture their own iron; and another company, not less
important, are just about to follow their example. |
In the United States, too, the
managers of the best conducted roads do not scruple to pay from five
to fifteen dollars per ton above the quoted market rates for rails.
They find this is true economy, and so will the rest of them, if they
secure what they pay for -- rails of the best quality. The heaps of
refuse material which is rolled into the shape of rails, and peddled
about the country at a low price, is just like Pindar's razors -- made
to sell, not wear. Experts for the examination of rails can be had if
the companies are willing to pay for the service they render., and let
us assure our managers that they can afford to pay well for just this
kind of information; -- or rather, they can't afford not to have the
information no matter what it costs to procure it. |
Railway Times |
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