| From the Charleston Mercury |
| |
| August 16, 1861 |
| |
| Notes of the War |
| From Our Own Correspondent |
| Richmond, Va. August 13 |
| ***** |
| I had the pleasure of
visiting, yesterday, the great Southern foundry, known as the Tredegar
Iron Works; an establishment of which the whole South may be justly
proud, and to which we are mainly indebted for the ordnance necessary
to prosecute this war with energy and success. |
| It happened to be a busy day,
and I was about given up my proposed inspection for want of a
cicerone, when Dr. Archer, a polite and cultivated gentleman,
interested in experiments connected with the laboratory and ordinance
department, kindly volunteered to act as my guide and interpreter
through the mazes of the many detached shops which make up this
monster establishment. |
| The traveller, entering
Richmond by night, catches a glimpse, as he rolls slowly over the
bridge which spans the James River, of the most picturesque sight
which has relieved the monotony of his journey through pine forest and
corn field for many a hundred miles. Far below him the shadow haunted
stream, broken by jutting rocks and deep foliaged islands, brawls
along, and as he looks over towards the left bank, where the clanger
of a hundred anvils assails his ear, he sees the broad red glare of
innumerable fires flashing out upon the ware, and dimly descries the
dark forms of men moving seemingly through the flames which shoot up myriads
of sparks into the smoke-obscured atmosphere. The next morning, if his
curiosity so inclines him, a short walk along the canal banks to the
armory grounds will bring him vis-a-vis with the smutty forges and
blackened shops into which daylight transforms the unearthly looking
works of the previous night. |
| Entering the first of these he
will find himself in a Rolling Mill, surrounded by furnaces for
melting and converting pig iron, and ponderous machinery for rolling
it, into bars and axles and bolts and chains for railroads. "Step
this side," says the polite conductor, you can see the process by
which this piece of carbonized and crystallized iron is converted into
the fibrous material which the skillful workman can shape into any
form he pleases. "First as long slab or bar of ordinary cast iron
is placed ijn the furnace and brought to a white heat. Armed with a
powerful pair of forceps, a gigantic negro seizes it by one extremity
and carrying it rapidly to the roller -- which consists of a series of
revolving wheels, whose broad edges are at equally decreasing
distances from an iron bed below -- thrust it over the top of the
machine to his fellow-workman opposite, who passes one end with equal
dexterity between the first wheel an d the bed, through which it is
squeezed out with diminished thickness. Seized again as it emerges it
is again handed over, to pass between wheel No. 2, and so da capo
until the requisite degree of compression has been attained. Next, the
bar is cut up into a number of small pieces and roasted in a second
furnace, where, as it begins to melt, it is continuously stirred and
conglomerated into a large amorphous mass about a foot and a half in
diameter. This process is graphically called puddling. Here there are
a half dozen workmen, stripped to the waist and reeking with
perspiration, one of whom catches up this lump of glowing metal,
transfers it to a kind of truck, ladle-shaped opposite the handles,
and by a very skillful maneuver thrusts it into the open jaws of a
revolving, stove-like machine. What the intestinal arrangements of
this iron-feeding devil may be, I cannot say, but in a single second
he spits out the white hot morsel, reduced in size by at least one
half. This lump is again rolled, brought once more to a welding heat,
and the work is done. |
| A few yards further on you
come to the second Rolling Mill, where all kinds of large and small
iron are made; and attached to this mill is the extensive Spike
Factory, four stories high, where rods are fashioned into spikes by
three powerful machines, each of which turns them out at the rate of
one a second, or about twenty five tons a day; these, falling into the
lowest story, are carefully inspected, packed, marked and stored,
ready for transportation. |
| On e of the most interesting
objects in this part of the building is an enormous punch, whose power
is equal to about twenty tons to the square inch. A long iron plate is
carefully adjusted; two men stand by the machine -- one to govern its
movements, which is done with all ease by a simple lever, and the
other to bring the plate accurately to the spot where the hole is to
be cut. A motion of the handle, and the immense mass rises noiselessly
a few inches; another motion, and the hard steel punch quietly, and
without the slightest apparent resistance presses out a circular plug,
an inch thick and an inch and a quarter in diameter. The plates they
were punching when I visited the works are intended for ---, a purpose
which will rather astonish some good people when they find it out. |
| I have not time to take you
through the cooper shop, or the brass foundry, or the machine shop,
with its powerful hydraulic press for forcing car wheels on their
axles, and as indicator to show the exact power required to effect it;
or the locomotive, or boiler or blacksmith shops, in the latter of
which twenty-five fires are blasting, and a large steam hammer, with
innumerable younger brothers, are running a tilt, and making the day
hideous with sound. ***** |
| J. D. B. |
|