Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE PLANER ON ERECTING FLOOR READY FOR TESTING BEFORE SHIPMENT. Eighty-nine men are shown on the machine. A MONG planing machines the premier place Z-A must be accorded to a monster re- cently completed at the works of the Niles Bement Pond Company, Philadelphia. This huge tool weighs 422| tons—the avoirdu- pois of half a dozen large locomotives—and requires motors with a total of 207| horse- power to drive the table carrying the work to be planed, the slotter bars, and other moving parts. The bed of the machine accounts for 130 tons of metal. It is 60 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 73 inches deep at the centre. Owing to its great weight the bed could not be trans- ported as a single unit, and consequently was divided into seven parts, all machined and fitting together with the greatest accuracy. The table was, for the same reason, divided longitudinally down the centre into two por- tions, each weighing over 30 tons. Flanking the bed and table on either side rises a massive upright, 25 feet high, 12 feet deep, and 30 inches wide. The two uprights are connected at the top by a proportionately gigantic cross-brace, and carry a cross-rail of mammoth dimensions for the tool slides. This cross-rail is raised and lowered by a 20 horse- power motor situated at the top of one of the uprights. The table, apart from its load, weighs nearly 70 tons, and has a travel of 30 feet. The reversal of the direction of such a mass at the