The Works Of Messrs. Schneider And Co.

XVII—THE NEW PLATE MILL. O WING to the larger dimensions now demanded for armour-plates and for ship and boiler-plates, Messrs. Schneider and Co. are at present (1899) constructing a new rolling-mill, which will be the most powerful one in the world, and will contain the latest mechanical improve- ments to insure rapid, easy, and economical working. Although all the details of this miil are not yet quite completed, a description of this splendid installation must be given, to complété the review of the rolling-mill department. It may be remarked, in passing, that the whole of the calculations and designs have been com- plétée! by Messrs. Schneider and Co., at their Creusot Works. The plant, which will be placed at the south of the rolling-mill department, will consist of a reversing rolling- mill in two sets, and of a slabbing miil. It will cover an area of 140 x 85.950 metres — 12,033 square metres (14,500 square yards) ; this space was previously occupied by the first group of puddling-mills and half of the second group, which are to be removed. The building that covered the first group of puddling-mills will be extended over the space now occupied by the scrap dépôts, and which will serve in future as a finishing shop for rolied material. The new building will consist of five spåns parallel with the centre line of the milis, and utilised as follows : a span over the fuel and boilers ; one over the furnaces and rolling miils ■ one ovei' the cooling beds ; the fourth and fifth spåns will cover the shearing, annealing, planishing, inspection, and delivery spaces. Figs. 250 and 251, Plate XLVIII., show the arrange- ment of the shop, and the way followed for the supply of fuel and metal ; they also show how delivery of material will be effeeted. Electric travelling crânes will traverse the length of each spån (exeept tliat over the boilers) ; they will be so arrangée! that it will be possible for them to be run over the railway from, and to, which material is delivered. Delivery will therefore take place from each bay separately : a matter of great importance, as no changes in the gearing will be needed that other- wise would have been necessary for transporting an ordinary ship or boiler-plate, immediately after an armour- plate that may weigh 60 tons. Fuel is brought by a special coal-track to the south side of the shop, a transverse line being used to take it to the storage in the first bay, the empty cars leaving by a line placed on the north end of the shop. The boilers, which are under the same span, are heated by the waste gases from the furnaces ; these boilers are of the vertical multitubular type which lias been already described. The furnaces are five in number, each with four flat grates supplied with blast. They embody many improve- ments on those already described, especially as regards the manufacture of large-sized armour-plates, which are heated both from above and below. In the furnaces previously described (see page 88, ante), the armour-plates are heated in the natural way, from the top only ; and in order to heat them from below, it is neceasary to close the chimney damper almost completely for the fiâmes to circulate beneath ; in conséquence, more flame escapes through the furnace doors than through, the flue—that is to say, through the boiler placed on a line with the furnace ; the furnace doors get quickly burnt up, and the boiler hardly produces any steam. Tliese disadvantages disappear with the new furnaces, the heating of the plates from above and from below, being independent one from the other. The time taken up by re-heating will be notably reduced, and the output proportionately increased. A special system is followed for removing the ashes from the furnaces : when the grate bars are drawn, the ashes fall into a vertical conical ash-box, closed at its base by means of a hydraulic joint-valve. There is an ash-box for each grate, and they are all arranged on two lines in a wide gallery under the furnaces, in which are laid two tracks of .800 metre (311 in.) gauge, for removing the ashes, by means of trucks. These trucks consist of wrought-iron boxes placed on bogies. When these are filled and run out of the gallery, the box is lifted by one of the overhead travellers, placed above the furnaces, emptied in a wagon, and replaced on its bogie. In this same bay, near the furnaces, are the re-heating pits, in which are placed the ingots for the slabbing mill. Two electric overhead travellers, one of 85 tons and one of 15 tons, serve this spån ; the former is chiefly used for carrying armour-plates to and from the furnaces by means of the C suspending device already described ; the smaller crane is used for the re-heating pits. Both travellers are arranged for working at varions speeds. The Armour-Plate, Ship, and Boiler-Plate Mill.— This consista of two parts, namely : one roughing mill at one end of the train, and one finishing mill near the engine. Both sets are identical ; but in the first the roils will be of grey iron, whilst the second set will be pro vid ed with chilled rolis ; in default of chilled rolls, hematite iron roils, of special quality and as hard as possible, will be used.