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80 'THe MarRINeE REVIEW Chains Without Transverse Welds. article from The Engineer, London, describing a new Belgian process of chain making, in which each link is first formed as a laminated ring and welded be- tween adjustable forming rollers, is ex- tremely interesting. The elimination of a scarfed or transverse weld, preserving the continuity of the fibrous structure of the bar and the resulting greater strength, _and the uniformity in size and quality of links, to- gether with the speed of manufacture, will doubtless not be without effect on the chain making business in the United States.--Ed.) (The following HE MANUFACTURE of chain cables has hitherto been 'conducted in much the same when they first came into use. A round iron bar of the diameter intended for the link, cut obliquely at each of its ends, and of length equal to that of the circumference of the work when fin- ished, is worked by hand or by machine power into an oval form, so that the two tapered ends lie one upon the other. The link thus bent is then brought to a welding hear and the two ends are welded together by hand. In the case of the smaller chains this work can be accomplished in a single heat by one smith, alone Or with the help of a striker. For the welding of larger chains, however, several heats, and two or even three strikers, become necessary. The weld is generally arranged at one end of the link, but it is also sometimes to be found in the middle of one of the sides: The strength of the whole chain, of course, depends on the fault- less execution of the weld in each in- dividual link; that is to say, everything depends upon the reliability, profes- sional knowledge, and skill of the chainsmith. Now the difficulty of obtaining an absolutely trustworthy weld increases very considerably with the diameter of the link, and even with the best quality of work it often happens that a thick link is only welded at the outer edge, while the middle remains unconnected; and there are no means of judging by outward observation whether the core is welded properly or not. Only a superficial examina- tion of the weld, and the submission of the chain to a tensile test bearing a certain given proportion to its ulti- mate strength, can be resorted to. At the same time--that is to say, during the course of the tensile test--every 'link is struck with the hand hammer. -As regards both the quality and the quantity of the work produced--es- pecially where the cables of our large vessels are in question--the whole method of manufacture no longer sat- isfies the requirements made upon it, manner as and if the best chain-cabie makers in existence still succeed in meeting the demands made upon them, this is largely due to the fact that the chain smith's trade has, in a sense, been bequeathed from father to son for generations past, with the result that the smiths are wonderfully pro- ficient. The manufacture of chains, indeed, has its home only in certain particular districts, in which the whole population is exclusively devoted to May, 1909 to relatively small stresses and which are made of wire. These are for the most part welded electrically afte; the links have been bent together by mechanical means. Above all, of course, the aim was to avoid the transverse weld--in fact, to make chain links entirely without the joint, The best known efforts in this di- rection are perhaps those of Strath- ern (Great Britain); Oury (France), Girlot (Belgium), and Klatte (Ger- many). The latter rolled mild steel bars of cross-shaped section, and by means of further rolling and slotting VX/ VY Fic, 1.--Stacres oF FoRMATION OF A SINGLE LINK. it, so that one generation in a manner formed them into chain links which inherits the experience of its prede- cessor. To Discover a Method by Machinery. Under these circumstances it is no wonder that it has for many years been the endeavor to discover a good method for the manufacture of chains by machinery, in order, on the one hand, to attain greater homogeneity and reliability in the product, and make it independent of the personal skill and conscientiousness of 'the workman, and on the other, to bring the power of production up to the level of the demand. Until recently, however, the manifold attempts in this direction in England, Germany, Bel- gium and France have not brought any marked success, except in the case of thin chains which are subject hung loosely in each other without any transverse joint in the lengthwise direction of the rolled bar. But in spite of endeavors which have been continued for about 20 years with wonderful ingenuity and tenacity of purpose, the production of large ca- bles and crane chains on a commercial scale has not proved possible, first, because the cost of manufacture was great, and secoidly, because the pub- lic departments and classification so- cieties expressly prescribe the use of wrought iron as the material for chains, Description of New Method. A new method for the manufacture of chains of every kind and size from wrought iron has, however, lately been the Belgian engineer, invented by Fic, 2--ForMATION oF A SECOND LINK.