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140 Steel Rivets! By D. J. Champion Too much importance must not be placed on the very interesting, but mis- leading test for rivets, of nicking and bending. It is a test intended for iron, not steel. Good iron is fibrous in struc- ture and will stand the test admirably, whereas steel may be of a granular structure and, consequently, should not be expected to stand this test like iron. If you are in doubt as to the superiority of one steel. rivet over another and you are inclined to test the rivet by nicking and bénding, I would suggest that you subject the two rivets to be compared to a heat suitable for driv- ing, and then allow them to cool. Then nick and bend and you will find that the good rivet will show a good, clean fracture, free from crystallization; but it will not bend and show a coarsely fibrous fracture like iron. The nicking and bending test should never be used on a steel rivet to show fiber, as the structure of a good steel rivet may be finely granular instead of fibrous. Fine, fibrous structure is, of course, notice- able in a steel bar of small diameter after coming from the rolls. At this stage, the bar under the nicking and bending test would bend flat on itself without breaking and would show a finely fibrous structure. But we should not expect to get this result after the double heating which must be given the bar in order to make the rivet.. United States government specifications do not. require rivets to be subjected to the nicking and bending test. If made at all, it is only to show the appearance of the fracture. The following suggestions may prove of value to some makers of boilers and other large users of rivets: © _. Hold some reliable maker responsible for the quality and workmanship of the rivets you drive. _ Where the holes are not reamed, see that inside surfaces of the holes are parallel to each other without undue overlapping. Heat rivets intelligently, grading the degree of heat to conform to the work you are doing, allowing hand-driven rivets to come to an almost white heat, pneumatic-driven rivets to come to a bright cherry red and hydraulic-driven rivets to a dull cherry red. Bear in mind at all times the amount of pres- 'sure your machine is capable of exert- ing on the rivets at the point of upset and regulate the heat accordingly. The lower the heat, the greater the pressure, telaxing the pressure when the rivet is.cold, or nearly so. Such rivets will fill the holes and avoid undue shrinking, and possibly, calking. When high pres- sure work is. being riveted, ream the holes 1/32 inch full only, as tighter work can then be done. *From a paper presented at the New Or- leans convention of the American Boiler Manufacturers' Association. THE MARINE REVIEW Never continue hammering, on either end of the rivet, until it is blue. Never try to fill a hole with a rivet smaller than the regular diameter re- quired for such hole, which in all good work is 1/32 inch larger, bearing in mind that steel expanded by compres- sion, as in the case of a rivet shank expanded to fill the hole that is more than 1/16 inch larger, is materially weakened in all its qualities of strength. Therefore, the closer the fit, the tighter and stronger the joint. Never use heavy penumatic tools on small rivets. In other words, never use a tool out of proportion to the size of the rivet. Never drive a cold-made rivet cold without first annealing. Never introduce a high pressure blast into a tivet-heating furnace unless the flame is broken by a fire wall, and even then a graduating valve should be used, reducing the pressure to a maximum of 15 pounds, bearing in rhind that only sufficient rivets be placed in the fire as can be conveniently handled by the driver without allowing them to soak too long, or to become scaled. : Never allow your rivets to soak in the fire, either during the noon hour, or over night. If a cessation of work is contemplated, draw them out of the fire, and do not replace them. Automatic Expansion Steam Trap While in the employ of the Martin- Barriss Co.,. of Cleveland, John W. Barton conceived and put into oper- ation an idea for an automatic expan- sion steam trap. It was fully tried out and proved very successful. The trap was originally constructed for a vacuum system, and has been found equally ef- fective under gravity, either high or low pressure. Under the supervision of Mr. Barton a vacuum system was installed using about 40 traps. <Ac- cording to Mr. Martin's statement, it cave the plant a perfect heating and drying system and reduced the coal bill $3,000 per annum. This system was. installed in 1907, and the traps have been working perfectly ever since with- out repairs. Mr. Barton continued to manufacture the traps in a small way until 1911, when The Automatic Steam Trap & Specialty Co. was formed to manufacture them. The company has met with considerable success and the traps have found their way into plants all over the country. A few of the es- sential features of the Barton trap are: Its simplicity and ease of operation, re- quiring but little attention from the en- gineer; the complete drainage of the water of condensation from the system and the entire expulsion of air; the ab- sence of wearing from wire drawing, the broad expanse of the seat and disc reducing this to a minimum; the fact that it can be cleaned in fifteen seconds. The seat and disc are the only parts that will ever need repairing and they April, 1912 can be replaced in 15 minutes without removing the trap from the line. The company will send the trap on approval to any reliable firm. Its office and factory building is located at 3735- 3737 West Twenty-fifth street, Cleve- land, O. New Work at Cramps Since the first of the year, the Wil- liam Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co., Philadelphia, Pa., has se- cured contract to build a freight vessel for W. R. Grace & Co:,; to be 384 ft, long, 50 ft. 4 in. beam and 28 ft. 6 in. deep, with a displacement of 9,700 tons. 'She will have reciprocating engines and Scotch boilers with fuel oil burners. The steamers Massachusetts and Bun- ker Hill are being fitted with additional passenger accommodations and_ other miscellaneous changes and _ converted into oil burners. Two vessels for the Southern Pacific Co. are being reboilered with three Scotch boilers, each fitted with oil burners. - Forty Buoy Lanterns The Canadian government has placed an order with the Safety Car Heatine @ Lighting Co, of New York and Montreal, for 40 buoy lan- terns. These lanterns have been de- veloped by this company to meet the demand of lighthouse bureatf require- ments. They are supplied with im- proved flashing mechanism capable of giving a double characteristic, that is, one second light, one and one-half seconds dark, one second light .and five seconds dark; the short and long dark periods alternating with one second light periods intervening. The lanterns are known as 200 mm., and will be used for coast and harbor and river lighting. The Pacific Mail Steamship Co. has purchased a strip of land along the waterfront at Richmond, Cal., and is planning a system of docks and ware- houses, the estimated cost of which is $1,000,000. It is announced that when completed the improvement will constitute the terminal of the line. The Newport News Ship Building . & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va., has been given contract to build a steel lumber steamer, 299 ft. long and 44 ft. beam, for the E. A. Smith Lumber Co. The Fore River Ship Building Co., Quincy, Mass., will build a fireboat for the city of Seattle, Wash.