Notes Upon Hydraulic Forging, as Practiced at the Imperial State Railway Works, Vienna

FORGING under the hydraulic press, which was introduced by Haswell in the year 1861, at the machine shops of the Imperial State Railway Company of Austria, has since been greatly improved, so that at the present time there are very few parts of machines which cannot be produced in this way, and at no greater cost than iron castings. The process is now used at Vienna chiefly for such parts of locomotives as cross-heads, link-bars, axle-box frames, etc., especially where the form is intricate, and there are many angles and projections. These objects weigh from 50 to 150 lb. or more, and it is claimed for them that they are not only much cheaper than ordinary forgings, but are much more regular in form and stronger. The results which Mr. Haswell has attained, after years of patient experimenting, were well shown in the Austrian Department of the Vienna Exhibition by a collection of the pressed objects in iron and steel, just as they left the moulds, with some of them cut asunder longitudinally and the surfaces etched, so as to show the internal structure or direction of the grain. Through the courtesy of Mr. Haswell and his son I saw the hydraulic presses in full operation at the works, drawing down large Bessemer ingots, cutting them up into blocks of convenient size, and forming various parts of locomotives. They have two large hydraulic presses in use; the largest, with a piston 24 inches diameter, gives 1200 tons pressure, and the second, with an 18-inch piston, gives 600 tons pressure. The pressure in the pumps is 600 atmospheres. The action is vertical ; the piston descends upon the work, and for forging ingots is armed with a hammer-like head. An ingot of No. 7 soft Bessemer steel, which was forged in my presence, weighed 2030 lbs. One end being placed upon the anvil, the piston is brought slowly down and crowded into the mass as if it were putty or dough, forcing it each way, but chiefly in the direction of the length of the ingot, this being the narrowest section of the anvil and hammer. The piston is then raised and the ingot is moved forward for a second squeeze, and so on, until the first half of the ingot has been reduced in thickness, when it is turned on edge and the operation is repeated. The ingot is then turned end for end and forged until the whole length has been re-