This
means the pressure which an ordinary locomotive boiler has to
withstand multiplied by twelve. The change is due to improved methods
of manufacture and to the employment of mild steel of special quality
in lieu of the wrought iron previously employed. The cylinders are now
made without joint or seam, and the process of manufacture is most
interesting. A short time ago we had an opportunity of watching the
various necessary operations involved in making these cylinders at the
Birmingham works of Messrs. Taunton, Delamard & Co., by whose courtesy
we were enabled to make notes of the process.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
Beginning with the raw material, we were shown a disk of metal like
that shown in Fig. 1, and measuring thirty inches in diameter and
three-quarters of an inch in thickness. From such a "blank" a cylinder
destined to hold 100 feet of compressed gas can be constructed, and
the first operation is to heat the "blank" in a furnace, and afterward
to stamp it into the cup-like form shown in Fig. 2. To all intents and
purposes this represents the end of a finished cylinder, but it is far
too bulky to form the end of one of the size indicated; indeed, it in
reality contains enough metal to make the entire vessel.
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