CASTING PROPELLERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 September 1934, Page 10

CASTING PROPELLERS

LARGEST IN THE WORLD. Yesterday, in the heart of London’s dockland, almost hidden in a maze of warehouses and waterways, I discovered and inspected the foundry which has produced four of the world’s greatest ship’s propellers—those of the new Cunarder 534. The ship will be lilted in all with eight propellers. The first was sent to the Clyde on Tuesday (wrote a contributor to the London “Daily Telegraph” on July 21 last.) The foundry is that of the Manganese Bronze and Brass Co., and the plant, is the largest of its kind in the world. Moreover, in producing the 35-ton propellers for the “534” its staff performed a feat which could not be equalled anywhere else in the world except at one other foundry—and that also is in London. Here in Millwall many of the finest and largest propellers in the world have been ca'st. Among them are those of the Empress of Britain, H.M.S. Hood and scores of British and foreign naval and merchant vessels. Manganese bronze is used for its strength and also for its non-corrosive and non-erosive qualities. My first sight on arrival in the foundry. was of one of the famous propellers for “534”—toweripg above every other object in the great building anil making the workmen appear pigmies. Shortly it will be subjected to the final processes before being shipped up to the Clyde. Around me were massive furnaces, all aglow as they prepared masses of metal for the “job” of casting, which I was to witness. My guide was the director of operations, Mr. J. B. Watson.

We stood near a deep pit, in which a fortress-like structure of brick, sand and loam, reinforced with steel, had been taken weeks to prepare.- Suddenly a. shout went up. - The meal was at white heat and ready. The moulding of another great propeller was completed in little more time than it takes to tell. Weeks of work —to the layman uninteresting and uninspiring—had gone into preparing

for what was to be achieved in these few minutes. A workman quickly fitted a gully to the reservoir of molten metal contained in a furnace. The gully led to a 10-ton “bucket” container, and in a moment a fiery, liquid stream was flowing, blinding all in the neighbourhood with its fierce glare. The great “bucket” was soon filled. Rapidly it was carried by overhead conveyor to the mould. Three men controlled the entire operation of casting while the rest stood still. One worked the conveyor; another tilted the “bucket” by means of a wheel until it began to flow into the mould; a third —the foreman —regulated the flow. Ten minutes, and the mould was packed with liquid metal. The “job” was finished. But it will take a fortnight at least before the metal ha*s cooled and settled sufficiently for the propeller to be “lifted.”