THE REPAIRING YARD AT PYRMONT.

New Zealander, Volume 11, Issue 979, 1 September 1855, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE REPAIRING YARD AT PYRMONT.

We published in a recent issue, n description of the new Patent Slip, winch had just then been completed ami brought into successful use for the service of the Australasian Steam Navigation Company, at Pyrmont. We then mentioned that, besides that stupendous and most invaluable construction, there were, in connection with the Company’s engineering establishment, some costly and compile tied apj ariuus, which merited a distinct and careful ik tieo. We now proceed to particularise these machines, and the purposes for which they are required. Although the Australasian Steam Navigation Company undertake to complete repairs of ships of all sizes and descriptions, their tecent improvements were primarily designed for their own fleet of eighteen steamers. These being, with four exceptions, iron vessels, tho work required for their repairs is rather that of the engineer than that of the shipwright. Such, in consequence, is the appearance of the Pyrmont establishment, 'i he permanent destination of these steamers being on tins coast, and there being no provision for protecting iron bottoms from fouling, it is absolutely necessary that they should be periodically examined and cleaned. To those unacquainted with the topography of Sydney and its environs, it may be desirable to state, that the o ty occupies one of the many peninsulas on the southern const of a very sinuous harbour, at n di-tauce of about six miles from tho Southern Head. Its position on the map rudely resembles the back of a right baud as stretched upon a table. The tops of the four fingers commencing with the little finger, are Lady Macquarie’s Chair, Macquarie Point, Dawes’ Point, and Miller’s Point respectively, while Pyrmont forms the thumb. From the point of the third finger, Macquarto Point, where Sydney Cove commences, along to the junction of the thumb and forefinger, tho coast is almost entirely lined with wharves and shipping. If, from the tracing of the thumb, a figure bo described from the na<l, in the direction of the end of the forefinger (Miller’s Point),in sbai e an inverted bottle, and in extent about four acres, a proximate idea may be conveyed of tho Company’s repairing establishment; while a line drawn from the centre of this arm towards the opposite Sydney coast, would fall on the site of the Company’s wharves and offices. 'i bis strip of land, which originally resembled the surrounding coast, in being covered with hush, rises in the centre to a height of about forty feet. On the western side, nearly the half of the strip has been excavated from the solid freestone rock, for forming the Patent Slip. The eastern side (facing Sydney) has for yiars been devoted to the engineering operations necessary for the repairs of the Company’s steamers. At its commencement, the tools and machinery were only such as could repair simple defects; latterly, however, as their property has vastly increased in extent and value, costly and powerful apparatus have been imported, and skilled engineers engaged from the most eminent Mritish shipyards ; with these, and with the indispensable assistance of a Patent Sbp, every description of disaster to which vessels are liable can be expeditiously and completely remedied. The repairing-yard is so situated that the workmen, on entering it either from Pyrmont or from the stairs, must pass through the counting-house, where their names and the time of their arrivals are entered in a book. Attached to thiscounting-house is an iron store sixty-three feel in length and thirty-one in width, u-ed as a depot for all kinds of rods, bars, plates, sheets, and tubes of iron, required for repairs. The quantity of this stock now in store is very large. For tho lifting of these articles from the punt to the wharf and on to the store, a moveable jib crane is employed, which is capable oi raising a weight of live tons. At the distance of a few yards from the iron store there commences a range of shops in which all the branches of iron, tin, and copper smiths’ work comprehended in ship-repairing are earned on. The present length of this range is about three hundred feet; the shops ore built against the base of the took, and leave an average width to the wharf frontage oI twenty feet. An additional smith’s shop will shortly be added upon a site at present occupied with lumber. 'J he demand for labourers and work room have of late greatly increased, owing probably to the character of completeness given to the establishment by the opening of the Patent Slip. There are upwards of ninety workmen in this department alone, which, taking into account the i.umber otherwise emploved on tho yard, and those engaged for the Patent Slip, constitutes the Pyrmont establishment the largest workshop in Australia. A very ingenious apparatus required upon all shipyards, is exhibited in tho pair of sheers situate about tho centre of the yard. 'Two upright masts are hoisted together at their extreme ends, and are firmly secured to the adjacent rock by three stout iron chains. The purchase blocks for lifting the boilers or other articles, are made of strong iron plates stripped together, being what are called fiddle blocks, and with six pulleys to give power. The height of tho mast perpendicular to the level of the wharf is about eighty feet, while the

depth of water at the frontage is sufficient (o allow a vossel drawing twenty one feet of water to come alongside. 'lbis machine is used for putting in or taking out of the vessel the boilers or any heavy parts of the machinery, to ibe weight offifiy tons. At the end of the smiths' shops are the boiler and steam-engine employed in working the various machinery to which we are about to allude. The engine, •which was made on the premises, is often horse-

power. Outside the door of the machine-house is a contrivance for bending boiler pla'es. The frame of this is about five feet high, and the two opposite supports, which are connected at the top, have each ihree corresponding sockets, two beneath for the rotation of rollers of about eight inches diameter, and the third for the reversion motion of a roller or bar, accordingly as the shape of the plate is I e flat or cut ved. When the machine is in working order, the plate is laid within these rollers, and rolled into oil her a Hat or curved state. Besides plates for the repair ot boilers, those required for the bottoms of iron ships, or for funnels for steamers, undergo this process. The apparatus at work in the machine-room are almost entirely designed for adapting pieces of iron, copper, or brass to the sire and shape required. Many of them are the ingenious contrivances of Messrs Joseph Whitworth and Co., of Manchester, and which formed a conspicuous part in the machinery department of the Great Exhibition of 1851 ; others from .Messrs, Shanks and Johnson, at Glasgow, and oilier manufacturers. It will be readily understood that, in acting on materials proverbially hard and penetrable, the utmost obtainable force is required ; and, accordingly, the most recent anil successful inventions and improvements in ironworking machinery have been adopted here, in combination with steam-power and the acquirement ot a mechanical advantage through the gearing. The triumphs obtained by the engineering contrivances of recent date in constructing tools for convening into any shape those materials out of which the most durable tools are themselves constructed, are amongst the most surprising achievements of the present age, and are beautifully illusnatu in this depar inent. On a somewhat similar principle to the contrivance just noticed, the self-acting planing machine is constructed. The bed is about ten feet in length, and a perfect level. The tool is attached to a frame connecting the opposite supports, and which crosses the centre of the bed. The substance to be planed is fixed uj on the bed and the tool lowered to it. The motion of the bod is backwards and forwards for a distance of nine feet, and is entirely self-acting, as we noticed was tin? case in the machinery lor tbe Patent Slip, by the arrival of the carriage at either end causing the strap to be shifted from one wheel to another, ami thereby reversing the in lion. The punching and clipping machine, situated just within the machine building, is a very ingenious contrivance. The body of tie' machine is of iron, and is about live feet in height by three in width ; its top curves over and terminates in the oblique edge of a tool pointing downwards. Directly beneath this blade and attached to the body, is the machinery which directs the punching and the clipping processes. An uxle, which receives the steam-power atone end, is fixed at tho other into a small solid wheel, near us circumference. The wheel, there! ire, describes an eccentric circle, and acts as a crank in causing the machinery above and below it to perform alternately an i pward and a downward motion. Accordingly, when the crank (as a 1 becomes when turning on a false axis), is uppermost, the horizontal edge of the tool is raised and crosses the corresponding tool at the end of the curve (similar to the action of a pair of scizzors) b rihepurposi of clipping plates or bars of iron. On the other hind when the crank is below, the ptim hj is forced into a die, by means of which hoh-s can he punched of any size required. The machine was constructed on the esta blishmeiit; ami it is worthy of notice, with what ease it it performs the double service, how gently it meets ami overcomes the iui"ttnse resistance, and how slight the noise or vibration perceptible during the process. There are, likewise, two vertical planing machines one of which is the manufacture of Messrs. Whitworth ami ' c, and is driven by steam; the oilier is worked by band. They are both of simple construction. In another portion of the machine building there are four lath-, of descriptions suited t,> the different processes required. One is of a large compound side lathe, for boring out cylinders, and turning crunks or shafts ; tho second is sell-acting, andis used toturn large screws or any work up to thirty inches diameter; the other two small lathes are lor jobbing work, i.T addition io the machines already provided, the establishment will, in the course of a few months, possess several otheis equally important and necessary to a large repairing yard. Amongst these may be mentioned, Nasmyih's patent steam hammer ; the one ordered by the Company will be capable of forging la r ge shafts of any length, at.d from one to fifteen inch's in diameter. The steam hammer, invented in 1149 by Mr. James Nasmytb, a"d now almost universally used in forging steam machinery, was a great improvement on the common tilting hammer with driving engine, the sledge hammer, or the iron n oukey, which, however, gave the idea to the present cmitrivai.ee. In tbe place of making the hammer and the steam engine separate portions of ibe machine, in Nasmyth's invention the steam eng lie forms an essential part of the apparatus, as the cylinder serves all its purposes most effectually. One great advantage afforded by the erection of a bu am hammer will be, that in case of an injury to a shift, a snn.lar shaft can be immediately forged and replaced in the engine, instead of sending to England for it. The loss accruing to Stdnej and tbe Mtlliourne Steam Packet Company on account of the detention of their steamer London, through tbe snapping of the shaft in Match last, will illustrate the Value of having at b-n 1 the apparatus for immediately repairing the disaster. At the same time there will be an economical advantage to the comp; ny, in their obtaining a process by which to bring into use their scraps of old iron, at present almost utterly useless. A slotting machine, from Messrs. Whitworth and Company's manufactory, is also ordered, for erection in the machine-room. 'J he capacity of this machine will be to slott holes of 14 inches in depth, and is used for cranks, cross-heads, and other parts of the machinery. Amongst a variety of apparatus now on the way out are a double ge»r drilling-machine, capable oLborin.? holes It inches in diait eter; three similar machines of lighter capacity ; a large puuching-machme for punching and sheering plat's 1| inch thick, also one for being moved about the water j ami NnsmytL'a screw-ing-tnacbine, to screw from f to S!i inches. Beyond the machine-! ouse, and extending round the northern part of the Peninsula as far as the Patent Slip, the space is about to be occupied as a reserve depot /or coal, there being room for 3000 tuns, tin 1 also for the duplicate boilers and other machinery now lying in the other part of the yard, which will then be left clear. Labourers are now employed in excavating for t'ie new wharf, which wiil be on the same level as the remainder of the yard, and will have a parapet of five feet. The works upon which this department is at present engaged, are chi fly those connected with the repair of the Company's vessels. The City of Sydney started for Melbourne on Saturday afternoon, having had all her machinery overhauled, and her screw examined and fitted with new bushes. Tho Thistle has just commenced undergoing a tl orough repair and refitting, which will occupy several weeks; dining a portion of this time she will he on the Patent Slip. The Waruah is being subject lo some slight repairs of the engine, principally at the boilers. The Telegraph was taktn oti the Slip late on Saturday evening, to be cleared of the accumulations, which, from her recently diminished speed (although still the fastest boat on the line), it is imagined she may have sustained ; she will be haul 'd olf to-day (Monday). Within the last fortnight, the ship Great Britain, from London, has delivered at the wharf of the repairing jard, two boilers, weighing tw< qty tons each, wl.icu, in the course of a fvw months, will bo substituted for those now in use for the engines of the steamer Varra Yarra.

The Superintendent of the repairing yard is Mr. Thomas M'Arthur, of whose qualifications for thisollice it will he sufficient (o 6tate, that he established and was for ten years the manager of the North Lancashire Steam Navigation Company's works, at Fleetwood. Having occupied so responsible a position in this large manufacturing district, he is naturally familiar with every implement and mechanical piocess by which the various works he now directs cau he facilitated or improved. Although the Australasian Steam Navigation Company is, in many resects, a mere business speculation, and entered into with a view to commercial profit* there are public grounds on which notice should he taken of their enterprise. The proprietary is an extensive one, and re pre Ben ts a large portion of the intelligence and wealth of the colony ; whatever aflects their joint properly must be of great interest and vnlue to them individually. It is also highly important that this and the neighbouring communities should he, together with sea-captains trading to these parts, informed that steamers and sailing vessels, of whatever size or description, can have any injury remedied at the I'yrmont establishment, as offectually as at any Biitish pert. The announcement will also benefit our colonial interests, by giviag confid.i ce to British shipowners in venturing their vessels to ports where they can be so effectually protected. That the actual condition of our property and resources is not known or understood by intelligent people at a dista ce, may be fairly inferred from news just brought by the Marco Polo's mail. Our issue of Saturday contained the report of n sbo.t debate in the House of Lords, on the 26' th of March, on the question of Postal arrangements with Australia in the course of which the Earl of llardwicke stated it as his belief

th it the Australasian Steam Company had twenty large vesse's suited for the mail service ; upon which Vucount Canning (Postmaster-General) expressed his opinion,, that Australia did not possess more than one or two steamers able to make the voyage to the Indian Coast . A further benefit may be derived from tbe detailed notice of this enterprise. The act of giving publicity to the 6teps being taken to promote the thorough completeness and efficiency of any establishment by the in - portatioa of the latest and most approved machinery, may serve to direct attention to the practical value ot these contrivances. Prompted by the desire to compete with the Australasian Company in the possession of every implement serviceable for their work, the prupiie'ors of other repairing yards may supply themselves with the various intentions in engineering machinery which have conferred such advantages and contributed so much to the reputation of the iron manufacturers of the mother-country. Should such be the result, the resources thereby added to those already existing in the harbour would enable it to sustain that eminent superiority as a marine station which, from its geographical position and natural advantages, it is so eminently entitled to claim.

Presentation.—A very handsome gold snuff* box, manufactured by Messrs. Brush and Macdonnell, has been presented by the Masonic body to Sir Osborne Gibbes, on the occasion of that geutl'man's departure from the colony. On the lid of the box there is a tastefully engraved representation of the "Good Samaritan," and (he bottom contains the following inscription : " Presented to Brother Past Master, Sir Samuel Osborne Gibbes Hart., by the members of the Sydney Samaritan Lodge of freemasons, No. Sti, of which he was Worshipful Master in the years 1802-3, on his departure from New U ales in March 1855, in lasting memory of their brotherly esteem and regard.