The Workshop.

Otago Witness, Issue 1273, 22 April 1876, Page 18

The Workshop.

THE SHEFFIELD STEEL MANU-

FACTURES.

Most of our workers in iron are familiar with the name of Thomas Firth and Sons, of Sheffield, England, whose tool steel bears such a high reputation in this country. Mr Mark Firth, the head of the firm, is this year Mayor of Sheffield, and has signalised his term of office by presenting the people with a magnificent park, paying the whole expenses (over §500,000) from his own pocket. The park was recently opened, with great rejoicing, by the Prince and Princess of Wales, who took an opportunity of inspecting several of the most remarkable of the steel works of the very grimy and very prosperous city.

Our first engraving represents a scene in Messrs Firth's works. An ingot for making the interior tube of an eighty ton gun is being cast, the gun consisting of a tube of fine steel surmounted by welded coils of wrought iron. The steel is melted in crucibles, which are brought to the founding pit on wheeled trucks. By this means, ingots of nearly any weight and of the highest purity can be readily cast ; and they are then forged into shape by immense steam hammers. We have frequently spoken of the large hammer, erected at Woolwich for welding the iron coils on these large cannon. This implement cost about $25,000, and the falling portion weighs 40 tons, its force being increased by the use of steam to give it additional velocity. Messrs Firth have recently erected a similar hammer in their works at Sheffield. But the greatest of all is being built at Krupp's works at Essen, where $1,000,000 is being expended in building the largest hammer yet conceived, even in this age cf Cyclopean wonders. It ia found that tubes for ordnance must be of pure steel, but softness of the metal is a requisite, a hard metal being too brittle to sustain the concussion of the large charges of powder used in these guns. The milder steel is tenacious, and has proved to be almost indestructible by wear. — Scientific American.