MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 71 



thing, the iron is not heated hot enough to weld to the steel, and 

 the result is, that in a few weeks the steel cap separates from the 

 iron, and the rail is rendered worthless. 



S. L. Potter, Superintendent of the Wyandotte Rolling Mills, 

 claims to have discovered a plan by which a pile can be made of 

 iron and steel, and disposed in such a manner that the iron will 

 receive twice as much heat in the furnace as the steel; conse- 

 quently they are both brought up to a welding heat at the same 

 time, without injuring the properties of either, and a perfect weld 

 is secured. 



A billet of Bessemer or other steel, about 5 inches by 4 inches, 

 having been previously rolled or hammered from ingots 7. or 8 

 inches square, is introduced into the side of an ordinary rail 

 pile, and charged into the furnace with the steel toward the flue, 

 thus protecting the steel with the iron from the extreme heat. As 

 it passes over the bridge from the fire-chamber, the heaf passes 

 through the iron to the steel ; and it has been proved by actual 

 experiment that the two metals are brought up to a welding heat 

 at the same time. The pile is then rolled on edge, working the 

 steel in the head. In the first passages through the roughing rolls 

 a portion of the iron on either side of the steel is worked down in, 

 the lower part of the head, allowing the steel to form the head. 



More than 50 different pieces of rails made after this plan have 

 been subjected to 100 blows from a 2,000-ptmnd steam hammer, 

 literally crushing them, without impairing the weld in the least 

 degree. Some of these rails are now in the track of the Michigan 

 Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad, Michigan Central Rail- 

 road, and Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, and have thus far 

 given entire satisfaction. This plan is peculiarly adapted to re- 

 rolling, as the old rails can be rolled into flat bars, then formed 

 into a pile of the iron and steel. The old rails can. at a very mod- 

 erate cost, be converted into a steel-headed rail, one-third being 

 steel and two-thirds iron, that will be as durable and much less 

 liable to break in cold weather than an entire steel rail. If it be 

 preferred, a T-shaped piece of steel can be used instead of a 

 square piece, and the same result obtained. 



As they cost, at the present price of steel, only about 40 per cent, 

 more than iron rails, and much less than rails made wholly of 

 Bessemer steel, they seem well adapted to supersede the ordinary 

 rails. Scientific American. 



AMERICAN CHILLED WHEELS. 



The English still distrust the chilled cast-iron railway wheel as 

 brittle and dangerous, and cleave to their expensive and com- 

 paratively short-lived wrought wheels. Mr. W. W. Evans, who 

 has been for 30 years engaged in railway construction in the 

 United States and North America, is now in England, engaged 

 in the mission of introducing the American chilled wheels. Of 

 course this is no American interest; the object being simply to in- 

 duce the English to adopt for their own benefit (and for that of the 

 manufacturer) the American way of making wheels. Mr. Evans 



