MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 46 



along the pile, as was heretofore the universal practice, a rail perfectly 

 void of lamina could be manufactured from highly fibrous metal. The 

 additional expense from using the short cross-bars over that incurred 

 in the usual way, amounted to about ten cents per ton on the rails 

 experimented upon ; but in the event of the plan being generally 

 adopted, as it is presumed it will be, there being no patent right to 

 contend with, the additional expense from the extra labor in shearing 

 will probably not exceed three or four cents per ton. These experiments 

 developed the fact that the existence of fibre is caused by the rolling 

 being in one continuous direction ; and, therefore, fibre may be produced 

 in any required direction ; or, if it is desired to have iron free from 

 lamina and equally strong in every direction, it is only necessary to 

 roll the bars alternately at right angles with the former axis. Apart 

 from the great advantage of a non-laminating metal, the rails prepared 

 under this plan of cross-piling display qualities which render them pecu- 

 liarly valuable for railway purposes. When tested by a heavy weight 

 falling freely on them from a height of fourteen feet, the indentation 

 occasioned by the impact was very much less than that on rails man- 

 ufactured in the usual way ; and, tested by supporting them, at the 

 ends, and suspending a weight of two tons for a few minutes on their 

 centre, the permanent deflection was also found greatly in favor of the 

 cross-piling. The mechanical action of the rolls in neutralizing the 

 previous structure appears to have condensed the particles of metal, 

 and to have violently expelled the cinder and other extraneous matter 

 with which it was combined. The increased rigidity appears also to 

 have resulted from the increased density of the metal in the upper por- 

 tion of the bar, offering a greater resisting medium to compression. 



This neutralizing the tendency of bar-iron to resolve into the fibrous 

 structure, is partially understood in the manufacture of boiler, plate and 

 sheet iron. The plan followed in these instances consists in alternately 

 presenting the end and side of the plate to the action of the rolls, 

 whereby the expansion of the metal is equal in each direction ; but this 

 procedure, though well adapted to neutralize the formation of fibre, 

 when the object operated on is a plain iron plate, is inapplicable in the 

 case of rails, by reason of their angular section and great length cir- 

 cumstances which render it essentially necessary that their movements 

 be in the same plane. 



The beneficial application of the principle of cross-piling is not limited 

 to the manufacture of non-laminating rails ; it may be advantageously 

 extended to various descriptions of wrought-iron for engineering and 

 building purposes, where a partial or total absence of lamina is desired. 



RYDER'S PATENT FORGING- MACHINE. 



VARIOUS attempts have been made to supersede the costly hand labor 

 of the smith by machinery, but generally without success ; a result 

 which, we believe, may be attributed in a great measure to the pro- 

 jectors attempting too much. In practice, it will not do to feed iron 

 in at one end of a machine, and bring it out finished at the other. For 

 many kinds of engine-work it is now cheaper to leave the forging rough, 



