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BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



wood or steel reels, depending upon its type. A full reel may weigh as 

 much as 10,000 lbs. These reels are rotated by means of power-driven 

 floor rolls which are controlled by the press operator's helper. After 

 the reel was tilled with cable, it was formerly the practice to push the 

 reels off the rolls manually. The latest type of floor rolls are equipped 

 with automatic ejector devices which lift one roll and cause the loaded 

 reel to roll oft' on the floor. This is done by means of a small hydraulic 

 cylinder connected to a pump which is operated by a valve mounted 

 adjacent to the floor rolls. 



The Central Lead-Melting System 



In order to supply the presses just described, large quantities of 

 lead-antimony alloy must be delivered frequently. The old and new 

 arrangements are shown in Fig. 24. With the old arrangement lead 



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CD acn nm u:2 a[:i] a[^ ac=i a 



SPACE 



FOR SKID 

 ADJUSTMENT 



WITH INDIVIDUAL KETTLES (560 SQUARE FEET PER PRESS) 



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12 3 4 5 6 7 8 



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9 10 



II 12 



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SCALE 

 IN FEET 



WITH CENTRAL MELTING SYSTEM (370 SQUARE FEET PER PRESS) 



Fig. 24 — Space required for 34-inch inverted presses. 



was delivered in skids by an overhead traveling crane to small melting 

 kettles adjacent to each pair of presses. This arrangement also 

 involved considerable manual handling, and introduced some variation 

 in the finished alloy sheath. 



The new arrangement consists of melting all of the lead alloy in a 

 large furnace at a central location and distributing this molten lead 

 through a long-loop pipe line running back of the presses. Xear each 

 press a loop branch from this line is made and equipped with the 

 proper kind of control valve. This line is heated electrically and 

 the lead is in constant circulation. Such a system was built on a 

 small scale and tested under continuous operation for over a period of 

 si.x months, at the conclusion of which it was considered entirely 

 feasible to incorporate it as a part of our new Baltimore plant. In 

 order to take full advantage of such a system, the presses were placed 



