796 



WIRE-MAKING. 



miles, and their population is 32,786. Sugar and 

 rum are the chief products. In 1899 the imports 

 from Denmark amounted to 76,000 kroner,, and 

 exports to Denmark to 93,000 kroner. The im- 

 ports from Great Britain were more than ten 

 times as much, and the trade with the United 

 States was large. The Danish Government, after 

 negotiations extending over two years, decided to 

 accept the offer of the United States of 12,000,000 

 kroner for the Danish Antilles. Copenhagen 

 bankers and merchants desired to retain the 

 islands for Denmark as a valuable commercial 

 base in the event of the completion of the Nica- 

 ragua Canal. Their plans for a transatlantic 

 steamship company and commercial enterprises 

 on the islands did not come to maturity. . A sec- 

 tion of the population of the islands was strongly 

 opposed to the transfer, but the most active busi- 

 ness men and agriculturists were desirous of a 

 commercial and political union with the United 

 States. 



Dutch Colony. The island of Curagao belongs 

 to the Netherlands. It has an area of 210 square 

 miles and the population on Dec. 31, 1898, was 

 29,558. The dependent island of Bonaire, area 95 

 square miles, had 4,829 inhabitants; Aruba, area 

 69 square miles, had 9,349; St. Eustache, area 7 

 square miles, had 1,432; Saba, area 5 square miles, 

 had 2,779; and the Dutch part of St. Martin, area 

 17 square miles, had 3,577. The Governor is C. 

 A. H. Barge. He is assisted by a Council of 1 

 official and 3 nominated members, to which 8 

 other members are appointed to form the Colonial 

 Council. The revenue, derived from duties on im- 

 ports, excise and indirect taxes, and the land tax, 

 amounted in 1900 to 609,000 guilders according to 

 the estimates, and expenditure to 686,000 guilders. 

 The imports of Curagao in 1898 were 1,960,070 

 guilders in value. The value of exports is not re- 

 ported for Curagao; for the other islands it was 

 284,954 guilders. There were 2,323 vessels, of 507,- 

 344 tons, entered at all the ports during 1898. 



WEST VIRGINIA. (See under UNITED 

 STATES.) 



WIRE-MAKING. All changes in the wire- 

 drawing industry in the year 1901 were in the 

 way of advancement. Several new wire-mills 

 have been built, and many of the old mills en- 

 larged. The largest company, the American Steel 

 and Wire Company, having a capitalization of 

 $90,000,000, has been absorbed into the United 

 States Steel Corporation, but retains its name and 

 continues business under the control of its presi- 

 dent, W. P. Palmer, with the principal offices at 

 71 Broadway, New York city. The well-known 

 Washburn & Moen wire-plant, at Worcester, 

 Mass., one of the chief mills for specialties in steel 

 wires, belongs to this concern. The company has 

 built a new steel plant, a rod-mill, and a wire- 

 mill at Phillipsdale, for the production of steel 

 rods and wire; and has purchased the American 

 Electrial Works, also at Phillipsdale, for manu- 

 facturing bare and insulated copper wire, and the 

 R. H. Wolff & Co.'s plant, New York city, for 

 flat wires and specialties in all steel wires. 



The production of steel rods for wire three 

 years in the United States was 279,769 tons in 

 1888; 536,607 tons in 1891; 791,130 tons in 1895; 

 970,000 tons in 1897; and since then more than 

 1,000,000 tons yearly. Great Britain now pro- 

 duces only 10,000 tons of steel rods and wire per 

 annum. 



In steel-wire making, manufacturers have given 

 up the old ideas that the quality of round wire 

 produced depended largely on the size of rod to 

 begin with, and the number of light or heavy 

 drafts made to reduce the wire to required sizes. 



The tensile strength is found to depend mainly 

 on the amount of reduction from the rod or an- 

 nealing-point, and not on the number of light 

 or heavy drafts, which make less difference. For 

 fine sizes of wire the smallest size rod obtainable 

 is the best to use, as it is the nearest to the fin- 

 ished size, and therefore costs the least for draw- 

 ing. This size is No. 8 Washburn & Moen gage 

 the gage adopted as the standard for the Ameri- 

 can Steel and Wire Company's mills. Smaller 

 gage rods can be rolled, but they are not exact 

 enough as to size. For special wires, especially 

 high-carbon steels, this small size, No. 8 rod, is 

 much in use, but less frequently for the low-car- 

 bon steels used for fencing and market wires. 

 The demand for rods is beyond the capacity of 

 the rolling-mills, and the production, when using 

 No. 8 rod, entirely inadequate. Most of the large 

 mills making rods for fence, nail, and market 

 wires, for this reason, roll No. 5 rods. Larger 

 sizes are rolled when wanted, and rods or wire can 

 be drawn through a die ! inch diameter. Low- 

 carbon basic or Bessemer steel rods f or 1 inch 

 diameter can be reduced to wire in one draft of 

 & inch, but a little harder steel, of 0.12 to 0.15 

 per cent, carbon, is reduced only ^ inch in one 

 draft, as a heavier draft would make it so hard 

 it would not mill and turn freely for such uses 

 as screw-making. For these large sizes a rod is 

 used that can be finished in one or two drafts. 

 Two drafts are often necessary to make the wire 

 accurate in size, and to remove all pits, seams, 

 slivers, and other surface defects. The amount 

 of reduction at each draft is gradually lessened 

 as wire becomes smaller. At Nos. 5 to 12 the 

 reduction is not often more than two sizes for one 

 draft, at Nos. 14 to 20 it may be li size, and 

 for smaller wire one gage number at a draft, or 

 for Nos. 20 to 30 there may be only six drafts 

 altogether. 



For low-carbon steel one annealing is consid- 

 ered sufficient in reducing wire from rods to No. 

 20, and this annealing may be from No. 12 to 

 No. 18, according to the hardness wanted at fin- 

 ished size. For reducing to No. 30 one more an- 

 nealing is often made. High-carbon tempering 

 steels require more frequent annealing, steel 0.75 

 carbon and over being especially hard to reduce 

 to medium and fine sizes of wire without frequent 

 annealings. 



The steels used for wire range from 0.05 carbon 

 to 1.50 per cent., but there are really only two 

 classes first, the high-carbon steels, 0.40 carbon 

 and over, which are all tempering steels, used 

 for wires to be tempered after forming to shape, 

 and also used untempered where great strength 

 is wanted, as for rope and piano wires; second, 

 the low-carbon steels, nearly all 0.08 to 0.12 car- 

 bon, which are used for fence, nail, and market 

 wires, and are also by special processes made 

 into particular wires, pin, hairpin, broom, mat- 

 tress, bolt, nut, screw, bookbinder, weaving wire 

 for screens, and a large variety of other wires for 

 forming into wire goods, or any bending and. 

 twisting use, but not specially for high tensile 

 strength. 



The weight of the coil of rod used has been 

 increased from 150 pounds, which the wire-drawer 

 could conveniently lift, to 200 and 250 pounds, 

 and occasionally 300 pounds. The latter are 

 difficult to handle in transferring from annealing 

 to wire-drawing room, except by machinery. 

 They are, however, lifted off the wire-block by 

 hand. For large sizes this coil can be drawn 

 conveniently, but at No. 12 the length of wire 

 becomes so great that it is cut into 100- or 50- 

 pound coils, and by breakages in process the 



