1000 



IRON 



transversely from side to side with a slow traverse by a crank and worm-wheel, 

 driven by a worm on a longitudinal shaft extending over the series of puddling 

 furnaces, alongside the reciprocating bar. 15y this means the rabble, instead of 

 moving backwards and forwards ahvays in the same lino, is worked successively 

 over every part of the puddling furnace, in lines radiating from the working hole 

 in the door of the furnace, corresponding exactly to the action in hand -puddling. 

 In a double furnace, with a door on each side, one of the machines is fixed over 

 each door, and the two rabbles are made to bo always working in different parts 

 of the furnace, by the two traversing cranks of the guide-frames overhead being 

 set at right angles to each other. The whole of the machinery is kept clear above 

 the furnace outside, and completely protected from the heat, and quite out of the 

 way of the men ; nothing being exposed to the heat except the rabble or puddling- 

 tool, the same as in hand-puddling. The puddler changes the rabble from time to 

 tune as it gets heated, by simply lifting it off the pin on the working arm, and 

 replacing it with a fresh tool, without stopping the machine ; and when the iron 

 begins to thicken, or is " coming to nature," he takes the opportunity of each change 

 of tool to make a few strokes by hand, in order to collect the metal from the 

 extreme sides of the furnace into the centre. When the iron is ready for balling- 

 up, the machinery is disconnected, without stopping it, by merely knocking out the 

 cotter which fixes the working arm in the slide-bar ; the arm then drops out, leaving 

 the furnace-door entirely free for the puddler to ball up the iron, without his being 

 in any way inconvenienced by the machinery continuing at work overhead. 



1 By the use of this machine, more work is put into the iron while it is in the 

 boiling state than can be clone by hand, the speed of working being one-half greater ; 

 and the working is kept up uninterruptedly, without any intervals of rest, such as in 

 hand labour, during which the metal would remain stationary in the furnace. The 

 double furnace, worked from each side, effects a great economy in the consumption of 

 fuel, as compared with a single furnace ; and puddles double the quantity of iron in 

 the same time. With the machines at work at the Wombridge Ironworks, the con- 

 sumption of coal in the double furnace, with a charge of 10 cwts., is only 17 cwts. of 

 coal per ton of puddled bar, as compared with 28 cwts. per ton in the single furnace 

 with a charge of 5 cwts. The number of heats worked by the machine per turn of 

 from nine to ten hours is six heats of 6 cwts. each in the single furnace, and five 

 heats of 10 cwts. each in the double furnace.' 



Mr. Eastwood, of Derby, has patented, and is using with much success, a puddling- 

 machine, of which the accompanying woodcut (Jig. 1261) gives a sufficient example. 



1261 



This machine is of the simplest and most compact character, while it is efficient 

 in work, giving the same motion to the rabble as is done by manual l.iUmr; ami 

 working tho iron about so thoroughly that the whole is boilod quicker, bettor, ;inl 

 much cleaner than a man will or can always do it, thus securing a more uniform and 



