PREFACE 



THE advent of high-speed steel and of intensive methods 

 of production has rendered the problem of belt maintenance 

 one of the most important of the many that the factory 

 manager has to solve. In the machine shop belts must be 

 proportioned to pull the heavier loads that are used in 

 modern practice, and in any industry the belts must be so 

 taken care of that the interruptions to manufacture due to 

 belt failures will be reduced to the minimum. Interruptions 

 to manufacture mean loss of production and loss of profits. 



Concurrently with the development of improved methods 

 of production there has grown up an improved system of 

 belting practice, which has kept pace with production. The 

 literature of these improved belting methods is buried in the 

 transactions of engineering societies and in the files of tech- 

 nical journals. It is so scattered that it is difficult for the 

 average man to comprehend that the art of power transmission 

 by means of leather belting has completely changed in the 

 past ten or fifteen years. The object of this book has been 

 to gather together the best information on the new practice 

 and compile it in a form that would be of the greatest service 

 to the belting user. 



With the exception of the calculation of the tables that 

 form a part of the work, the author makes no claim to origi- 

 nality. His office has simply been that of compiler of the 

 work of Taylor, Barth and others. If the work that has been 

 done in preparing this book will lead to better belting prac- 

 tice in the shops of the country, it will have accomplished its 

 object. 



ROBERT THURSTON KENT. 



MONTCLAIR, N. J., 



March 9, 1916. 



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