56 TOWERS AND TANKS FOR WAITER-WORKS. 



may be an interesting fact for you to know that every stand- 

 pipe which has mysteriously broken or burst, has been built 

 of steel plates. (Statement not substantiated by facts.) 



" We have no specifications of our own for steel plates, but 

 have adopted in our use either the specifications adopted 

 as standard by the American Rolling Mill Association, or 

 the specifications adopted by the American Boiler Makers' 

 Association, either of which we regard as good as can be 

 obtained. . . . We would hesitate very much before using steel 

 rivets in stand-pipe work. While the steel makers have 

 made great progress and improved very much in the manufac- 

 ture of steel plate, they have not met with equal success in 

 manufacturing a rivet steel. 



11 The difference between the United States Naval Depart- 

 ment and the Carnegie Company in reference to ship-plates 

 made for the department, and to be used at Newport News, 

 is a fair illustration of the inability of plate makers to make a 

 uniform, homogeneous grade of steel plate in every case. If 

 you read up in the matter, you will recall that the plates were 

 made under strict specifications as to the physical and chem- 

 ical requirements, and that every stage in the process of their 

 manufacture was watched by experts, both on the part of the 

 Government and on the part of the manufacturer, and yet 

 when the plates were finished and shipped to Newport News, 

 the ship-builders and the experts watching the construction 

 of the work, discovered that many plates cracked. The 

 matter was referred to a commission and it was agreed that 

 in view of all the facts, and allowing for the inability to 

 control the product of a steel mill, the Government could not 

 condemn all the plates delivered, neither could they accept 

 all, but that the use of plates would depend entirely upon the 

 result of the shop-work at Newport News." 



The foregoing having to do principally with the relative 

 utility of the two metals and regardless of commercial con- 



