THE OXYHYDRIC PROCESS 77 



One of the most interesting jobs which has been done 

 with this process was the taking apart and cutting into 

 scrap of an old English armored cruiser, which had been 

 bought by a firm in Hamburg. 



The method which had been employed formerly was to 

 cut the rivets off, drive them out, remove the armor plate, 

 notch it with compressed air tools and then break it up 

 under a drop. To complete the work by this old method 

 usually took one and one-half years. Now, with the 

 oxyhydric process, the job was completed in two and one- 

 half months. 



The armor plate, as it was being cut up, is shown in 

 Fig. 5. Some of this was fourteen inches thick and some 

 of the heaviest guns which were cut up had an outside 

 diameter of more than forty inches. All the metal in the 

 boat was cut to sizes suitable for charging in the furnaces 

 for remelting. See Fig. 6. 



As a manufacturing proposition the oxyhydric process is- 

 equally as good as in the cutting up of scrap, and Fig. 7 

 shows a sample of work on which it is very useful. This 

 is a face plate for the base frame of a locomotive. It was 

 nine sixteenths of an inch thick, four feet wide by six feet 

 long and about 264 lineal inches had to be cut in cutting 

 out the opening. This work was done in exactly one hour, 

 which is at a speed of three and three-fourths minutes for 

 each running foot. 



Many uses for this process will also be found in steel 

 foundries. In Fig. 8 is shown a steel casting just as it 

 comes from the mold, and Fig. 9 shows the same casting 

 after the sprues, risers, etc., have been cut off with the 

 oxyhydric process. 



The oxyhydric process is also applicable for welding the 

 various metals that can be fused together. The flame, how- 

 ever, must be the opposite of that used for cutting metals, 

 as it must be one that freely reduces the oxide, rather than 

 one causing oxidation, as is used in cutting, as oxides in 

 the welds are inadvisable. 



