242 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



side of which there should be placed about three 

 rings of graphite packing. On the outside of the 

 stuffing box should be a %-inch pipe tap, which 

 connects to this gland cage. There should be a 

 pipe tap, thus making a water seal in the stuffing 

 box and preventing all air leakage. The gland 

 should be run just as loose as possible, as other- 

 wise the packing is liable to cut the shaft. A small 

 amount of leakage from the stuffing box does not 

 harm, in fact is an advantage, as it prevents the 

 packing from heating and at the same time keeps 

 the shaft lubricated. 



The pump should always be primed before 



starting, as otherwise there is liability of injuring 

 some of the interior parts of the pump which de- 

 pends upon the presence of water for lubrication. 

 The pump can be primed either by closing the dis- 

 charge by means of a gate or check valve, and ex- 

 hausting the air from the pump by means 

 of an ejector or air pump, thus allowing 

 the water to flow in from the suction well, 

 or a foot valve can be provided on the suction pipe 

 and pump filled with water, at the same time al- 

 lowing the air to escape from the highest point of 

 the pump. 



(Continued on Page 250.) 



HUNTING HIGH COSTS IN IRRIGATION PROJECTS 



BY A H. LONG 



IF the users of water in the irrigation districts 

 will give some thought as to why a material 

 carrying premiums of $16.00, or more, per ton 

 is specified for irrigation work and road culverts, 

 when not one of these premium metals has been on 

 the market long enough to justify its adoption on 

 the grounds of superior wearing qualities, regard- 

 less of price, they may find a suggestion of the 

 cause of their disappointments in the matter of costs 

 of irrigation projects, road building and other pub- 

 lic improvements carried on under the supervision 

 of not only the U. S. Government, but of state gov- 

 ernments and other municipal bodies. 



How much consideration would an individual, 

 constructing a piece of work of any kind, who had 

 to pay the bills for all material and labor from his 

 own pocket, give to the claim of a metal the merits 

 of which are based entirely upon its so-called 

 purity, and citing as authority the purity of ancient 

 irons which, by analysis, show anything but purity 

 as understood by metallurgists, and which same 

 ancient irons, when worked under modern processes, 

 show no value whatever over the products that can 

 be purchased on the open market today? Most 

 men would not give consideration to such metal at 

 an even price when they learn that the longest 

 period of life that such metals have a record of is 

 not more than one-third of that of thousands of ex- 

 amples of standard Galvanized and Black Open 

 Hearth sheets which are still in good condition. 

 They might give some consideration to these so- 

 called "pure irons" if they could show a record uni- 

 formly good, but if they will take the trouble to 

 make an investigation they will discover that actual 

 tests of these so-called "pure irons" even in the 

 limited period they have been on the market show 

 no better results on the average under similar con- 

 ditions of exposure than the ordinary standard 

 Bessemer or Open Hearth Steels. 



If the investigating bodies so numerous through- 

 out the country, as well as the economic writers on 

 the subject of the high cost of living, would give 

 their attention to some of these causes for increased 

 taxes all along the line, from county to federal, not 

 only as to the material specified for, but as to the 

 methods of conducting public works (honestly in 



most cases, no doubt, but ineffective by reason of 

 lack of expert knowledge), they will find at least 

 a part of the solution of the problem that is inter- 

 esting the whole world today. 



As one having an indirect connection with a 

 concern engaged in the construction of irrigation 

 ditches, flumes, etc., the above thoughts have been 

 suggested to me by an article in the March issue 

 of THE IRRIGATION AGE, entitled, "Road Culverts 

 and Siphons." 



There is no disputing the logic of the claims 

 made for Corrugated Metal Culverts, but the article 

 referred to is, fundamentally at least, written in an 

 effort to promote the use of the so-called "pure 

 irons," and there is today no greater medium of ex- 

 travagance for want of a better name than the 

 use of these products of open hearth steel furnaces, 

 called "pure irons." 



I quote the following paragraph from page 151 : 



"It is generally conceded that iron or steel rusts in 

 proportion to the amount of impurities present. Iron 

 produced by the painstaking and laborious methods of 

 long ago has endured through many years of trying ex- 

 posure. The links used in the construction of the New- 

 buryport (Mass.) bridge in 1792 are today in an almost 

 perfect state of preservation. The reason for this appears 

 when an analysis of these old links shows them to have 

 been made from remarkably pure iron." 



The Newburyport bridge links are not the only- 

 examples of ancient irons showing remarkable 

 length of service without serious corrosion, but all 

 of these, as can readily be ascertained upon investi- 

 gation, are anything but pure from the standpoint 

 of the advocates of these present-day so-called 

 "pure irons." Their claims indicate that there is a 

 close similarity in the composition of their metal 

 to that of the Newburyport bridge chains, whereas 

 the only similarity between them is in the low 

 manganese which, in a strict sense, is not an im- 

 purity, but, on the contrary, a high-priced element 

 deliberately introduced in varying quantities into 

 all first-class mild steel, and the discovery of the 

 properties of which was what gave to the world one 

 of its greatest factors for progress, namely, "soft" 

 or what is also known as "mild" steel, and to which 

 the Germans originally applied the term "Ingot 

 Iron." It was the discovery of the use that could 

 be made of manganese which brought about the 

 production of this soft, workable steel or ingot iron. 



