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Show I An Important Utah Industry By BRIANT S. YOUNG I The clang of the steam hammers, the sharp staccato of the automatic riveters; here rears the frame of a dismounted engine, there the pitiful wreck of an automobile. Silver Bros. Iron Works, which arc located lo-cated on Seventh South between Fifth and Sixth West streets, covering approximately two acres of ground, was founded originally in 1862 by William J. Silver. Since the beginning begin-ning of this gigantic enterprise, which now has I over four hundred thousand dollars invested ' and employs over two hundred people, pro gress has been as rapid as the development of ! the intcrmountain empire. It supplies machin ery, castings, and iron work of all kinds. Joseph j A. Silver is the manager and James W. Silver j assistant manager. ! It is a pleasure to visit these works. Alight ing from the car you find yourself immediately immedi-ately in front of the office. A large commodious building, this containing the offices and the drafting rooms in the front, while in the rear are the pattern rooms. There are five stories to the nattcm buildimr. In the lower part pat- BBSjMtft" MrIA''''.-.''Hj!SB I i hg red 3HWWiB Bi !-S7rPfe MB MBBBBMf5WaVw.iifel... Main Plant, Silver Bros. Iron Works Co. H terns arc made for each casting. In the upper stories are kept sixty H thousand dollars worth of patterns. This building is isolated from the foundry, for safety in case of fire. I H Going about forty feet further you enter the foundry where the H casts arc made. Away off to your left you sec a huge cupola vomit- ing forth a stream of roaring hot metal. It sizzles and gleams as it H passes down the troughs made for it, reaching the molds which are all H ready waiting. The glare of the red" hot metal almost sears you ; the H heat nearly blisters. You step gingerly over a seething mass of the molten metal and 1 you stop a moment and look at the men making the molds. Then on H you go. Here you bump up against a huge pattern, sixty feet long, to H be used for the making of one of the lesser arches for the new Saltair H bicycle track. H Silver Bros. Iron Works, after spending eight hundred dollars H for plans, secured the contract for this building at a figure approxi- H mating forty thousand dollars. This great structure will contain a H ten-lap track, all roofed. Two hundred and fifty tons of steel will be H used ; also carloads of cement and other materials. The total length H of the building will be two hundred and twenty feet; width one lutn- H dred and forty feet. There will be two spans of one hundred and H forty-eight feet each ; two of one hundred and forty-four feet each : H two of one hundred and twenty-one feet, and two of sixty-three feet. H In addition there will be trusses and iron columns on which rest the H huge arches, saddle jointed. The arena of the track will be one hun- H dred 'and eighty by one hundred feet, with a twenty foot track and H eight foot promenade. The seating capacity will be about four Hj thousand. Hi You note the castings for the new electric light stands that are H yoing up on Main street; iron uprights for a cluster of lights. H. You pass on to the next building. The two buildings are con-H con-H nected in the fotm of a huge "L." The big steam crane, with a lifting H capacity of thirty tons passes roaring above you. In its mighty H grasp is a huge iron beam weighing tons, which it handles as lightly H as you handle a stick when you arc chasing your refractory youngster. H , You note, in this next building, the steel lathes, the automatic rivet-Hi rivet-Hi crs, the hydraulic punchers and shears, each capable of doing their H work as easily as humanity punches or cuts paper. Here is an au- tomobile being patched and repaired. In the distance, through the maze of smoke and steam you see a huge engine of the Saltair road all in pieces, being repaired. There are large boilers being whipped into shape; here an air compressor is having its packing or valves punctured and cut and then sewed together ; that is, welded together. I You gaze wonderingly about you, and you try to talk to your f,uide, but the whirr of the cranes, the whiz of the belting, the cease- less hammer of the welders and riveters, yi'fie roar of the many en- gmes drown out all human sounds. Yfii feel your lips move, the reflex muscles ache from trying to ycA and after getting black in the face, you make up your mind yourffears are useless and only your eyes arc good for anything. A ' Then you go out doors for a moment. You see the scrap heap with its thousands of tons of old metal, waiting to be boiled down in the furnace and made into pretty new implements of industry and civilization. You note th t the tracks of the Rio Grande Western Railway run right into the buildings. Thus the great works are in instant and ready communication with the rest of the world for the handling of weighty articles, as all of them must be that go in and out of this great plant. It is an industry of which Salt Lake City and Utah may be proud ; it is an enterprise that one day could supply the whole inter-mountain inter-mountain country with all kinds of iron work, machinery and castings. cast-ings. As an enterprise it is still in its infancy ; as a creation of man's brain and industry it is a gigantic monument ; as a matter of pride and gratification to a state, it is all that is desirable. |