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Show A STRANGE BREAK. Under a Great Pressure a liar of Iron Parts la Two Place. At the Scrauton shops of the Delaware, Dela-ware, Lackawanna and Western railroad rail-road there were recently made some tests of wire rope and fastenings for it. One and a half inch steel cables are used in some of their mines, and these tests were made to determine whether or not the fastenings were as 6trong as the cables. Sockets with taper holes, known as rope cones, to receive the rope, and ending in a fork to fasten to the cage, are used. The rope i8 passed through the hole and the ends of the wires turned back, making a bushy head. Into this mass of twisted and doubled wire they pour lead or babbit metal. The pieces were tested in their regular wheel press. It was soon proved that rope was amply strong, sustaining 70 tons with no other effect than a reduction reduc-tion of diameter owing to the compression compres-sion of the soft center. Lead proved very soft for fastening the wires they pulled through it. A composition of three parts lead to one part antimony did far better. The forks sustained load enough to bend steel pins 2 inches in diameter before be-fore breaking, but when they did break a curious thing happened one side of the fork broke in two places, and a piece about an inch long dropped on the floor. This happened when the load was about 70 tons. The cross section of the metal was the same where each break occurred but why should two occur? Locomotive Engineering.. |