men.

CHAPTER XXIV

MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT OF THE MANUFACTURING PLANT

The smaller departments. The importance of minor details. The experience of practical The carpenter shop. Arrangement for storing lumber for daily use. The foreman's office. Its construction and arrangement. A fixed desk. Foreman's storeroom. Convenient bins for nails, bolts, etc. Cutting-off saw. Swinging Saw. Rip saw. Work benches. Shop doors. Shop track. The storehouse. Steam railroad track. Wide doorways. The floor arrangement. Overhead trolleys and hoists. Plan for storing machines. Painting machinery. So-called enameling paints. Avoiding the expense of a painting department. The paint room. The general wash rooms. Separate entrance and exit doors. The lockers. Construction and arrangement of the wash rooms. The general water-closets. Construction and arrangement. Sanitary care of wash rooms and water-closets. Building machine foundations. A planer foundation. The necessities of the case. Excavations. The plans for the work. The central pit. Strong mortar necessary. Setting up the planer. Foundation requisites.

In this, the concluding chapter of this portion of the work, it is proposed to take up the smaller departments, special rooms, etc., in the same manner in which the subject has been treated in the previous articles and to give such a detailed description in connection with the engravings as to make the matter as complete as in any of the more important departments of the plant, and finally to give an example of machine foundation more complete than the brief description in Part First of this book.

To many casual readers, or superficial observers, who may have read these chapters it has doubtless appeared that very many of the matters considered have been treated with too great a regard for the smaller details and the minor points which, in their way of thinking, might be easily decided and of at any time without much study as to just how this or that matter could be disposed best handled, or this convenient accessory be best located, arranged, equipped. This ignoring of details, assuming them to be trifling matters, or has often been the cause of much disappointment and useless expense, because what was, at the time, considered a trivial matter has, under perhaps somewhat unusual conditions, and sometimes under the most ordinary conditions, proven to be much more important than at first supposed, and given no end of trouble

before being finally arranged in a thoroughly and practically satisfactory

manner.

To practical men who have had experience in the designing and arranging of the various machine shop departments and accessories, or of those of a manufacturing plant, so as to afford the best accommodations and facilities for the class of business to be done there, at a reasonable economical expense, and to those who have had years of practice in superintending and managing the daily routine therein, it has doubtless occurred that there were many points in these chapters that should have been much further elaborated, and whose details should have been gone into more thoroughly and explicitly. For these men know the annoyance, the disturbance of daily routine work, the inconvenience and the expense of alterations, changes, and rearrangements that it has been their lot to encounter and their duty to remedy, in order tc

bring efficiency out of the ill-advised and impractical plans and get everything running smoothly and satisfactorily.

The carpenter shop is located near the rear of the plant, between the machine shop proper and the forge shop, and adjoining the storehouse, or shipping room. Its internal arrangement is shown in Fig. 152. In this department should be stored the lumber and other packing material necessary for shipping, as well as for doing the miscellaneous carpenter work required about the plant. This material may be brought in on the yard cars by way of the track entering the side door; or, if received by the steam railroad cars, it may be brought in through the storehouse — a distance of only fifty feet.

Lumber in long or short lengths will probably come in on the steam railroad cars, as it should be purchased in carload lots. It may be unloaded

upon the yard cars at the rear gate and run directly into the carpenter shop. Convenient methods are shown, by dotted lines, in the engravings for locating the different lengths of lumber so as to render any length accessible without disturbing any other length. Ordinarily the lumber will be piled on the floor, but light, thin lumber, matched sheathing, etc., may be placed in racks overhead, where it will be more out of the way and safer from accidental injury. Box stuff cut to dimensions, as well as made-up boxes, may be similarly stored so as not to unnecessarily encumber the floor space.

In the outer corner of the shop is an inclosure serving as an office for the foreman. It is built of 3-inch matched sheathing to the height of 42 inches, and above this height it is composed of a galvanized iron wire netting 4 feet wide and of 1-inch mesh, attached to a frame of 2 x 3 scantling, placed not over five feet apart, and forming also the framework supporting the sheathed portion below. The wire netting is tightly strained upon this and fastened with 16-ounce tacks, after which a face casing inch thick and 3 inches wide is put on, along the top and bottom and vertically at each upright. A cap 1 inch thick and 3 inches wide is placed on top. At the top of the sheathing a 1 x 2 inch strip forms a cap, underneath which ax 1 inch strip forms the finish. Doors may be conveniently made with side and top stiles 1 inch by 4 inches, and the middle and bottom stiles 1 inch by 6 inches, all "halved together," glued and screwed, and covered with the wire netting, and finished with a facing strip inch by 2 inches, mitered around each panel to cover the edges of the wire netting. These are very strong and quite light and answer the purpose admirably. The object of constructing inclosures in the shop in this manner is to obtain a reasonably secure partition, and at the same time one that will offer as little obstruction to the light as possible, and also permit as free observation of the various parts of the room, as well as of the inclosure itself. This method has been found in practice to be strong, durable, and economical.

Along the side of this inclosure, next to the wall, is a fixed desk of proper height for a man standing, say 41 inches. It should be 24 inches wide and incline to the front about 2 inches in its width. Upon it, and in the corner between the two windows, should be placed a suitable pigeon-hole case, not over 24 inches high and 8 inches deep. The top, bottom, and sides are of 3-inch white pine and the partitions are of -inch stuff. This, with the desk, should be protected by two or three coats of shellac varnish. This case will be used for holding such blanks, slips, memoranda, and similar papers as are in use. Proper space should also be provided for the necessary books relating to the carpenter work, boxing, skidding, shipping, and similar work.

At the left-hand side, and between the window and the partition, there should be fixed to the brick wall a board of the same height as the pigeon-hole

case for convenience in hanging filing clips and for similar purposes. Beneath the desk should be two drawers, about 5 inches deep, 24 inches from front to back, and 30 inches wide, and provided with locks. Such an arrangement of desk, pigeon-hole case, drawers, etc., is shown in Fig. 153, which will give a general idea of its appearance and usefulness as well as of its economical construction.

The particular description here given of such fittings as these will apply to the design, arrangement, and construction of similar cases, racks, shelves, and other divided spaces necessary in many other parts of the plant, and we shall be well repaid for the time spent in carefully designing them to meet the special conditions and objects for which they are to be used, and shall often

be enabled thereby to save quite a percentage of the time of the employees using them. They may be constructed by any good carpenter and will be in many respects the best as well as the most useful.

Adjoining the foreman's office and opening out of it is a similar inclosure, to be used as a storeroom for the carpenter shop and to hold such articles as may be much more conveniently kept here than in the principal storeroom, in the office portion of the plant, to be drawn in small quantities as needed.

Against the wall is a case containing a row of bins for holding nails, spikes, etc. They are constructed of sufficient dimensions to hold a liberal supply of each size of nails and spikes, and the front board is made quite narrow, not over 6 inches high, to facilitate the removal of the contents. Above this row of bins is a case for lag screws, etc., containing thirty-five boxes, this being amply sufficient for all the different sizes usually needed. The width of this case is determined by the distance apart of the two windows

between which it is located. At the left of this case, standing on top of the bins, and in front of the window, should be a small counter scale for weighing such articles as may be used or issued and are to be accounted for by weight. A perspective view of this case and the row of bins is given in Fig. 154.

On the opposite side of the storeroom is a somewhat similar case for holding nuts, washers, etc., in the bins, and having above it a case with fortytwo compartments for machine bolts, carriage bolts, etc. A perspective view of this case is given in Fig. 155. Both of these cases are made of 7-inch pine and painted. The top of the bins is 24 inches from the floor. That shown in Fig. 154 is 6 feet high, but the one shown in Fig. 155 is limited to 5 feet so as not to unduly obstruct the light. The base of the bins is 18 inches wide. The depth of the upper cases is 8 inches. In the construction of cases of

this kind it is well to remember that they may be made of an ordinary quality of pine commonly called "box boards," planed on both sides. The horizontal boards or shelves are first put in, the ends resting on cleats screwed to the uprights at the ends of the case. The upright partitions are cut to the correct length on the cutting-off saw, set in place and "toe nailed" in front, and