In making the bolsters for the tea and silk cars recently built in the Sacramento shops, we take our 1 x 5 x 12-inch bars, cut them off 2 inches longer than the length on the end -which allows one inch on each end of the bar for upsetting and welding-get a nice white heat on the end of the bar, place it in the machine, and press the lever down. The dies close, the header comes up, hits the end of the bar, welds and presses

it into shape, and we have one end of the bolster completed. Reversing the piece and going through the same operations, we have a bolster completed in quicker time than it takes to explain it. I find by testing this class of work by the steamhammer process, that it will stand a better test than similar work done by hand. These ends are put on at the rate of twenty to twenty-five per day.

Crown bars for locomotive boilers are made in a similar manner, by laying a piece of 16 x 3 x 9-inch stock between

two pieces of 34 x 5-inch bars of any length required, the whole being welded and pressed into shape by one operation.

We have a great many target connecting-rods for S. P. switch-stands to make in the Sacramento shops, and this is a

Överhead Timbers

Cylinder of Rock Drill

FIG. 254. An emergency steam-hammer.

simple job for this machine. We take our bar of 11⁄2-inch round iron on the required length, get a white heat on about 11 or 12 inches of it at one end, place it in the lower portion

of the die, and press the lever. The plunger comes up and upsets an end on the bar 2% x 2 x 41⁄2 inches long. We then take it out of the lower portion of the die, place it in the upper portion in a vertical position, when the die closes and the punch completes the jaw. We then take the rod to a 3inch forging-machine that we have close by and upset the other end. This takes but a very short time, and we have a target connecting-rod completed without a weld. The idea in taking these rods from one machine to the other is to save time in changing and setting dies.

The bulldozer, as well as the forging-machine, is a machine that should be in every blacksmith-shop where there is a large quantity of bending and forming to be done, such as draw-bar straps for passenger or freight cars, arch-bars for freight or tender trucks, side sill steps, uncoupling levers, carry irons, corner irons, links and a large quantity of other wrought-iron work that is used on cars and locomotives.

The face of the machine, which is constantly in use in the Sacramento blacksmith-shop, is 14 inches high, 5 feet 4 inches wide, and has two grooves running the width of the face, cut out the same as the grooves in the bed of a planer.

We have two rollers, simply constructed, that we fasten to the face of the machine with the bolts slipped in the grooves. Consequently we can shift these rollers, to bend straps, from 1⁄2 inch width of opening up to 5 feet. When When any material has to be bent at right angles, we slip one of the rollers on. The plates on the back-stop of the machine is constructed similarly to the face-plate, and we fasten all dies, formers, and mandrels for this. The material is held in the formers or mandrels, before bending, by a hinged clamp made for the purpose. The bulldozer used is a No. 7, and is large enough for all railroad purposes.

A Rock-Drill Used as a Steam-Hammer

The drill, minus the tripod, was fastened to a vertical support about as shown in the sketch, Fig. 254, which was drawn from memory, no attempt being made to show an

exact picture, but merely enough to convey an idea of the arrangement. An ordinary anvil was fixed in a position. under the ram, and the necessary air connections, not shown, were made with the cylinder. When a blacksmith has some heavy hammering to do, he has some one, as usual, to manage this contrivance, while the smith takes care to have the blows struck in the proper places as with a steam-hammer, except that the blows are not as heavy, but still more numerous for

FIG. 255. Shear for cutting off iron.

a given space of time. At the time I saw this improvised steam (?) hammer in operation, the smith was working down a piece of steel or wrought iron, about 3 inches wide at its widest part, 1 inch thick at its thickest part, 21⁄2 feet long, tapering in both width and thickness, and the hammer appeared to be doing excellent service. It appeared to me as being a very simple, effective, and quite inexpensive apparatus, and that if at any time it be thought convenient to discontinue the use of this rig as a "steam" hammer, it could