LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE AND TOOL-MAKING. 59 tools. The manufacture of iron and steel is one of the most ancient branches of industry the county can refer to; and can be satisfactorily traced to the Conquest. Hugh Lupus, one of the Conqueror's generals, had a grant of the country about Cheshire and Lancashire, and established himself at Halton Castle, near Runcorn. He brought with him a body of armourers from Normandy. These were skilful men, and laid the foundation of the fame of this neighbourhood for the manufacture of iron. Tool-making was not unknown then, especially the art of file-making. One of the most extensive works of this class in and about Manchester, is that possessed by Messrs. Nasmyths, Gaskell, and Co., situated at Patricroft, four and a half miles distant from Manchester, and immediately adjoining the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad, at that part where it crosses the Bridgewater Canal, which great national work forms the boundary or frontage of the ground on which the above establishment is erected, and which, in consequence, has been named "The Bridgewater Foundry." These works have a frontage to the railroad, as well as to the canal, to the extent of 1,050 feet ; which circumstance supplies every possible facility for communication, either by land or by water carriage. One of the "stopping stations" of all the second class trains being opposite, persons desirous of visiting these works, can be set down at the entrance-gate. The distance, in time, from Manchester, is only from ten to fifteen minutes. There are at present about 500 workmen in this establishment. The whole is divided into departments, over each of which a foreman, or a responsible person, is placed, whose duty is not only to see that the men under his superintendence produce good work, but also to endeavour to keep pace with the productive powers of all the other departments. The departments may be thus specified :-The drawing office, where the designs are made out, and the working drawings produced, from which the men are to receive the necessary 60 LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE AND TOOL-MAKING. information. Then come the pattern-makers, whose duty it is to make the patterns, or models, in wood, which are to be cast in iron or brass; next comes the foundry, and the iron and brass moulders; then the forgers or smiths. The chief part of the produce of these two last-named pass on to the turners and planers, who, by means of most powerful and complete machinery, execute all such work on the various articles as require either of these operations; besides which, any holes that are required, are, at this stage, bored, by a great variety of drilling machines, most of which are self-acting. Then come the fitters and filers, who, by means of chisels and files, execute all such work as requires manual labour, and perform such delicate adjustments as require the individual attention of the operative; in conjunction with this department is a class of men called erectors, that is, men who put together the framework and larger parts of most machines, so that the two last departments, as it were, bring together and give the last touches to the objects produced by all the others. The entire establishment has been laid out with a view to secure the greatest amount of convenience for the removal of heavy machinery from one department to another; and, in order to attain this object, what may be called the straight line system has been adopted, that is, the various workshops are all in a line, and so placed, that the greater part of the work, as it passes from one end of the foundry to the other, receives, in succession, each operation which ought to follow the preceding one, so that little carrying backward and forward, or lifting up and down, is required. In the case of heavy parts of machinery, this arrangement is found exceedingly useful. means of a railroad, laid through, as well as all round the shops, any casting, however ponderous or massy, may be removed with the greatest care, rapidity, and security. Thus nearly all risk of those frightful accidents, which sometimes occur to the men, is removed. By LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE AND TOOL-MAKING. 61 There Nearly one uniform width is preserved throughout all the workshops of this extensive concern, namely, 70 feet; and the height of each is 21 feet to the beam. The total length of shops on the ground floor, already built, amounts, in one line, to nearly 500 feet. are, besides, four flats of the front building, each 12 feet high, 100 feet long, and 60 feet wide. Into these rooms a perfect flood of light is admitted by very large windows on the side walls, as well as through skylights in the roof. The foundry occupies one portion of this building, namely, 130 feet by 70 feet, in which great apartment or hall there is not a single dark corner; a point of vast importance where the operations are conducted with a black material, namely, the moulding sand. The iron is melted in one or more of four cupolas, according to the weight of the casting. The cupolas vary from three to six feet in diameter, and when all are in active operation, melt thirty-six tons of iron. The great cauldron or pot, in which the metal is contained, is placed, during its transit from the furnace, on a carriage, which moves along a railroad in front of the four cupolas; and thus any portion of melted metal can be received and conveyed, with the most surprising rapidity and ease, to any point of the surface of this great hall. These great pots contain, at times, each six or seven tons of melted iron, and, by means of two cranes, whose arms sweep every part of the foundry, are handed from place to place as if wholly devoid of weight. The crane posts are two great cast-iron columns, around which the cranes swing. The columns serve at the same time as supports to the roof, and by proper ties, the strain of such great weights is diffused over the whole building, and each brick made to share the load. The blast of air for the furnaces is supplied by a fanner, five feet in diameter, made to revolve at the rate of 1,000 revolutions per minute, the air or blast being conveyed under ground in a brick tunnel, from which it is distributed to each furnace by sheetiron pipes, varying from three to nine inches, according |