Queries. [Volume: 8, Issue: 3, 1889, pp. 147-152]

152

UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF

[VOL. 8,

result not only directly, but indirectly, by influencing the chemical composition.
The following is an analysis of a remarkably strong wheel with
good chill, 33" double plate wheel, weight 569 lbs., cracked
slightly at 20th blow of a Pennsylvania railroad test drop, not
broken at 425th blow of same drop. It then broke at the 3d
blow of a 600 lb. drop falling 12 feet. The chill of this wheel
was hard, one-quarter inch deep at root of flange and one-half
inch deep in tread.
Per Cent.
Silicon,................. 0.734
Manganese,.............. 0.438
Phosphorus,.............. 0.428
Sulphur,................ 0.080
Total carbon,.............. 4.330? (approximate).
Graphitic carbon.......... 3.083? 4
Combined carbon,........ 1.247? "
Copper,................ 0.029
A. W. WHITNEY,
Philadelphia.
ONE of the standard arguments brought forward against the
iron trade, is excessive profits from manufacturing processes, and
yet. one or two failures are sufficient to practically weaken general
confidence in the stability of the business. The necessity for
large investment of capital in the production and manufacture of
iron is generally recognized, the returns from this capital are as
commonly believed to be satisfactory, if not excessive, which it is
fair to presume should inspire confidence; and yet, general demoralization seems to follow in the wake of business failures in the
iron-trade, which if occurring in other lines of investment would
attract little attention outside of those closely associated with the
organizations affected. The production or manufacture of iron is
very sensitive to mismanagement, and insufficient capital soon results in precipitating disaster, but the fact that one iron works
succumbed to extravagant management, or that another was
rendered unremunerative by reason of excessive interest charges,
should not work general mistrust in a business which is among the
most stable; nor should confidence in the iron-trade be weakened
by failures directly traceable to errors in judgment or mistakes in
execution which are not more numerous proportionately than in
other lines of business. If the profits are as great as generally
believed, a few failures should have little effect on the industry.