The pig iron merchants of Great Britain have concluded an agreement whereby in their new contracts certain specified brands of American pig iron will be tenderable against speculative contracts in the United Kingdom. Fourteen Acerican brands are listed, of which 10 are from Alabama, and four from Tennessee. The new arrangement will allow the delivery of American brands instead of British in the event of any attempt to establish a corner in the latter. Springer & Lister, Knoxville, Tenn, founders and machinists, have not purchased the entire equipment for the new plant. So far two lathes, one drill, one shaper, hand saw, engine and boiler, and some other equipment has been secured. The firm will pay particular attention to the manufacture of marble working machinery. The organization of the Sumter Machinery Company, Charleston, S. C., is about completed, and the erection of buildings for the foundry and machine shop is expected to be started within the next two months. The company will do a general foundry and machine business. when the plant resumes coal will be substituted for gas as fuel. An appeal has been made to the resi dents of Muncie to subscribe for $25,000 worth of treasury stock, but there does not seem to be much prospect that the stock will be taken. Next year will probably show the greatest amount of pig iron ever produced in the United States. The year just closed shows less than 1903, which is the banner year so far. The output was curtailed during the latter part of 1903 and the first few months of 1904. The J. V. Newlin Manufacturing Company has completed the erection of its new foundry at Sebring, O., and expects to build a machine shop in the spring. The foundry is 60x80 feet and the machine shop will be of similar size. The Fleetwood Foundry & Machine Company, works, Fleetwood, Pa., were burned, December 8. The loss is between $18,000 and $20,000 which is fully covered by insurance. The firm will probably rebuild. The rail and steel employes of the Illinois Steel Company accepted lower wages and a 12 hour working day which went into effect January 1, in the plant at South Chicago. The American Rolling Mill Company is considering whether it will continue the operation of its plant at Muncie, Ind., or move it to Chicago. The furnaces and boilers are being taken down and Decatur, Ind., has voted a subsidy of $28,000 to secure the railroad shops of the Toledo, St. Louis & Western road. A refrigerator plant, roundhouse, etc., will also be erected. Efficiency of Steam E .-C. O. Mailloux, in the course of the discussion on steam turbines at the recent meeting of the American Street Railway Association, at St. Louis, stated that in Berlin there is a triple-expansion, four-cylinder reciprocating engine of 5,000 h.-p., which in running at very nearly full load has developed one horse-powerhour for something less than 9 lb. of water per 1 h.-p., with superheat up to 600°. This is possibly the best on record in steam engineering practice. However, this engine has 16 valves, complicated mechanism, and requires a great deal of lubrication, wherefore the cost of attention, maintenance, lubrication, etc., may make it really less economical in total cost than some other engine using more steam. Cement Made in Belgium-United States Consul S. H. Haine, at Antwerp, reports that Belgian cement manufacturers have lost almost all their American market. The United States was formerly one of the best customers of Belgian manufacturers, but within the last two or three years has practically emancipated itself from European manufacturers, and produces a surplus, which, it is expected, will be offered on European markets. This has caused a serious depression there, where prices reached in 1903 their very lowest limit. Many factories have been transformed, both as to machinery and methods, in order to meet the depression. Germany's Raw Iron production -According to the figures of the Society of Iron and Steel Manufacturers of Germany, the production of raw iron in Germany in the month of October was 868,523 tons, against 833,578 tons in the previous month and 869,463 tons in the same month of last year. This amount is divided as follows: Cast raw iron, 173,574 tons; Bessemer raw iron, 26.817 tons; Thomas raw iron, 547,890 tons; raw iron for steel manufacture, 56,072 tons; general sorts, 64,170 tons. October, 1904, was the best month for the German steel and iron trade since November, 1903. -William F. Wright, Consul-General, Munich, Germany. Work Started On Canadian Plant. The Canadian Car Con.pany, limited, has been incorporated with a capital stock of $3,000,000 with $1,000,000 in preferred and $2,000,000 in common stock. The majority of the stock is owned by Canadians, and the balance is in the bands of the Pressed Steel Car Company. The launching of the new industry will bring orders for equipment of the plant to Pittsburg and will take some of its skilled and common labor. Some of the officers are Pittsburg men who are well acquainted with and know all the details of the ineustry. The plant will be operated under Pressed Steel Car Company methods. Contracts have been placed for a large amount of furnishing. Work on the plant has been started. It is located on the outskirts of Montreal, on the bank of the Lachine canal. The property embraces 60 acres, of which 15 acres will be covered with buildings. When completed the plant will have a capacity of 30 freight cars per day and 10 passenger cars per month. The officers are: W. P. Coleman, formerly vice president of the American Car & Foundry Com. pany, president and general manager; H. Montague Allan, of the Allau Steamship Company, vice president; P. G. Jenks. treasurer of the Pressed Steel Car Company, treasurer; S. E. Moore, auditor of the Pressed Steel Car Company, auditor. The other members of the board are: L. Pease, manager of the Royal Bank of Canada; Frederic Nichols, general manager of the Canadian General Electric Company; H. S. Holt, capitalist; F. N. Hoffstot, president Pressed Steel Car company, and J. W. Friend, vice president Pressed Steel Car Company. Patents. The following patents, issued December 27. 1904, are reported expressly for The AMERICAN MANUFACTURER by J. M. Nesbit, Patent Attorney, Park Building, Pittsburg, Pa., from whom printed copies may be secured for 15 cents each Elastic-fluid turbine, C. G. Curtis, New York; relief valve, G. C. Davis, Chicago; process of electric welding, A. F. Reitzel, Lynn, Mass.; combined internal-combustion and air engine, H. F. Wallman, Chicago; steam-turbine, P. C. Oscanyan, Newark, N. J.; coal-crusher, G. W. Perry, Tuscarora, Pa.; pumping-power, D. E. Norris, Tiona, Pa.; rodpacking, D. H. Stewart, Avalon, Pa.; reeder for belt conveyer, L. J. Ross, Pittsburg assignor to Heyl and Patterson, Inc., same place; glass-grinding machine, C. L. Goehring and William Troche, Akron, Ohio; valve for blowing engine, A. T. Keller, Wilkinsburg, Pa.; elastic fluid turbine. Elof Meden, New York; insulating material and process of producing same, F. H. Bruening, Pittsburg; feedwater regulator, J. W. Lytton, Portsmouth, Va.; gas-producer, S. T. Wellman, C. H. Wellman and J. W. Seaver, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor to the Wellman-Seaver Engineering Company., same place; rotary engine, Ernest Buchholtz, London, England; equalizing gear for reciprocating prime movers, Maximillian Neumayer, New York; steamtrap, J. W. Lytton, Portsmouth, Va.; glass-molding apparatus, G. A. Marsh, Sandusky, Ohio; underfed stoker, E. E. Taylor, Boston, Mass.; apparatus for making tubes, Malcolm Wikstrom and A. C. Morse, Shelby, Ohio, assignor to Shelby Steel Tube Company, same place. Many Changes in Official Positions- The industrial plants of this district started in the new year with great activity. The Neville Island furnace of the American Steel and Wire Company has again resumed operations, after months of idle ness. There were some important changes in officialdom: Captain L. T. Brown, superintendent of the Upper and Lower Union mills of the Carnegie Steel Company, retired from the service and was succeeded by H. R. Shotter, under whose direction pass also the old Brown mills and the LindsayMcCutcheon mills in Allegheny. F. H. Nullmeyer, assistant superintendent of the Rankin mills of the American Steel and Wire Company, was transferred to Donora, succeeding John E. Lonngren, resigned. The redistricting of the mills of the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company, announced a couple of weeks ago, became effective. The resignation of Bethold Goldsmith, who will enter the copper business at Lisbon, Ohio, has resulted in the shifting of a number of district managers. T. C. Stevenson, now superintendent of the LaBelle tin mill at Wheeling, will have the Crescent mill at Cleve land, Ohio, the Falcon, at Niles, O., the Chester, W. Va., mill and one or two others. The Sharon mill is given to George Greer, in charge of the New Castle mills. The Star mill at Pittsburg and the two Kensington mills are given to J. R. Phillips, who is relieved of the Humbert mill at Connellsville, this mill being placed in charge of Robert Skemp, manager of the two sheet mils at Scotdale. THE SCHMIDT SMOKE TUBE STEAM SUPERHEATER. HERR SCHMIDT, of Wilhelmshohe, Cassel, Germany, the inventor of steam super heating devices, has brought out another form, which he calls a smoke superheater, shown in the illustrations. It will be noticed that the upper part of the boiler is provided with: two or three large fire tubes. which are about 4% inches inside diameter, but are, at the fire end, contracted to about 31⁄2 inches in diameter as shown in Fig. 1. Four weldless steel superheating tubes, arranged to form two double tubes, are inserted into each of these large fire tubes, and along the tubes for rather more than three-quarters of their length. Each of the double superheating tubes has its end in a flange, and this flange is bolted to a cast iron header having separate spaces or divisions in it. Some of the spaces receive the steam from the boiler before it has passed through the superheater tube, and the others receive the steam after it has passed through these tubes. The flanges in which the ends of the superheater tubes are fixed are so arranged that one end of each Couble tube is in communication with the space in the header which receives steam from the boiler, while the other end is in om munication with the space in the header that leads direct to the cylinders. In this way the whole of the steam passes through the different groups of superheater tubes. The hot gases passing along the large upper tubes give up their heat partly to the water in the boiler and partly to the steam within the superheater tubes, and the quantity of hot gases passing through the upper tubes can be regulated by a damper, which is kept closed by a counter weight when the steam regulator is closed but is automatically opened by means of a piston working in a small cylinder, which receives steam the moment the regulator is opened. This damper is shown in Fig. 1 in front of the inclined portion of the superheater tube in the smoke box. While getting up steam with the regulator closed, the hot gases do not, of course, pass through the upper fire tubes, and no steam enters the superheating tubes. When, however, the regulator is opened and steam flows to the engine through the superheater tube, steam also passes to the small cylinder which actuates the damper and the latter is opened. The piston in the small cylinder is so arranged that it acts as a valve when in its end position, so that leakage at the piston cannot give rise to loss of steam. The damper can also be actuated by hand from the foot plate if required. As the damper can only be closed when the steam blast is in action, it may be connected in such a manner that the blast cannot be turned on when the damper is open. As in the earlier forms of the Schmidt superheater, the cleaning of the large tubes and the supherheater tubes is effected by means of compressed air or steam, and it can be performed in this way much more quickly and satisfactorily than with brushes. No special funnel or hopper is required to receive the ashes. It is claimed for this superheater that by its use the total heating surface of the boiler is increased by about 5 per cent. while the cross sectional area of free passage for the gases of combustion remains about the same. It has also the great advantage that with it access can very readily be had to each group of tubes for inspection and repairs, without the entire superheater having to be taken to pieces. It can also be more readily fixed than the Schmidt smoke box superheater, espe cially to locomotives with inside cylinders. The additional weight its adoption places on a locomotive is about 1,100 pounds, and it is well adapted for fitting on existing engines. In connection with the use of superheated steam Herr Schmidt has devised a form of piston valve to work with very little friction, one of which we illustrate in Fig. 3. It is formed with solid nonsplit rings, but, as the difference in the degree of |