Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/515

 Biggest Cast-iron Pipes in the World

�� � � �^■^Sk.

� � � �A

�s^

� �0r> 'j^tfM

� �1^

�l^B Sk

� �.♦■-«^^ ■

� �H&

�, ^^^H^ ^1

� �•• -r-jjlHi^^^L

� �^^^■JLiHI

�iiHil

�-«H'4

� � �■« J.-^

�mm

�1

� � � �W^^t-i,^^^^^

�3

��THE big gas-mains in the Astoria- Bronx Tunnel at New York are probably the largest cast-iron pipes ever made. The internal diameter is six feet; the thickness of metal is two and three-quarter inches; and the length twelve feet. The one end has the or- d i n a r y bell form; the other the spigot. The weight of one length is about twenty-six thousand pounds.

These mains are laid parallel and run down a shaft at As- toria on Long Island, along a tunnel two hundred and twenty-five feet below the surface, under East River, and then up a second shaft at One Hun- d r e d and Thirty-second Street and East River. They are to car- ry gas into the Bronx, the most rapidly grow- ing borough of New York city.

It is not an impossibility that the tunnel may sometime be flooded with

��A row of seventy-two-inch pipes for the Astoria

line, New York city. In the foreground is a spigot

joint with tee cut-off

���water. Under such circumstances it would not be desirable to have the long lines of iron tubes begin to float. While the pipes are heavy enough to prevent their floating, the margin is not

grea t. The weight of water dis- placed by a cylinder twelve feet long and seventy-seven and one-half inches in diameter is between twenty-four thousand and t w e n t y - f i V e thousand pounds. The overlap where bell-end en- compasses spigot-end complicates the matter a little, but after all allowances are made, there would prob- ably be a good solid weight to the pipe lines if the tunnel were full of water. The amount of lead used to calk the joints is about two hundred and twenty- The mains rest on concrete saddles set six feet apart.

��The small motor is driving eight steel knives which are cutting the pipe from the inside

��five pounds per joint.

��200,000!

In just eight months this magazine has doubled in circulation — it has grown from 100,000 to 200,000 copies.

Tell your friends to read the Popular Science Monthly. Tell them that the Popular Science Monthly gives all the news of invention and science, and that it is easy to read and full of pictures.

487

�� �