Treating of loam, dry sand and green sand moulding, and eont'dning a practical treatise upon the management of cupolas and the melting of iron. By Tlmmas S. West, praetie.d Iron mouhler and Foundry foreman, ~fully illustrated) New York, John Wiley & Sons, 15 Astor Plaee, 1882. This is a work such as only a practical moulder could write, and just the kind of a work needed by those engaged in the craft.
The subject, a very dry one, would not promise agreeable reading, but the way the author has handled it shows how a very great amount of instruction, even on so uninteresting a subjeet as moulding in sand, may be rendered pleasing reading matter.
There is a vein of humor running through the infbrmation conveyed, whieh ealmot hel t) but interest the working moulder, and lead him to peruse its pages, Mien, if there was nothing beyond the mere information afforded by the subjeer, lie would probably only rethr to just such parts as for the moment were wanted.
The whole subject of moulding in green sand, in dry sand and in loam, is well handled, and numerous examples are given of how to mould patten]s, seleeted for their known difficulty, as experieneed by the author himself. Making castings with but small parts of patterns and cores without boxes. To lie able to make castings from patterns, finished in eve W detail, is not so very difficult a matter, but to be able to make good, serviceable castings with only a trowel, a few pieces of wood, and the tbundry floor~ shows a master hand worthy of the name of moulder. The author does not go so deep as this, but leads eonsiderably thrther in that direction than is generally practiced in the workshops of this country.
The ehapters on contraction of" castings, and feeding the moulds to prevent it, straining of the mouhls, burning on of metal, and mixing and melting o~ iron, are well mapped out. The work is also interspersed with numerous wood-eats, showing the manner in which certain work should be performed, making the author's meaning dearer. The illustrations showing improved tbrms of iron eupolas, air furnaces, foundry ladles, and ingot moulds, etc., are particularly good and valuable to all interested in the mannfhcmre of iron and steel. The book successfully fills a want, and every mechanic would profit by reading it.
W.M. H