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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1911 Excerpt:...with which the oxyacetylene torch deals with tangled steel. The gas tanks had a capacity of 100 cu. ft., so that they could readily be moved about. But little work was done here by the ordinary hand-cutting process. The amount of gas used was about 14,000 cu. ft. of oxygen and about 3500 cu. ft. of acetylene. The cost for gas, with oxygen at 2.5 cents and acetylene at 1 cent, was about $385. Another example of the applicability of this process of cutting steel occurred in connection with some contracting work in New York. It was necessary to cut off the ends of steel girders projecting through a wall. The difficulty of access was no real difficulty to the torch. The oxygen tanks were readily put in the vicinity, and the acetylene was brought to the spot by suitable tubing. With the torch in hand, the workmen cut at any angle, close up or far away from the wall, through thick or thin steel, and so on. The contractor who used the process for the cutting of 242 running feet of 3/16-in. steel says that he knew of no other process except that which uses a portable emery wheel. He says also that this latter procedure would have been quite expensive. At 95 William Street, New York, a large steel tank made of J-in. plates had to be removed. The dimensions were 4x8x10 ft., and the working space on the exterior was only one foot. One method of cutting it up would have been by drawing the whole tank out a short distance and then cutting off a section by the use of the cold chisel, and then repeating the operation. With the cutting torch, however, the procedure was quite simple; and, in one day. the whole was cut up into 13 pieces. It is thought that any other method would have required a week or ten days. That the new process of cutting steel does not fail merely beca...