¿ 7 i f s a a The Magazine of Metalworking and Metalproducing AUGUST 30, 1943 V o lu m e 113 N u m b e r 9 All-welded tanker, constructed in 90 days, slides down the ways. Page 31. NEWS EDITORIAL STAFF Shipyards Get No Respite ................................ 31 E. L. S han Kit Editor-In-Chief Construction program stepped up for 1944 E. C. K reutzbbrg E ditor Coal ............................... 33 Renegotiation .................. 42 W.w. M. R o o n e y G. W. B i r d s a l l Net- vs Editor Engineering Editor Present, Past and Pending . 33 Postwar Planning ......... ___ 43 J. 1). K nox G uy H ubbard Steel C a p a c ity ...................... 34 W PB-OPA ....................... .... 44 Steel Plant Editor M achine Tool Editor Steelworks Operations .... 35 Men of Industry ........... .... 54 Arthur F. Macconochie Contributing Editor Steel Consumption ............. 36 O b itu a rie s ......................... .... 55 D. S. Cabot Labor ...................................... 37 Latin America ................ .... 56 A rt Editor NE Steel Specifications .... 37 Activities ......................... .... 57 Associate Editors Contract Terminations ..... 38 Pacific Coast .................. .... 58 G. II. M anlove W . J. C am pbell Irwin 11. Such, Eastern Editor Neiv York, B. K. Price, L. E. Browne Pittsburgh, R. I.. H artford Chicago, E. F. Ross Detroit, A. H. A lle n Washington, L. M. Lamm TECHNICAL London, Vincent Dblpokt Assistant Editors Welding the “Big Inch”— Our New Pipeline from Texas ................ 64 J. C. Sullivan, J ay D uE ulis, F . R . B riggs How a 5-mile-per-day pace was obtained in laying this line D. B. W ilkin J. M . K urtz User Report No. 18 on Experience with NE Alloy Steels ................ 6 6 BUSINESS STAFF Properties, processing of NE -9437 used as a b o ltin g m aterial G. O . H a y s Business Manager Electric Induction Heating Is Due to Resistance Loss ......................... 74 R. C. Jaenke Advertising Manager A simplified explanation of how induction heating works C. II. Bailf.y Advertising Service Principles Underlying Transportation of Materials ............................ 79 Ant- York, E. W. Kreutzberg, K. A. Zollnkr A timely review of some fundamentals in materials handling Pittsburgh, S. H. Jasper, B. C. Snell Chicago, L. C. Pelott, V. W. Volk Advanced Techniques in Forging Shell at Am bridge ............................ 82 Cleveland, D. C. K iefer, C. H. Cross Improved practices in billet cutting, forging, die design Los Angeles, F. J. F uller J. W. Zuber Circulation Manager Production of Low-Phos Charging Stock by Direct Reduction .... 8 8 Harman process for producing high-purity charging material Main Office Penton Building, Cleveland 13, Ohio Branch Offices New York 17....................................... East 42nd St. icago 11.......................520 North Michigan Ave. FEATURES ¿ £ 5 & 1 9 ....................... 280° lioppers Building vp ,. ........................................ 6560 Cass Ave. As the Editor Views the News 27 The Business Trend .............. 62 mgton 4 ...... .956 National Press Building Cincinnati 2 ................................ 2030 Carew Tower Windows of Washington ... 40 Industrial Equipm ent ............ 98 I* a n ** *** North New Hampshire Ave. Mirrors of Motordom 47 Helpful Literature .................... 105 n on- - ..2 Caxton Street, Westminster, S.W. 1 W in g Tips ................................ 50 Construction and Enterprise. 130 • • • t‘cnton<Rn l>y r-THE. P e n to !'' P u b lis h in g C o., g"Ja $,r' land 13- Ol,io- E- L- S h a k e r, President. v n'n Treo"ureri C. O. Hays. Vice , ’ * G. Steinebach, Secretary. Busin.Bureau of Circulations; Associated MARKETS A«aociation'1PCrS’ an,i N ational Publishers’ WPB Assuming Closer Control of D istribution .................................. m L 'niredsl'?^ Mo»day, Subscription in the Cuba ia , Possessions, Canada, Mciico, Machine Tool Backlogs Average Four M onths .................................... 124 1,11 ??U'h Amcrica- «"« >«r *6’ Single co n il.7 ” eonntnes, one year $12. New West Coast Ingot Price Recognizes Spread Over E a st................ 128 Ent 7 <currt,u issues) 25c. at Clsv.h.n^0011 j <datiB mfltter at the postoffice Index to Advertisers .................................................................................... 137 Copyright in l ' Act of March 3' 18™’ ‘ ■ *'U 1943 by the Penton Publishing Co. Where-to-Buy Products Index carried quarterly August 30, 1943 25 NICKEL AIDS THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY t o k e e p 'e m p / Oil is ammunition. On every battle drilled with wooden rigs and kerosene how:’ are now so vital to Victory ’ front, oil is war material number one. was shipped in oak barrels, oil men m en in all industries who desire ask­ Besides power for ships and subs, have relied largely on stressed parts ance in the selection, fabrication a* planes and tanks, trucks and Jeeps, it strengthened and toughened by addi­ heat treatm ent of ferrous a n d non ^ also provides the basic ingredients for tions of Nickel. rous m etals, In co engineers and me synthetic rubber, toluene for TNT, The o il industry knows many uses lurgists offer counsel and data. chemicals, and many other essential for Nickel alloyed materials, from crown war materials. q blocks to drill bits, from sucker rods to New Catalog Index To meet increased wartime demands pressure stills. Alone, or in combination for oil, field and pipeline equipment with other alloying elements, Nickel New Catalog C makes it easy for you to get Nickel litera­ carries heavier loads. Refineries make helps metals resist corrosion, retard ture. It gives you capsule longer runs at high heats and pressures. wear and absorb shock overloads. Prop­ synopses of booklets and bul­ letins on a wide variety of Engineers add sub-zero cycles and new erly used, a little N ickel goes a long subJects — from industrial ap­ catalysts. E quipm ent is taxed up to and way to insure dependable, uninter­ plications to metallurgical sometimes beyond rated capacity . rupted operation of production and re­ data and working instruc­ tions. Why not send for your precision equipment that cannot be fining units. copy of Catalog C today? readily replaced. For years the technical staff of Inter­ Despite emergency schedules, how­ national Nickel has been privileged to ever, that equipment rarely fails. For, cooperate with petroleum engineers since the days when shallow wells were whose pooled information and “know­ N i c k e l THE INTERNATIONAL NICKEL COMPANY, INC., 67 Wall St., New York 5> 26 AS THE EDITOR V IE W S THE NEWS August 30, 1943 What Price Renegotiation? War contract renegotiation, which subJect ranks High on the list oi problems to be tackled by Congress in September, has become unnecessarily involved. Anyone who reads carefully the arguments of the principals in this debate is forced to con­ clude that they have become so engrossed in detail that they are incapable of evaluat­ ing the broader issues at stake. In the first place, should contracts be renegotiated? The right answer, we be­ lieve, is that a few should be but that a maJority should not be. Pearl Harbor caused us to speed our war program. It is conceivable that in the urge to get going we drafted contracts hurriedly. We underestimated the effects ol repetitive operations on production costs. We underrated the American capacity for ingenuity, resourcefulness and simplification. We surprised our best experts by do­ ing better than they thought we could do. Unquestionably there was Justification in readJusting early contracts to compensate for our under estimates. Hut as time went on and as we learned from experience, we should have been evolving a technique in original contract negotiation which should have eliminated the necessity of renegotiation except in a few unusual instances. Instead of working steadily toward the ideal of a firm contract, we continued to temporize with loosely drawn “scraps of paper.” The result is that today we are in an awful mess. Moreover, we have gotten so far away from the original purpose of a contract that we are considering almost every factor except the one that counts. We are argu­ ing about prewar profits, postwar reserves, ability to pay, etc., etc., instead of fair pay for service rendered, which should be the primary consideration. Also, we seem to have overlooked entirely the psychological effect of renegotiation. It is about the most pro-IIitler device that could be conceived. It discourages efficiency in management and operation. It encourages waste, shiftlessness and boondoggling. It promotes complacency at a time when we should be fighting complacency vigorously. One argument advanced for renegotiation is that it saves money and prevents profiteering. We venture the opinion that except in some exceptional cases early in the war and in cases of voluntary renegotiation on the part of contractors, renegotia­ tion has not saved money or prevented profiteering to the extent that these obJec­ tives would have been served if we had had no renegotiation and had relied upon sound tax laws to take care of excessive profits. PIPELINE "KNOW HOW”: About 4 from the direct needs of the war program. Steel- o clock Saturday afternoon, Aug. 21, oil was drawn making, mill and equipment building capacity had from a tap near Linden, N. J., into a 5-gal. glass Jug. to be scheduled for the big Job of making pipe, ac­ The fluid was transferred from this Jug into numerous cessories, pumps, etc. fo r a 1400-mile line of 24-inch small glass vials fo r distribution as souvenirs. Re­ seamless steel pipe. A fter material and equipm ent cipients of these vials prized them because each con­ were supplied there still remained the task of digging tained a few ounces of the first oil to flow through the trench, welding the pipe, coating it for protec­ Big Inch,” the government's new pipeline from tion against corrosion, lowering it into place, install­ ing valves, and tying it in with 29 pump stations Texas to the north Atlantic seaboard.