Pipe Casting at Pont-A-Mousson

Abstract

In April, 1920, during a visit to M. Ed. Imbeaux, Ingenieur de Ponts et Chaussees at Nancy, France, the speaker had the pleasure of visiting the pipe foundry of the Societe Anonyme des Hauts-Fourneaux et Fonderies at Pont-a-Mousson, France. As this is one of the two most important pipe foundries in France and as it went through an interesting experience during the war, perhaps a few notes in regard to the visit may be worth placing on record. Pont-a-Mousson is a small town north of Nancy on the Moselle River. It is in the region of the iron mines. The foundry was established in 1856. In 1879 the works covered 435 acres and employed over 1500 men. Just before the war the plant covered 4200 acres and had 6000 employees. It included five blast furnaces, twelve cupolas for melting the iron, foundry buildings which covered ten acres, two large shops, a power station and the dock on the river nearly half a mile long. In 1914 it had a capacity of 300,000 tons of castings a year, of which 150,000 tons represented cast iron pipe. The company also manufactured slag brick and cement. Its iron mines had an annual capacity of over a million tones of ore. The company also operates another large foundry at Foug, near Toul. Most of the cast iron pipe manufactured is known as universal or City of Paris pattern, but pipes of English, Swedish, and German patterns are also made. All pipes are coated with coal tar or Angus Smith coating and are tested under a pressure of 500 to 800 feet of water as required before coating. The French pipe differs somewhat from the American pipe. In general it is thinner and has heavier bells. The listed weights for light and heavy pipe correspond approximately to Classes A and В of the American Water Works specifications. All pipes have uniform outside diameters so that the thicker pipes have slightly less capacity than the