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INDUSTRIAL A N D ENGINEERING CHEXISTRY
Vol. 21, No. 8
AMERICAN CONTEMPORARIES George C. Stone
A
MONG his acquaintances the mention of the name of hlr. pany’s officials, stationed a t a somewhat remote plant, said he Stone brings t o mind a character and figure quite outside particularly valued Mr. Stone’s visits because when one was the ordinary. Imagine the head of Queen Victoria’s far from a great scientific library the lack of opportunity to Lord Salisbury with white hair and a white bushy beard. consult such an institution could largely be remedied by opportuPicture a man with well-built, supple frame and ease of movenity t o confer with Mr. Stone. These illustrations are the more ment, clothed in loose-fitting British tweeds. Give him a gravity a p t because, like the reference library, Mr. Stone must be of bearing which is heightened by a pair of gold spectacles applied t o if one wishes to tap his store of knowledge. Modest, and lightened by the smoke of an ever almost t o a fault, it is not characteristic present cigarette, and you have a sketchy of him t o thrust his wares upon those outline of Mr. Stone in his seventieth who do not seek them. For those who year. Strange though it may seem, his ask he is ready and generous. portrait if taken today would be almost It is a privilege t o work with and to an exact likeness of Mr. Stone a t forty-five. be with a gentleman so learned and kindly In character and disposition no less than as Mr. Stone. While he can be firm and in outward appearance he is the same even abrupt with one who persists in a today as he was twenty-five years ago, a theory which practice has proved unsound, serene and quiet student and scholar, rarely he is sure t o be patience itself in discussruffled, rarely excited, pretty firmly coning with juniors any problem which is vinced that there is little new under the new t o them or which, by some rare sun. chance, may be new t o him. Nobody He came t o The New Jersey Zinc Comwho merely seeks the truth need fear t o pany in 1882 with the background of his consult him; but, as was once said of a studies and his graduation at the Columbia noted leader in the zinc business, “if you School of Mines followed by three years’ don’t want his opinion you’d best not work as a wage-earner in the practice of ask it.” Eminent as Mr. Stone has become in chemistry. For forty-seven years in the science as applied t o zinc metallurgy, he Zinc Company’s employ, Mr. Stone has has also, like many deep students, disgiven of his constantly increasing store of tinguished himself in a n avocation in scientific education and experience in solvGeorge C. Stone which he has sought the intellectual ing problems of chemistry and metallurgy. Beginning as chemist, advanced in two years t o superintendent refreshment of a n 01itside interest. Mr. Stone’s avocation or of blast furnaces, for five years superintendei n t of all operations hobby is a somewhat unusual one. It consists of collecting anof the company’s Newark plant, and since 1900 a t the coni- cient armor and arm s. So long and diligently and with such pany’s main office, first as chief engineer and 1ater as chief metaldiscrimination has he been devoting his leisure hours t o this spelurgist, his activities have touched practically every branch of the cialty that his collection is now the finest and most complete outside those in public museums. In fact, a large number of industry from zinc mining t o the manufacture and distribution of all primary zinc products. his treasures are now placed a t the hletropolitan Museum in One might thoughtlessly say that Mr. Stone has forgotten hTewYork City. more than most other people have ever known of the zinc Mr. Stone, in the practice of his profession, has traveled far industry, but the expression would be inexact, because Mr. Stone and wide. Australia, Africa, much of Europe, and many of seems never t o have forgotten anything. What he knew once the remote parts of North America have been touched by his itineraries. His journeys have yielded great gains t o his fund of he knows now. With such equipment he is, as he has been for years, a sort of reference bureau for his company. One knowledge. He still proceeds sturdily and persistently t o accuof his colleagues, himself a man of great learning, once remarked mulate knowledge and armor specimens. He bids fair t o continue for a score of years. His many friends hope that he will. that “Mr. Stone comes nearer to being a human encyclopedia H . S. WARDNER than any other man I ever knew.” Another of the Zinc Com-
Research on Cold-Working of Steel A new laboratory for research on the cold-working of steel has just been opened a t Sheffield University, Sheffield, England. It has been established with the aid of a generous gift from the Iron Mongers’ Company, of London, which has made a grant of approximately $4000 a year for seven years to endow a fellowship and two scholarships. The firms connected with the cold-working industry have, through the Cutlers’ Company, presented the necessary plant. The mechanical equipment includes a wire- and bar-drawing machine. By means of a two-speed gear and variable-speed
motor, wire-drawing speeds of from 28 to 360 feet a minute may be obtained and wires can be drawn of all sizes up to inch in diameter, and rods up to 1 inch diameter. The rolling plant has hardened steel rolls 10 inches in diameter and 10 inches in face and is fitted with two-speed gear box and variable-speed motor, giving a range of rolling speeds from 52 to 319 feet a minute. The lubrication is by a patent flood system. Water cooling is provided for the rolls and roll bearings and for the oil in connection with the lubrication system.
