ing problems that have confronted the steel industry in the housing field. Most serious has been the problem of putting the individual house on a production basis. Second has been the problem of competing against ordinary building construc
tion costs. Third has been the prob
lem of giving to the public the same flexibility of design in steel as has been possible with other materials.
“To solve these problems, the com
pany set out to combine architectural design, engineering, production and construction into a single merchan
dising organization, thus giving to the home owner the economies that result from a unified building pro
cedure. The company’s activities key right into the mass production meth
ods by which materials are produced and by which manufacturers pro
duce the parts and equipment that go into Arcy houses.”
The steel framework used in these houses is built up of so-called dia
mond sections. Three 1-inch steel angles are placed parallel to each other at the three corners of an equilateral triangle having sides 18 inches wide. Square 16-gage steel sheets are bent over one of these bars in the diagonal position so that the opposite corners of the sheets touch the other two bars. This as
sembly is joined by electric welding.
These sections come to the building
site welded together in fours where they are assembled into the building framework by field welding. On completion of the erection of the frame, steel stairs and window sash are put in place, also assembled by welding.
Erection Procedure
While the exterior finish, brick, stone, stucco or wood, is being ap
plied, the plumbing, wiring and air conditioning ducts are installed.
Planks of reinforced gypsum bound with tongue and groove steel edges are laid over the floor panels. Parti
tions of steel channel studs are set in place. The partitions in these houses are non-bearing and have no struc
tural value. A wire mesh fabric lath is wired to these studs and steel wall panels and baseboards placed in po
sition. The house then is about 90 per cent complete. After plastering, steel kitchen cabinets, wardrobes, plumbing fixtures and the like are installed.
The company, in conformity with its idea of préfabrication, buys as much material as it can from a single source, the steel industry.
Every Arcy home comes complete, with all details executed in accord
ance with a single contract. The kitchen has a stainless steel sink and is completely equipped with formed steel cabinets appropriately deco
rated. All working surfaces are fin
ished in linoleum bound with stain
less steel. Bathrooms have towel and medicine cabinets of the same formed steel type as the kitchen cabinets. Of the same type are the linen cabinets. Wardrobes in the bed
rooms are likewise formed of steel sheets, and are finished in enamel and recessed with door surfaces flush with the wall. They contain a space for hanging, one for storage and there are hat racks and ample drawer space.
The steel stairs may be finished in wood, rubber or linoleum. The stair rail may be wrought iron, stainless steel or wood. Interior trim, in
cluding base and window and door casings, is of formed steel sheet.
Walls of bath and kitchen are cov
ered with linoleum and all bathtub enclosures are of vitrified glass. W in dows are casement or double-hung, nonwarping. They are of electro
galvanized steel and are weather- stripped. The roof is of slate, shingle or composition roofing, depending on exterior design. Heating and air con
ditioning equipment of most modern type are furnished. All exterior met
alwork is copper.
Arcy Corp.’s plan for the coming year is to build a limited number of houses in the east and middle west.
Production will be stepped up gradu
ally.
B rick w ork fo llo w s ra p id ly after th e ste e l fr a m e w o r k has b e e n a s se m b le d . H ere is a view o f th e p a r tia lly
c o m p le t e d h o m e
C Ä R B U R I Z I N G
I t s H i s t o r y —S e le c t io n o f S t e e ls a n d T y p e o f C a s e —A N e w H a r d e n a b i l i t y T e s t —M a t e r i a l s a n d E q u i p m e n t —P r o d u c t io n P r a c t i c e
P A R T I
■ CARBURIZING, or “cai'bonizing”
as it was called until about 15 years ago, is one of the oldest of the fer
rous arts, in view of which consid
erable interest was attached to the comprehensive symposium on this subject held at the recent annual convention of the American Society for Metals in Atlantic City, N. J.
The 13 technical papers presented and their attendant discussion con
tributed a wealth of information valuable to practical man and re
search expert alike. Herewith S t e e l
presents an extended review' of the material included in the symposium.
Historical Background Antiquity of the carburizing process was analyzed by E. F. Davis, chief metallurgist, Warner Gear Co., Muncie, Ind., who pointed out that although the present box carburiz
ing still is termed “cementation” in Europe it is not an outgrowth of the well-known “cementation process,”
but it was one of the means of im
parting carbon to the hammered spongy iron made long before the Christian era.
Early workers in iron and steel did not know exactly the part played by carbon in hardening iron as it is known today, believing it to be some magical ingredient, celestial agency or phlogistic potency. Carburizing agents were referred to by such mystic terms as black ox blood,
“toade oyle,” fen moss, viper flesh, mummy powder and the like. Not until the sixteenth century did the iron and steel industry become suffi
ciently centralized and commercial
ized to lead to the debunking of these early myths.
Although there was much use made of carburizing during the middle ages, it was really the bicycle industry which gave the first im
portant stimulus to commercial ease hardening. As early as 1895 bear
ings and cones were being
car-burized, and copper plating was be
ing used as a carburizing resist.
Cost of carburizing during this period ran from 10 to 20 cents per pound and the quality of work usual
ly was poor.
Early furnaces were coal fired, and it was not until the introduction of fuel oil for furnaces that the now familiar square or rectangular box carburizing unit came into being, and in Europe it is even now used practically universally.
The period from 1910 to 1920 was one during which considerable car
burizing was done, mild steels of the carburizing grade predominating on automobile construction, covering nearly all gears, most stressed or wearing parts, and even crank
shafts. During this period the metal
lurgist gradually replaced the black
smith in superintending heat treat
ing operations, and the thermo
couple replaced the human eye.
Carburizing Compounds A milestone was the work on grain size of MeQuaid and Ehn in 1922, an outgrowth of their investi
gation of the variables in case-hard
ened work, which immediately was seized upon to make the steelmaker the goat for all the defects of case hardened work.
For many years, the chief car
burizing compound used as raw ground bone, later superseded by compounds of charred leather with bone, and bone with charcoal. A f t e r
1910 the trend was toward the ener
gized or chemical type of compound
— mixtures of charcoal, Solvay coke, retort carbon with energizers and catalysts such as iron oxide, sodium
T w o -r o w s t r a ig h t -t h r o u g h ty p e of c a r b u r iz in g fu rn a c e
4S / T E E L
phosphate and acetates, and the temperature was below the required limit, a red light when the tempera this principle for annealing. These are two-row chambers utilizing the
grained shallow hardening steels, it was discovered that such steels the reactions occurring between the steel during carburizing have been due to an enriched carbonaceous gas
zontal retort revolving on rollers and the retort externally heated by with electric heating units composed of round rods recessed in grooves
burized was placed in racks, on fix
Several mineral and vegetable oils alone and mixed have been em
ployed successfully. Some of these are turpentine, linseed oil, bone oil and nitrobenzine with kerosine. In some installations propane, city gas and natural gas have been substi disti'ibutes the vapor throughout the work and the decomposition of the
oped the continuous gas carburizer whereby a hydrocarbon gas is mixed sections of heat-resisting alloy. The composition most favored at present is one. of 35 per cent nickel and 15 baffling to solve. Occasionally there is a tendency to decarburize, some sulphur and various parasitic gases have not been definitely determined.
ly designed oil-fired furnace, using carburizing boxes which are de
signed to reduce the insulating ef
fect of the compound to a minimum, will produce carburized work about as economically as the gas furnace. production of carburized cases with a maximum carbon content con around a furnace rather than around
a given product. the effect of temperature, energizers and the like.