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calendar   Tuesday - November 01, 2011

Digging In To Local History

The Phoenix Column

An almost forgotten piece of the early Industrial Revolution



Drew drives around the corner to a window job and discovers a bit of history. It started with bridges but ended with improved artillery.

I took my favorite back road to a customer’s house the other day to give them a window bid. I didn’t get the job, but only because they wanted the work done right now and I’m going on vacation. So I hang a left in Cherryville and go down Hogback Road across the farm fields, into the trees and under the railway bridge that runs along the ridge, and come out in a little trout park in a sudden “middle of nowhere”. My county is like that; you’re on a major highway, you get off onto a main local road, you take two side streets and go half a mile and it’s like you’ve suddenly jumped to the Ozarks and gone back 50 years in time.

So I come through the underpass and there’s one of those “one lane bridge ahead” signs, and I find myself on yet another Victorian fairy bridge that I never knew was there. I call them fairy bridges, because as bridges go, these seem to be hardly more than iron versions of a few jungle vines. Another bridge that hardly deserves the name, compared to the fairly massive contstructs of reinforced structural concrete and massive steel I-beams that modern short bridges are. I couldn’t stop then, but after I did the estimate I parked there and gave the place a good look. I wish I had my camera with me, but hey, the internet provides:


image

the Lower Landsdowne Rd bridge. Photo courtesy of historicbridges.org



I thought at first that this was another one of Lowthorp’s wonders like the one here in Clinton, one of those combination cast iron and wrought iron creations from the 1870s that dot our landscape; I wrote about them a couple weeks ago. But a minute’s examination told me different. Sure, it was another one of those pinned Pratt truss creatures, a through truss this time instead of a pony truss, but the pieces were seriously different. This bridge was made out of round sections like Lowthorp’s creations, but they were flanged and covered with rivets. The eyebars were square sectioned and had a hand hammered look, and I didn’t see the famous adjusting mechanisms where the chords and uprights came together. Ok, the builder’s plaque was different too, but that didn’t mean much as little bridges were often jobbed out to subcontractors. Time for some internet research.

The skewed 5-panel pin-connected 1885 Pratt thru truss bridge is supported on random ashlar abutments and has Phoenix columns for the compression members. The Phoenix section members are joined by compression fittings into cast iron nodes at the panel points. Shop marks and numbers are cast into all parts. The well-preserved bridge, one of the earliest known examples of Dean & Westbrook of NYC, is historically and technologically significant. It is the only skewed Phoenix section span in NJ.
...
A peculiar feature of this bridge is the manner in which the skew of the abutments was accommodated within the truss framing. All floor beams are perpendicular to the bridge centerline with the unequal panel length due to the skew taken up in the end panels. On this bridge the incline of the portals were kept parallel and the end panel of the top chords are of unequal length. This arrangement causes the top chord pins at the end panel points only to be offset from the bottom chord pins so that the end panel hangers are inclined.
...
What distinguishes this cast- and wrought-iron example is the use of Phoenix section columns and cast nodes for connection of the Phoenix-section elements and the way the skew of the abutments was accommodated within the truss framing. Its historical significance is increased by the fact that it is a documented example of the work of New York City-based fabricator Dean & Westbrook, a firm that took over the erection of highway bridges through a contractual arrangement with the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville, PA. Dean & Westbrook built highway bridges with Phoenix columns until 1896. The Lower Lansdowne Road bridge is one of about ten bridges in New Jersey that are built with Phoenix sections between 1878 and 1895.
...
Correspondence in the Phoenix Iron Company records preserved at the Hagley Museum and Library reveals that when this bridge was ordered, the wrong skew connecting pieces were shipped to the site. The error was not discovered until the bridge was being erected. The correct connecting pieces had to be ordered from Phoenixville.

Score! HistoricBridges.org is a fantastic web site. But what the heck are Phoenix columns? I’m thinking some kind of odd construction method that pulled the iron up from the fire and ashes, or used recycled metal and gave it a rebirth or something, but as usual my fanciful conjectures are far too romantic. This is a Phoenix column:

image

It’s a wrought iron column made from 4, 6, or 8 pieces, heavily flanged, and tightly riveted together. They were invented by Samuel Reeves in 1862 and were made by the Phoenix Iron Company that he was a co-owner of. A phoenix column is at least as strong as a cast iron column of the full flange diameter, considerably stiffer, and much easier and less expensive to produce. Back in the day when the steel I-beam wasn’t yet available, and the iron I-beam wasn’t quite yet universal, Phoenix columns were used to make tall buildings, towers, and bridges. The Phoenix Iron Company in Phoenixville PA (28 mile NW of Philly) made a fortune making these things, and even had their own bridge building subsidiary company for a number of years. Eventually the Phoenix Column was bypassed by history, due both to the emergence of good steel and by the difficulty other builders had integrating the things with standard iron works. You had to use the cast iron end cap that was only made by the Phoenix Iron Company, and that added too much cost. I-beams were easier.

So almost all the upper parts of this little bridge were made from Phoenix Columns, and they are quite tiny. I doubt if any of them is more than 8” across, and about a third of that span is taken up by the flanges. Like I said, fairy bridges. They’re so thin and light they’re almost difficult to see. Neato!

Even more neato: Looking a bit into the Phoenix Bridge Company and the Phoenix Iron Company, I found that these bridges were built out of common pieces, boxed up, and sold by mail order. Bridge in a Box, some assembly required. That explains the “wrong skew connecting pieces” line in the quote above. You could order your bridge plain or fancy and in various lengths. The one in this picture, near the old factory in Phoenixville PA, is nearly identical to the bridge I saw on Landsdowne Road. It’s just a little longer and made from the next size up 4 part columns, and you can see how the through sections across the top were later replaced with plain square or L section metal. Another one is here, a fancy model with all the trimmings, but it’s still right out of the catalog. The IKEA solution to infrastructure development.

So how did the Phoenix Iron Company get so good at cranking out curved bits of iron, when everyone else was making T, H, and I section beams (and railroad track)? They had lots and lots of experience at bending sheet iron into curves. It turns out that the PIC had another aspect to their company. Sure, they made train tracks and railroad spikes too, but they were also a part of the early military industrial complex. Prior to the Civil War they made Dahlgreen guns for the Navy, lumbering fat assed cannons made in moulds from cast iron. Casting cannons is a difficult task, and even if you do it properly they take a week to cool off and often have weak spots in them. Enter John Griffen, an engineer working for the company. He came up with the bright idea that the guns could be made in layers, almost like Damascus steel. Griffen patented the idea of making cannons by hammer welding criss-crossed iron straps together over a mandrel, and then carving and boring the guns to shape with a lathe. He modestly called it the Griffen Gun, but the Army knew it as the 10 pound Ordnance Rifle. And they bought at least 1000 of them, at $350 each. And those were 1862 dollars, thank you.

imageimage

Two 10 pound rifles: 3” bore Griffen Gun left, 3” bore Parrot Rifle right

The Griffen Gun weighed about 100 pounds less than the Parrot Rifle, making it easier to maneuver. Both could use a full pound of coarse blackpowder to shoot a 10 pound shell over a mile with accuracy in a flat arc. Visit just about any Civil War battlefield and you’ll see them: the short cannons with the ridges, belled muzzles, and fancy embellishments are 12 pounder Napoleons, either in iron (Union) or bronze (CSA); the smooth sided, industrial looking guns are Griffens, and the long barreled guns with the extra sheet of iron wrapped around the breech end are Parrots. Parrot guns were made from cast iron, and had the wrought iron sleeve added later. They needed it, because it kept the gun from exploding. Cast iron is the wrong stuff for guns. The Griffen did not explode, period. It was much stronger than the Parrot, and preferred by artillerymen on both side of that conflict. You can spot the Griffens easily, even though the South had their own copy cat version. All of them have PIC engraved on the bang end.

image

So there you go. I dig into local bridge history and come up with robust artillery. Love it.


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Posted by Drew458   United States  on 11/01/2011 at 07:36 AM   
Filed Under: • ArchitectureDaily LifeHistory •  
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