A COLOSSAL TOOL

Eighty-nine men are shown on the machine.

A MONG planing machines the premier place L\ must he accorded to a monster re * cently completed at the works of the Niles Bement Pond Company, Philadelphia. This huge tool weighs 422J tons—the avoirdu pois of half a dozen large locomotives—and requires motors with a total of 207J horse power to drive the table carrying the work to be planed, the slotter bars, and other moving parts.

The bed of the machine accounts for 130 tons of metal. It is 60 feet long, 13 feet wide, and 73 inches deep at the centre. Owing to its great weight the bed could not be trans ported as a single unit, and consequently was divided into seven parts, all machined and fitting together with the greatest accuracy. The table was, for the same reason, divided longitudinally down the centre into two por tions, each weighing over 30 tons.