DBPAETMBNT OF THE IIBULLETIN

OF THfc

UNITED STATES

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

No. 25

THE PRESENT TECHNICAL CONDITION OF THE STEEL 

INDUSTRY OK THE UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1 8 S 5

A. D V K! R T I S EJ M E 3ST T.

[Bulletin No. 25.]

The publications of the United States Geological Survey are issued in accordance with the statute, 

approved March 3, 1879, which declares that 

"The publications of the Geological 'Survey shall consist of the annual report of operations, geological and economic maps illustrating tho resources and classification of the lands, and reportsnpon 

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II. Report of the Director of the United States Geological Survey for 1880-'81, by J. W. PowelL

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m. Third Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, 1881-'82, by J. "W. PowelL

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The Fifth and Sixth Annual Reports are in press.

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Of the Monographs, Nos. II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII are now published, viz:

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tU. Geology of the Comstock Lode and the Washoe District, with atlas, by George F. Bocker. 1882.

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IV. Comstook Mining and Miners, by Eliot Lord. 1883. 4°. xiv, 451pp. 3 pi. Price $1.50.

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VI. Contributions to the Knowledge of the Older Mesozoio Flora of Virginia, by Wm. M. Fontaine. 

1883. 4°. xl, 144 pp. 541. 54 pi. Price $1.05.

VTI. Silver-lead Deposits of Eureka, Nevada, by Joseph S. Curtis. 1884. 4°. xlil, 200 pp. 16 pL 

Price $1.20.

VTH. Paleontology of the Eureka District, by Charles D. "Waloott. 1884. 4°. xlii, 298 pp. 21L 

24 pi. Price $1.10.

£2310
ADVERTISEMENT.

» 

The following are in press, viz:

IX. Brachiopoda and Lamellibranchiata of the Earitan Clays and Greensand Marls of New Jersey, 

by EobertP. Whitfield. 1885. 4°. ix, 338pp. 35 pi.

X. Dinocerata. A Monograph of an Extinct Order of Gigantic Mammals, by Othniel Charles Marsh. 

1885. 4°. , pp. 56 pi.

XI. Geological History of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary Lake of Northwestern Nevada, by Israel 

Cook Kussell. 1885. 4°. xiv,288pp. 46 pi. 

The following are in preparation, viz: 

I. The Precious Metals, by Clarence King.

 Geology and Mining Industry of Leadville, with atlas, by S. F. Emmons.

 Geology of the Eureka Mining District, Nevada, with atlas, by Arnold Hague.

 Lake Bonneville, by G. K. Gilbert.

 Sauropoda, by Prof. 0. C. Marsh. i

 Stegosauria, by Prof. 0. C. Marsh.

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The Bulletins of the Survey will contain such papers relating to the general purpose of its work as 

do not properly come under the heads of ANNUAL BEPORTS or MONOGRAPHS.

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5. A Dictionary of Altitudes in the United States, compiled by Henry Gannett. 1884. 8°. 325 pp. 

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6. Elevations in the Dominion of Canada, by J. W. Spencer. 1884. 8°. 43 pp. Price 5 cents.

7. Mapoteca Geologica Americana. A catalogue of geological maps of America (North and South), 

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8. On Secondary Enlargements of Mineral Fragments in Certain Eocks, by B. D. Irving and C. B. 

Van Hise. 1884. 8°. 56 pp. 6 pi. Price 10 cents.

9. A Beport of work done in the Washington Laboratory during the fiscal year 1883-'84. F. W.* 

Clarke, chief chemist; T. M.Chatard, assistant. 1884. 8°. 40pp. Price 5 cents.

10. On the Cambrian Faunas of North America. Preliminary studies hy Charles Doolittle Walcott.

1884. 8°. 74 pp. 10 pi. Price 5 cents.

11. On the Quaternary and Becent Mollusca of the Great Basinj with Descriptions of New Forms, by 

B. Ellsworth Call; introduced by a sketch of the Quaternary Lakes of the Great Basin, by G. K. 

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12. A Crystallographic Study of the Thinolite of Lake Lahontan, by Edward S. Dana. 1884. 8°. 

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16. On the higher Devonian Faunas of Ontario County, New York, by J. M. Clarke. 1885. 8°. 

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17. On the Development of Crystallization, etc., by Arnold Hague and J. P. Iddings. 1885. 8°. 

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ADVERTISEMENT.

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24. List of Marine Mollusca, comprising the Quaternary Fossils and recent forms, from American 

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25. The Present Technical Condition of the Steel Industry of the United States, by Phineas Barnes. 

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Mineral Resources of the United States, 1883 and 1884, by Albert Williams, jr. 1885. 8°. xiv, 1016 

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POSTAL NOTE OB MONET OBDER, should be addressed

To THE DIRECTOR OF THE

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

Washington, D. 0. 

WASHINGTON, D. C., /September 5,1885..

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

BULLETIN

OF THE

UNITED STATES

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

No. 25

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING 'OFFICE 

1885

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY

J. W. POWELL DIRECTOR

\

* THE PRESENT 1A ECHNICAL CONDITION

\ »

I OF THE

STEEL INDUSTKY

OF THE

UNITED STATES

BY

PHINEAS BARNES

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1885

CONTENTS.

Page.

Letter of transmittal.......................................................... 7

Introductory.................................................................. 9

Haw material ................i................................................ 11

Carbon .._................................................................ 12

Silicon................ .................................................... 13

Manganese ............................................................... 13

Sulphur .................................................................. 13

Phosphorus ................ ....................................^...... .... 14

Rare metals in combination ............................................... 14

Processes ....:.............................................................--. 14

Crucible process .......................................................... 15

Bessemer process.......................................... ................ 17

Open-hearth process ................ ...................................... 18

Furnaces ........ .............. ............................................... 20

Fuels......:... ......................................... ...................... 34

Refractories .................................................................. 38

Converting methods ............ ............................................... 39

Basic process ...................... ........................................... 41

Apparatus.................................................................... 45

Steam machinery ............................................................. 46

Hydraulic machinery.......................................................... 49

Finishing machinery ...... ..................................................... 51

Steel castings ................................................................. 65

Steel plates..... .................... ......................................... 70

General methods and requirements in testing .................................. 72

Recent applications of steel ................................................... 78

Index ..................................... .................................. 83

(341-342)

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

UNITED^ STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

DIVISION OP MINING STATISTICS,

Washington, D. C., July 25, 1885.

SlE: I have the honor to transmit herewith a paper by Mr. Phineas 

Barnes on The Present Technical Condition of the Steel Industry of 

the United States. This paper is supplementary to the report of this 

division entitled u Mineral Eesources ofthe United States, 1883 and 1884." 

Mr. Barnes, in this essay, gives a general view of existing conditions 

and practice, which is of special interest at the present moment in view 

of the rapidly advancing strides made by the important industry under 

discussion.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ALBEET WILLIAMS, JR.,

Geologist in Charge. 

Hon. J. W. POWELL,

Director United States Geological Survey.

(343-344) * 7

THE PRESENT TECHNICAL CONDITION OF THE STEEL 

INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES.

By PHINEA.S BARNES.

 INTRODUCTORY.

Any general statements concerning the technology of the steel industry of the United. States should comprise a description of the raw 

materials, including, fuels, which are used in connection with it 5 the 

processes of manufacture to which these materiajs are subjected, including the machinery and apparatus; and also the uses for which the 

metal is employed, including the tests by which its fitness for these 

purposes io determined and actually measured. Such general statements if extended sufficiently to cover only an approximate detail would 

necessarily be lengthy, and at best could do only scant justice to the 

painstaking labor and study which have been expended upon the development of the manufacture of steel at every stage of its progress and 

during many years past. It is needful therefore in this paper that thesimplest outlines only of the whole advance in this department of metallurgy should be sketched, and that the endless detail, however important, of the remote past should be neglected in favor of the costly efforts 

to promote the art at the present day by a reduction of the cost of manufacture and the widening of the fields of the actual use of the metal. 

It should also be clearly understood that wide differences exist, some 

being apparently irreconcilable, between men of extended and trustworthy experience, in respect to materials, methods, and tests of finished 

product. Hence any brief description must be confined in large part 

to the useful details upon which agreement is general, and must seek 

to indicate the limits, more or less wide, between which these opposing 

views a,re held. In the important matter of analyses of materials, at 

various degrees of advancement, no general attempt can be made to 

strike an average of a series that shall be us'eful as compared with the 

statement of one or more analyses which shall present, either singly or 

in comparison, the current determination in actual business of some 

analyst of trustworthy reputation. It should be remembered that the 

managers or the melters of steel works are governed in their use of 

their materials not alone by the apparent indication of this or that 

analysis, but r.lso by the preference which may for the moment be based

(345)
10 STEEL INDUSTRY. lnuLL.25.

upon some current price, or the quantity'of material in their stock. 

The minute detail of their practice may also turn upon the special good 

.or bad working of their furnaces, or some other even more trifling thing, 

which may possibly be felt rather than seen and hence be nearly or quite 

impossible of detection by any kind of analysis or test whatever. Thus 

arises the extreme difficulty, in any discussion or description, of saying 

many things which shall be useful or conclusive, as the significance and 

value of any statement must lie in the application of the facts at issue 

by the man who alone can know, and who must know, the entire detail.

An important question arises at the first step of the inquiry as to 

the definition that shall be given to the time-honored term " steel." This 

springs from the fact tbat additional kinds or qualities of metal, all 

more or less steely in their nature, have been developed at a comparatively recent day in the practice of steel melters in the use of their 

older forms of furnaces, although at the present" moment other and 

more suitable fixtures have been adapted to the production of these 

newer varieties or grades of the parent metal. It has been found that 

important and delicate technical and commercial disputes will be likely 

for a long time to turn upon the exact meaning which shall be assigned 

to the simple word "steel," and hence little more need be attempted by 

way of definition than to state in general terms the basis of the differences between those forms of the metal as derived from the prime element, iron. From such starting point as this each purchaser can indicate, and usually does, his exact requirement of quality.

Steel in the older sense of the term meant a metal which would 

harden or temper, and for a long space of time this grade or quality of 

the metal alone was the current and quoted product of steel-melters7 

furnaces. At length it was found, largely by accident in many hands, 

that a metal was sometimes made, and, after a time, that it could be produced regularly, which, though it could not be hardened by the usual 

methods, proved to be very high in absolute tensile strength, extremely 

uniform in its crystalline structure, and ductile or malleable to an unexpected degree. In short, iron had been made by a new method, which, 

if it was not "iron in its best form," was nevertheless iron in a form 

which had not previously been known in actual practice in the metal 

world. This proved, almost from the first, to be a means of relief from 

numerous difficulties which bad long been felt in the most skillful use 

of nearly every grade or .Quality of iron as it had previously been made. 

. Prolonged discussion among men who have studied the situation 

seems to show that, on the whole, it is preferable that all those forms 

or grades of metal which have been melted, or have taken on their final 

molecular structure after passing through a fusion process, whatever 

may have been the method employed, and which are malleable in the 

usual sense of the word and at proper temperatures, should be known 

and classed as "steel," without reference to the possibility of hardening or tempering. For obvious reasons any acceptance and use of this

(346) .
BAnNEB,] RAW MATERIAL. 11

definition does not insure that a purchaser shall obtain in any market 

by calling for "steel" just the kind or grade that he may require, without giving the steel nielter either an exact specification of quality, or a 

description of the use for which the metal is desired. It is simply a 

brief means of setting forth the fact that the metal in question has been 

made by a fusion process, as distinguished from those used in the manufacture of other metals which have iron ore for their basis.

RAW MATERIAL.

General note. The ^raw materials of the steel industry, those of the 

"iron" group as distinguished from fuels and vefractories, are: (1) iron 

ore in its various and widely differing forms; (2) pig iron as made in the 

blast furnace; (3) wrought iron as made in the puddling furnace, and

(4) blooms as made in a machine puddler from pig iron, or in a bloomary 

fire from ore. To these may be added the scrap which is made-in shearing plates, in cutting rails or bars to net lengths, and the miscellaneous 

supply of old and worn-out steel material, which is gathered from many 

sources, and which constitutes quite a perceptible fraction of the whole 

stock called for by steel melters. The use in the manufacture of steel of 

these last-named materials should be spoken of rather as the remeltiug 

than the making of steel, although this distinction need not be drawn 

very closely. A table is herewith given of analyses of these materials 

of the iron group, not as being interdependent or as derived one from 

another in the least degree, but simply as a means of indicating that 

they are related to each othef, although at the same time they differ 

very widely in the ratios of the elements of which they are made up.

Typical composition of steel-making materials.

Iron ore (American) : 

High............................

Pig irons : 

English high grade ............... 

English low grade ................ 

Pennsylvania high grade .........

Missouri. . ........................ 

Ohio..............................

Spiegel : 

Twenty per cent . .................

Wrought iron; 

Champlain bloom. ................

Steel: 

Hard tool ......................... 

Average rail...... ................ 

Best plate ........................ 

Nails ............ ................

Metallic iron.

67.30

59.64

50.80

......

......

=

Carbon.

......

......

5.26 

4.96

.23 

.03

.95 

.44 

.14 

.09

Silicon.

3.95 

1.30 

2.42 

.50

3.02 

8.55

t.08 

2.29

.09

1Q

.04 

.14 

.02 

.02

Manganese).

.42 

.68 

.49 

1.60 .27' 

.23

20.27 

82.04

.08 

.03

...12 

.82 

.32 

.35

t-> a

J3&, 

13 to

.02

.60

'".15

.05 

.08

.00

.02 

.05

.01 

.01

.01 

.04 

.03 

.03

Phosphorus.

.06

.02

.03

.03 

1.75 

.13 

2.90

.08 

.09

.07 

.21

.02

9^

.02 

.07 

.02 

.08

A

1

2.00

7.50

9.03

......

IE

.* 

3

.80

2.30

......

......

......

......

!:E

<B

1 

^

.50

4.10

.....

......

......

......

EJ!

Magnesia.

.45

.62

......

......

......

......

(347)
12 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

"*.

Yery large amounts of these materials are used of the exact analyses 

given in this table, although it is true that there are some qualities of 

steel made for which it would be inexpedient to attempt to use any of 

them, and it is also true that there are many admirable grades or kinds 

of these materials made in all the divisions of this group of quite different composition from those liere shown.

Generally speaking the art of the steel melter lies in the prudent, 

selection he must make daily from the range of crude stock which he 

is compelled to use, either by reason of the location of his works or the 

variations in current price in the market from which his supply must 

be drawn. The prime test of skill in such work is the maintenance, 

whatever may be the stock used, of the standard of quality specified in 

any given case or fixed by the general requirements of the time. Instances have been known in which the closest study and the highest 

qualities of management and contrivance have been called for to prevent loss from the use of low-grade material which had accumulated 

unawares or by reason of some special exigency of purchase. It should 

also be observed that experience shows conclusively that the selection 

and use of the materials for steel making need to be considered from 

the very first with reference to the desired product and the mode of 

manufacture, as the quality in all its essential particulars is completely 

fixed before the final crystallization of the metal in the ingot mold. 

Hence no subsequent treatment can suffice to save or to improve poor 

steel, short of an entire remeltiug and recomposition with fresh and 

improving materials. %

Brief mention will be made farther on in this paper of some of the 

relations which these materials bear to the processes of steel making 

in which they are employed. Some note may properly b.e taken herein 

a" very geiieral way of the influence which is exerted by each of the chief 

elements entering into the composition of tliese ores and metals upon 

the combinations which steel melters seek to make with them. These 

elements, taken in the order noted in the table, are carbon, silicon, manganese, sulphur, and phosphorus.

Carbon. This is the chief hardening element in the metal; not alone 

in the sense of tempering, for a steel which cannot be properly tempered 

or hardened by any ordinary method may be made to vary to an important degree in this valuable quality by changes in its proportion of 

carbon. Wrought iron contains either no carbon at all or but slight 

traces of it, while mild steel, such as the boiler plate noted in the table, 

may contain a very perceptible quantity. Upon the proportion of 

carbon which may be present, more than upon any other single element, 

the tensile strength of the metal appears to depend, although at the 

same time it is true that the methods of treatment during the manufacture, the melting, and any subsequent treating may be such, either by 

design or by accident, as to modify to an important extent the strength 

of the metal which might be expected to.correspond to the proportion of

(348)
BAHNBS.] RAW MATERIAL. 13

carbon shown by analysis. It is found preferable that the carbon 

should first be almost wholly eliminated from the metal in steel-making 

processes and that by recarburizing the needful steely qualities should 

be given. In this way a far greater uniformity of quality can be obtained than by stopping the process of conversion when the proportion 

of carbon has been reduced to the limit called for in the finished metal. 

Silicon. This element is present in widely varying proportions in 

metals as made by different manufacturers for substantially the same

' purposes. It appears at best to be a source of weakness in the metal, 

and may perhaps be truthfully said to be tolerated because it cannot be 

entirely eliminated without leading to the presence of blow holes or 

other structural imperfection in the ingot. If present in excess it tends 

to produce .brittleness, apparently by separating mechanically the atoms 

of the metal and thus weakening their molecular attraction for each 

other.

Manganese. The proportion of this element which shall be permitted, 

to enter the composition of a steel designed for any given purpose is a 

somewhat closely disputed point. The chief part which it plays appears 

to be the prevention of the formation of an oxide of iron in the body of 

the metal during the process of manufacture, the effect of this oxide 

when present being to make the metal u red short" or brittle when 

heated for rolling or hammering. In order to prevent this red shortness it is desirable, and for some purposes absolutely needful, that there 

should be some manganese continually present in the metal while under 

treatment in the furnace, so that the oxygen which from any source may 

tend to attack the metal shall find a closer affinity in the manganese 

and so pass off into the slag. It is held by many that no more manganese should be tolerated in the finished steel than shall fulfill this 

single purpose, and that any excess above this limit simply adds needlessly to the burden of impurity, with an important part of which at the 

best the steel must contend. The manganese is added to the steel in 

the recarburizing material which is put in at the close of the operation 

in the Bessemer arid open-hearth processes. The preference is growing 

for the use of the spiegel or ferro-manganese (the recarburizers employed) 

in the solid state, although it is heated to a full red heat for the purpose 

of insuring most certainly an immediate and complete melting and assimilation in the decarburized metal. Thus the loss of the manganese, 

a costly element, due to the earlier method of using it in a melted state, 

is largely prevented. But for the higher qualities of crucible steel it appears desirable, if not quite essential, that the material used should be 

made from a>n ore which contains manganese, so that the structure of

" the finished metal shall be as absolutely homogeneous as possible in 

this respect. ' '

> Sulphur is tolerated in steel simply because it must be; or, more 

correctly, because it is found in and cannot be entirely removed from 

the raw materials which on the whole are available and desirable for use

(349)
14 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25

by any means practicable in the present state of the art. Hence it is 

kept as low as possible, the extreme limit within which it may be allowed 

being the appearance of a tendeucy to red shortness in the rolling or 

other working of the ingot.

"Phosphorus. This is the most trying element to steel makers, as it is 

found iu nearly all iron ores; it all goes into the iron when reduced to 

the metallic state in the blast furnace, and up to the present day it has 

defied all efforts to keep it out of the steel, except in the very latest, the 

" basic " process of conversion, to which farther reference will be made. 

The tendency of the phosphorus when present in the steel is to render 

it brittle, although the degree to which this tendency shall prevail 

depends to an important extent upon which and how much of each of 

the other elements are present at the same time.

Careful study of the wear of rails has been made, taken together 

with extensive analyses of known cases of wear, in the expectation or 

hope that some direct or useful clew could be found to the best relation 

which these elements should bear to one another. It does not appear, 

however, that the facts in the case have yet been so fully developed as 

to warrant such a summary of the whole relations of these elements as 

shall command the approval of all who have aided in the gathering and 

the study of these facts. All indications seem to agree that some of 

the important physical qualities of steel do not depend solely upon these 

elements which maybe present even in proportions that had seemed 

fully approved, but rather upon some additional relations, still somewhat obscure, between them, or the relation which these bear to the 

molecular structure of the metal as a, crystalline body.

Bare- metals in combination. These unusual metals, such as chromium 

aod titanium, either very seldom found at all in combination with steel 

or in extremely minute quantities, have formed the subject of Careful 

study among experimenters, but it does not appear that they possess 

any importance whatever to the steel manufacturer or consumer in the 

large majority of cases.

PEOOESSES.

Kinds. The processes of making steel which will be described in this 

paper are three the " crucible," the " Bessemer," and the " Siemens" 

or "open hearth." Others are worthy of mention, but may be passed 

as of less importance iu this connection. In very general terms these 

processes are: (1) In the "crucible," the addition of carbon to a pure 

wrought iron, so that the steely qualities shall be thus given to it; (2) in 

the " Bessemer," the removal of the carbon by burning it out by a blast 

of air forced through the melted pig iron; and (3) iu the " open-hearth " 

process, the dilution of the carbon in the pig metal by the addition of 

\vrought blooms or steel-scrap stock. In each case the addition or removal of the carbon is continued until the tests, taken either at the 

moment or for a whole series of operations, show that the limit called 

for in the metal under treatment lias been reached. These processes

(350)
BAHNE8.J PROCESSES. 15

can best be described in immediate connection with the particulars to 

be given of the materials used and the furnaces and other apparatus 

required.

The crucible process, In this process the raw material is usually bar 

iron. In the strict use of the word the steel is " made " in a converting 

furnace and simply remelted in the crucible, although additions to the 

converted metal may be made, and often are, in the contents of the 

- crucible for the purpose of changing or grading the metal as needful 

during the actual melting. The bar iron for the finest grades of crucible 

steel is usually brought from Sweden, being made there from extremely 

pure ores, with the use of charcoal as fuel. These bars, about 3 inches 

wide, fi ve-eigliths of an inch thick, and 9 feet long, are piled in a suitable 

inclosed furnace with alternating layers of charcoal and carefully covered 

in from the air: They are kept at a high red or yellow heat for several 

days, or until the carbon of the charcoal has been absorbed to a greater 

or less degree by the iron. After cooling slowly these bars are withdrawn e 

from the converting furnace, and are found to be brittle and quite transformed in the appearance of the fracture at the end of the bar when 

broken across. The steely quality appears in this fracture in the 

change from a fibrous or half-crystalline appearance to a much clearer 

or brighter crystalline texture, reaching part way inward from the surface or entirely through the bar, according to the length of the exposure 

in the converting furnace. The bar iron has thus been more or less 

fully converted into " steel," and for some purposes it is used without 

any further treatment except that of reheating and hammering or rolling to any required size or form of product.

For most purposes this metal, now known as blister steel, is cut or 

broken up and put into crucibles, which are heated singly in coke 

"melting holes" or in a group in a gas furnace. When fully melted 

the contents of the crucible are poured into an iron ingot mold placed 

close at hand on the floor, and in this the steel is allowed to cool. After 

the ingots have cooled the end of each is broken off, so as to expose a 

clean, fresh fracture, and by the character of this fracture an experienced man assorts the ingots according to the percentage of carbon 

which each contains. They are next carried forward to a completely 

finished state by hammering or rolling, with such reheating and annealing in their progress as the character of the metal and the use for which 

it is intended may indicate or require. The crucibles hold from 50 to 

100 pounds of metal each, and are made of clay carefully selected and 

so worked that a uniformly high quality may be maintained, both in respect to the effect which may be produced by it upon the contents of the 

crucible and also the endurance it must exhibit at the intense heat to 

which it is subjected in the furnace. These furnaces for many years were 

heated only with the Ouest qualities of coke, and in some works these 

coke-melting holes are still retained. Each hole is usually large enough 

to contain two crucibles, and after they have become somewhat heated

(351)
16 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25. '

in the hole the stock, cut into small pieces, is put in. A lid of clay 

material is put on the crucible and the hole is filled with coke. The 

heat is controlled by brick dampers so that after the four or five hours 

required for the melting have passed, or during that time, the completion of the process of melting or grading.may be hastened or retarded, 

as may be found needful. It will readily be perceived that this intense 

heat, when hard coke is used, can be continued only at a great expense 

for fuel. This is a serious hindrance to the use of the fine grades of 

crucible steel, although some inelters believe that only by the use of 

separate holes thus heated can the needful control of the quality be 

preserved.

A more recent means of heating these crucibles has been found in Sir 

William Siemens's " regenerative gas furnace," in which a large number 

of crucibles may be placed. These are usually set in the ftfrnacein groups 

of four, and the number of groups placed in one furnace varies from three 

to fifteen or twenty, according to the need or preference of the builder. 

The groups are usually quite separated from each other by the brick 

work of the upper part of the furnace, but the crucibles are equally 

heated by the gas flame, which is maintained by currents of air and gas 

entering through ports on one side.' This flame passes out of the chamber through similar ports on the other side, and the intense heat of 

this spent flame is absorbed by masses of firebrick piled loosely in the 

pair of "regenerators" or heat-storing chambers under this outgoing 

side of the furnace. A similar pair of regenerators stands beneath the 

side of the furnace at which, for the moment, the air and gas enter, and 

by suitable reversing valves the flow of the air and gas and that of the 

outgoing flame or waste gas are controlled or turned from one side of 

the furnace to the other. By this means, after the furnace and regenerators have been heated by repeated reversing^ to their normal working 

temperature, it becomes possible to maintain at the expense of the heat 

in the waste gas or flame.an even and very high temperature in the 

currents of gas and air as they enter the furnace. Thus the heat developed by their combustion, in the chambers around the crucibles, is 

entirely available for heating the crucibles themselves and their contents, 

and need not be expended in any degree in the heating, to this intense 

temperature, of any of the incombustible elements which must necessarily 

be present in the gas and air supplies. In the " gas producer" designed 

by Sir William Siemens for use in connection with this regenerator, the 

cheaper grades of a slack " coal or dust can be used. The carbon which 

these contain may be almost wholly converted in the producer into a 

combustible gas, which is led away to the furnace through suitable pipes 

or flues.

The use of this furnace with its important range of control, its intense 

power, and its adaptability to the cheapest forms of fuel, is by no means 

universal as yet for crucible-steel melting. In no part of its field of

(352)
BAKNES.J PROCESSES. 17

usefulness, however, has the advantage of its employment been so 

marked, and the tendency is toward a more extended use each year.

The Bessemer process. In this the raw materials are pig iron, steel scrap, 

and spiegel or ferro-manganese, these last two terms being to a certain 

extent interchangeable. The crude pig iron is run in a melted state 

into the "converter," an egg-shaped vessel which is hung upon trunnions so that it may be rotated, by suitable fixtures, from a vertical to 

a horizontal position, in fact usually within the entire limits of an arc 

of 270 degrees. The iron is run into the vessel through the mouth'or 

nose, an opening at one end, while it lies in a position nearly or quite 

horizontal. The vessel is lined throughout with refractory mat erialfrom 

8 to 12 inches thick, and in the lining of the bottom of the vessel are 

imbedded ten or more tuyeres. These are blocks of firebrick material

20 to-24 inches long and 7 inc.hes in diameter, slightly conical in shape 

and pierced from end to end with holes seven-sixteenths of an inch in 

diameter. These holes open freely at one end of the tuyere into the converter, and a>t the other end into the "tuyere box," so that the refractory 

lining of the bottom of the converter is pierced with a hundred to a hundred and fifty holes through which the air may be blown into the metal 

contained within it. Into the tuyere box a pipe leads from one of the 

trunnions, and through this trunnion, from the blowing-engine connection, air is forced at. a pressure which varies at different works from 15 

to 50 pounds per square inch, according to the power of the engine or 

the preference of the manager. The air valve is opened before the vessel 

is turned into the upright position, so that the melted iron is kept out of 

the tuyere box by theforceof the blast; and as soon as the vessel is turned 

up the molten metal is thrown into violent agitation by the numerous 

streams of air which enter under high pressure through the small holes 

in the tuyeres. An oxidizing action at once begins: the silicon in the 

mass of iron is first attacked, and later the carbon is in like manner 

removed by combination with the oxygen of the blast, the minute subdivision of the mass of iron by the mechanical effect of the blast serving in an important degree to promote these reactions. During the 

twelve to twenty minutes required for the blowing of a "heat "the 

temperature of the metal continually increases, this being.indicated in 

part by the intensity of the flame at the open nose of the vessel. This 

flame is but trifling at the beginning of the blowing, but it increases 

until at the close it is very compact, issuing with violence and great 

brilliancy from the converter. During the blowing of the metal it is 

sometimes found needful, in order to reduce or to regulate the intense 

heat which is developed, to put into the converter scrap steel of such 

kind as may be most available at the moment, generally the crop 

ends of rails or similar pieces which have been thrown aside during the 

later operations of manufacture. In this way, or by putting the scrap 

into the converter before the pig metal is run into it in the first place 

any excessive heat of the mass can be reduced or controlled very cornBull. 25 2 (353)
18 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

pletely, the absorption of heat due to the fusion of the scrap metal thus 

thrown in being usually amply sufficient to secure this control.

In the large majority of cases the termination of the operation, the 

instant when the carbon has been almost wholly removed by this combustion process, is very clearly indicated by a rather sudden change in 

the character and color of the flame. It is reduced in volume and becomes paler and nearly or quite transparent, sometimes almost wholly 

disappearing, and sometimes being accompanied with large volumes of 

a thick brown smoke, an indication that the iron itself has begun to be 

oxidized by the blast. The converter is now turned down, the blast is 

shut off, and a quantity of recarburizing material, spiegel or ferromanganese, is brought up and poured into the converter from a ladle, 

or it is run in in a solid state through a suitable spout. This usually 

combines readily with the intensely heated decar.burized metal in the 

converter, a vigorous reaction and boiling being sometimes produced. 

The metal, having now been recarburized and having received the 

needful steely quality, is poured out at the nose of the converter into a 

ladle which rests in a central crane, and from this ladle the metal is 

cast, through a nozzle in the bottom, into ingot molds of any desired 

size or form. From these molds the ingots are removed and sent forward for reheating or direct treatment in rolling or hammering as may 

be required.

The open-hearth process. The raw materials of this process are iron 

ore, pig iron, wrought-iron blooms, steel scrap, and recarburizing material of various kinds and grades. The furnace in which the metal 

is made, or in some cases simply remelted, is the Siemens regenerative 

gas furnace of precisely the same general type as that already referred

to in connection with the crucible .process. In this case, however, the 

metal is melted, or made, in or on the "open hearth" of the furnace, 

into and over which the intense name passes. This process is so called, 

as differing from the crucible process, in that the work in the latter is 

done in closed pots or crucibles, which are set in groups in the compartments of the furnace, and are bathed upon their outer surfaces only 

by the currents of flame. The Siemens furnace for the open-hearth process is somewhat more nearly square, the basin or hearth being in some 

cases 7 by 12 feet in size, or if larger, in about the same proportion. 

It is inclosed by substantial firebrick walls, with the needful doorways 

at the sides, and is covered in with a roof, usually so shaped as to direct 

the flame somewhat downward upon the body of metal lying in the 

hearth. The flame traverses the furnace from end to end of the melting 

chamber, changing its direction of motion with each reversing of the 

furnace. The currents of gas and air for its supply and maintenance 

enter through ports at the ends of the furnace, whicb lead from the 

regenerators below the melting chamber. After the hearth or "bottom" 

of the furnace has been brought to a full heat, the raw materials are 

put in through the doorways, almost invariably in the solid state and
BABNES.] PROCESSES. 19

usually without any previous treatment or preheating. For many pirposes the stock is piled in so as to fill the furnace completely, the last 

few pieces being, shoved in close under the roof and on the top of the 

loose pile of material beneath. If the bulk of the charge is made up 

of heavy pieces tlie ywhole quantity required for the "heat" is thus put 

in at once, but if the furnace has been piled full of lighter stock the 

remainder is thrown in as soon as the bulk has been, reduced by the 

melting and sinking down of the mass.

For some kinds of metal a quantity of pig iron is put into the furnace 

by itself and then melted and brought up to a very high temperature. 

Into this intensely heated bath is put at suitable intervals the remainder of the charge, which, in such a case, is likely to consist of wroughtirou blooms, the ends of steel blooms, and pieces of ingots which for 

any reason may have been interrupted in going through the rolling 

mill or forge, and which are almost dead or useless material except for 

consumption in this form of furnace. These heavier pieces are usually 

preheated, often to a high yellow heat, so that the actual process of 

melting shall be made as brief as possible, and (what is even more important) so that the intense temperature of the furnace shall be reduced 

by the least possible amount by the putting in of any comparatively 

cold material. As soon as the whole charge has been fully melted a 

series of tests is begun, which, in general, consists of the taking of 

a sample of the metal with a small ladle and the casting of a small 

ingot or test piece. This is cooled and broken, and by the changing 

indication of the fracture, as the process advances in the furnace, an 

accurate knowledge of the exact condition of the melted mass is obtained.

In general terms, it will be seen, as already noted, that the open-hearth 

process consists of the decarburization by an actual dilution of the 

mass, if the original bath has been made up of pig iron. The wroughtirou blooms often contain but traces of carbon, and the steel scrap only 

small percentages, varying usually from .2 to .5 of 1 per cent, of carbon. In some cases, in order to hasten the decarburization, iron ore 

of a suitable quality is thrown into the melted metal in the furnace. 

This acts by a combination of the oxygen which it contains with the 

carbon which still remains in the metal, thus causing a useful agitation 

in the bubbling or boiling by the evolution of carbonic oxide beneath 

the surface of the melted metal. The metallic iron thus reduced from 

the ore adds to the contents of the furnace, and the silicious and other 

earthy matter combines with the slag lying on the surface of the metal, 

which has been derived in large part from the slow wasting of the material of the walls and the bottom of the furnace itself. This reduction 

of the carbon continues until it stands at about .08 of 1 per cent., or 

less, in the.contents of the furnace. A quantity of spiegel or ferromangauese is then put in, usually preheated; and after stirring the 

metal, so that it shall be rendered as uniform as possible, the contents

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20 STEEL INDUSTKY. [BULL. 25.

of the furnace are tapped out into a ladle at a breast which had been 

made up at the lowest point at ou-e side of the sloping bottom of theiurnace. In some cases the recarburizing material is thrown red hot into the 

ladle, either before or during the pouring into it of the metal from the 

converter or the open-hearth furnace. From this ladle the metal is run 

into ingot molds by substantially the same means as are employed in 

the Bessemer process.

FUKNACES.

Varieties. The furnaces which are used more or less directly in the 

steel manufacture form quite an extended series, and some have undergone very important transformations and improvements upon their 

earlier forms, as the absolute requirements of the various operations 

have been developed, either in the current working or at the moment of 

repair and rebuilding. These furnaces, using the word in a general 

sense, if arranged approximately in the order in which they may be 

said to stand in the advancing steps of the manufacture, would appear 

somewhat thus, beginning in the series at the very first treatment of

the ore:

Furnaces used in iron and steel making.

Order.

1

2

3

4

5 

6

7

8

9

10

Furnaces.

Calcining kiln.

Bloomary forge.

Siemens rotator.

Blast furnace.

Pernot dephosphorizing furnace. 

Hand-puddling furnace.

Machine puddler.

Cementing or converting furnace.

Crucible coke melting hole. 

Crucible gas-fired furnace.

Order.

11

12

13

14

15 

16

17

18

19 

20

Furnaces.

Reverberatory furnace for pig metal.

Cupola furnace.

Bessemer converter.

Preheating furnace.

Siemens open-hearth furnace. 

Soaking pit.

Coal-fired heating furnace.

Gas-fired heating furnace.

Annealing furnace. 

Closed forge fire.

It should be borne in mind, however, that the operations of steel making do not require the use of all these furnaces as a continuous series. 

A 'rearrangement of the numbers, as given in the groups made below, 

may serve as a more accurate guide to the general places occupied by 

each furnace in the processes of manufacture, and also the relation 

which each bears to others in the same group: '

I. Preliminary furnaces Nos. 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

II. Crucible Kos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10.

III. Bessemer Nos. 4,11,12,13.

IV.' Open hearth Nos. 2, 3, 4, 7, 14, 15. 

Y. Finishing Nos. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

A brief descriptive note upon each of these furnaces may be usefully 

given, together with some particulars of the process carried on in each 

of them.

Calcining kiln. This fnrnace (No. 1) finds only a very limited application in any of the works in the United States, but it may be justly 

placed in this series, ibr upon its use depends the profitable working of

(356)
BABKEB.J FURNACES. * 21

important ore supplies for steel making as well as for other parts of 

the general market grades of iron. It is usually circular in general 

outline, from 10 feet to 16 feet in diameter, and from 16 feet to 60 feet 

in height. At the bottom a brick cone, with iron facing, is built in the 

inside of the kiln, of such diameter and height that the ore, in moving 

slowly downward after the kiln has been completely filled, shall be de 

livered at points all around the outer circumference for convenience in 

loading into the cars or wagons by which it is to be taken away. The 

ore and fuel are put in at the open top and pass down together. A full 

red heat is developed by the combustion of the fuel, by which the sulphur and carbonic acid are driven off from the ore, these being the elements for the elimination of which the kiln is most frequently employed. 

For some purposes kilns of other forms are required, in which higher 

heats are developed, and in some of them gaseous fuel is used.

Bloomary forge. This furnace or fire (No. 2) is'in its general form 

the earliest known type or kind of furnace for making malleable or 

wrought iron. It is quite similar to a large forge fire as used in a 

smith's shop, although the fuel is charcoal and the fire is contained in 

a rather deep basin. The iron ore is laid in small quantities on the top of. 

the mass of burning fuel, and is gradually deoxidized and transformed 

into wrought iron, the particles finding their way down through the 

fuel and gathering in a mass in the bottom of the basin. From time to 

time during the day these " loops" are taken out and hammered into 

blooms, which are cut into two or more parts as required. This form of 

wrought iron is rarely made from any other than the richest and purest 

ore and only with charcoal as fuel. The process leads to the production of the purest known qualities of iron, such as will bear the high 

price which must be charged for them. Nothing has yet been proved 

so good for use in the open-hearth furnace in making the finer grades 

of boiler-plate steel or in the crucible process for the best qualities 

which are called for in that division of the steel manufacture.

Siemens rotator. This furnace (No. 3), designed by the late Sir William Siemens, has been urged as likely to take the place of the bloomary forge in making crude wrought-iron stock for the open-hearth furnace directly from the ore. Under his own careful management a good 

deal of useful work was done and some promising developments were 

made of the possibilities of the process. In other hands, however, less 

success has been achieved, and there are too many reasons for believing that since the greatly lamented death of the inventor this whole 

method of direct working has been suffered to fall hopelessly, into 

disuse. This- process was in general the same as that of the bloomary forge, except that the use of mineral coal in small quantity was 

made practicable as an aid in the reduction of the ore to the metallic 

state. The operation was carried on in a cylindrical furnace about 8 

feet diameter by 9 feet long, revolving about a horizontal axis and usu

(357)
22 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL 25.

ally at very slow "speed. To this an admirable 'adaptation of the Siemens type of regenerator was made, so that gaseous fuel could be employed, with the well-known advantages of a pure flame of any required 

quality and intensity. It was found however, on the whole, that the 

uncertainty of the quality of the product, and the high cost, due largely 

to the waste or loss of material in the process, taken together, were 

such as to prevent any important use of the furnaces which were built 

and of their product.

Blastfurnace. This furnace (No. 4) is thus far the best known and 

most highly perfected form of apparatus for the reduction of iron ore to 

the metallic state. Indeed, it is impossible to see, in the present state 

of the art, wherein, in type or kind of apparatus, any farther advance 

can be made. Improvements in the management and the economical 

working of these furnaces are recorded almost daily ; but some entirely 

new departure appears to be required before the blast furnace of the 

present modern form can be spared from the list of iron-producing apparatus. In general outline the furnace is circular, 16 to 20 feet clear 

diameter, and 60 to 80 feet whole height. This largest diameter is considerably reduced at both the bottom and the top, and the furnace is 

completely filled with the mixture, made up in correct proportions, of 

iron ore, coke or coal, and limestoue. The furnace is blown by one or 

more engines of substantial dimensions through tuyeres set in the side 

walls of the hearth quite near the bottom. The use of the waste gases 

from the top of the furnace was made practicable many years ago for 

heating the blast, and for making steam for driving the blowing engine. 

The.adaptatiou of firebrick stoves for the blast and of carefully designed 

boilers and other steam machinery appears to leave little room for further important advances in these parts of the apparatus.

At the very high temperature which is developed in the interior of 

the furnace a series of chemical reactions takes place. The iron in the 

ore is reduced to the metallic state through the agency of the carbon 

of the fuel and it is gathered in the hearth or crucible at the bottom of 

the furnace. The silicious and other earthy elements of the iron ore 

and the ash from the fuel combine with the lime of the limestone and 

form a fusible slag, which floats upon the melted iron in the interior 

of the furnace. At suitable intervals the iron is tapped out from 

the furnace into molds of the well-known pig-iron form, and at corresponding intervals the slag is run out into cars in which it is carried 

away.

Pernot dephosphorizing furnace. This furnace (No. 5) is an adaptation 

of the general form of the Siemens, regenerator furnace to a Pernot 

hearth or pan, which revolves about an axis slightly inclined from thb ' 

vertical. The process is substantially the same, so far as it goes, as 

that long carried on in the older hand-puddling furnace, ziid it will be 

more fully described further on.

(358)
FURNACES. 23

Hand-puddling furnace. This furnace (No. 6) has been used from a 

very early day in the iron manufacture, and though long threatened 

with extinction, it has survived the advance in every direction around 

it of greatly improved methods of doing some parts of its work. The 

field in which it is found essential to success is unquestionably narrowing year by year, and the cost of doing the work of this furnace seems 

hardly likely to be much reduced. The process of puddling, so far as 

the manufacture of steel-making stock is concerned, consists in the stirring of the melted pig metal in the basin of the furnace with a hand 

tool or " rabble " until it assumes a pasty consistency; it is then worked 

up into a spongy ball and taken out, squeezed into a compact mass or 

bloom in a " squeezer," and rolled out into a flat strip known as " muck 

bar." The elimination of the carbon, phosphorus, arid silicon from the

pig metal, by the intimate contact in the furnace with the iron-ore fettling or lining and the silicious slag which is mixed with the melted 

iron, is very complete. The metal produced under favorable circumstances is so admirable a material for many purposes that it is certainly 

somewhat to be regretted that any causes should have led to a decline 

of this branch of the general iron manufacture. At the same time it 

appears to be undeniably true that an important part of these causes 

has been the.imperfect agreement between those concerned as to the 

value of the work done as compared with the cost of doing equally 

good work by other means or in the use of other forms of apparatus,

Machinepuddler. This furnace (No. 7) appears likely to take in part 

the place occupied for so many years by the bloomary forge and the 

hand-puddling furnace. The process is nearly or quite identical with 

that carried on in the hand-puddling furnace, except that the masses of 

metal dealt with at a single heat are far larger and the costly labor 

peculiar to the hand furnace is wholly saved. Other labor is required, 

however, but at very much less cost in proportion to the product of the 

furnace. The metal may be melted in the puddler itself, a cylinder 8 feet 

in diameter by 9 feet long, revolving about a horizontal axis, or it may be 

held after melting and partially.desiliconized in a gas-heated reverberatory furnace. By the rotation of the puddling furnace the metal is rapidly "brought to nature" or into the pasty state. The'balls are taken 

out and hammered into very solid, compact blooms, under a heavy hammer which expels completely the traces of the slag in which the particles 

of metal were enveloped in the furnace. At the comparatively low heat 

at which this process is carried on it is practicable to hold the phosphorus which may have been originally contained in the iron in the 

slag, although this cannot be done at the high heat of a steel-melting 

furnace. Hence, by the use of a heavy hammer at this stage of the manufacture, an important result is obtained in the elimination of this hurtful element, and the use is thus rendered possible of important quantities of pig metal which would be otherwise quite unavailable. It should 

be farther noted in this connection that these blooms may be taken from

(359)
24 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL 25.

the puddler, if designed for the open-hearth furnace, before they have 

beco'me entirely decarburized or reduced to the true wrought-iron 

state. In this way the product of the puddler is increased for a given 

time, the waste of the metal in it is somewhat reduced, and the proportion of carbon remaining is entirely manageable in the steel furnace. 

An important feature of the use of this furnace is the possibility of the 

rapid transfer of the hammered blooms, if so desired, to the open-hearth 

furnace before they have become cooled much below a full red heat 

Thus a clear saving may often be made of the time and fuel otherwise 

required for the heating of the blooms- from the cold state. Extended 

practice with a furnace of this type has shown that the phosphorus can 

be reduced to one-tenth of that originally contained in the iron, even 

though this may have been only .04 of 1 per cent.; and that the work 

can be done with a consumption of fuel not exceeding 1,200 pounds of 

coal per ton of blooms in a non-regenerative furnace. Americans have 

taken a most honorable part in the development of this branch of manufacture.

Cementing furnace. This furnace (No. 8) has been referred to in another connection, and it may suffice to say here that considerable numbers of them have long been in use and that they bid fair to continue 

indefinitely as an essential part of the apparatus required in the production of the high qualities of harder grades of steel.

Crucible melting hole (colce). This furnace (No. 9) has been already, 

briefly described. The holes are usually built in a row, each one having 

its own separate flue. This to a certain extent renders it possible to 

repair or to use separately any one of the holes with little interruption 

to the working of those next to it.

, Crucible furnace (gas-fired). This furnace (No. 10) is worthy of more 

extended mention, as it has been proved to be a means of greatly reducing the cost of fuel consumed in the crucible process and of repairs 

upon the furnace parts. The essential features of this furnace, common 

to all which use the Siemens or "reversing" type of regenerator, are 

the heating or melting chamber of the furnace in which the work is 

done, the ports leading from this (the upper) part of the furnace usually directly downward into the regenerators, the brick filling of these 

heat-storing chambers, the flues and valves through and by means of 

which the flow of gas, air, and waste gas is controlled and directed in 

the working of the furnace. The regenerator filling is m'ade up of hard 

firebrick, usually 2f by 2|- by 9 inches, laid dry and spaced about 1 inch 

or more apart. The bricks in each course are laid across those in the 

course beneath, and thus a mass of brickwork is obtained pierced in 

every part with small passages or flues, which by their large combined 

area give an ample freedom to the movement through them of .the gaseous currents. The waste gas from the furnace, when in a normal condition of working, heats the upper fraction of this body of brickwork 

to a temperature corresponding to its own intensity and to a consider-

(360)
^ FURNACES. 25

able depth below the extreme upper courses, and it finally escapes from 

the regenerator, often at a temperature only a little above that of boiling water, into the chimney flue through passages which lead out from 

beneath the brickwork filling and through the reversing valves. The 

gas producer is elsewhere described. The gas and air enter the furnace through the reversing valves and pass upward through the spaces 

in these masses of intensely heated bricks. They are thus heated at 

no expense of fuel to nearly or quite the very high temperature of the 

interior of the furnace itself before entering it. The admission of the 

gas and air is very conveniently controlled by separate stop valves, 

so that by maintaining a proper excess of gas in the furnace flame all 

cutting or oxidizing and wasting of the metallic contents of the furnace 

are prevented. If, on the other hand, an oxidizing flame is required 

for the special work in hand in the furnace at any moment it may be 

obtained by a turn or two of the valve wheels which control the supply. 

This type of furnace stands in all its essential details where it was placed 

by Sir William Siemens and his immediate associates fifteen or twenty 

years ago. Few radical improvements, if any, have been made, although changes almost innumerable in detail have been attempted. 

Next to the Bessemer converter this furnace has been the chief means 

of advancing the manufacture of steel, and of iron as well. The economy of fuel, the completeness of control at all temperatures, the efficiency of operation, especially at the highest heats, and the possibility 

of securing an extreme advantage in economy of la,bor these considerations all join to render the use of this type of furnace not only important but essential to the successful continuance of the whole steel 

industry of the world. American builders have had an honorable part 

in the study of the adaptation of local materials to the work to be done 

in these furnaces and in the contrivance of special details or proportions of parts.

Reverberatory furnace for pig metal. This furnace (No. 11) as placed 

here in this current series is simply referred to as employed at an early 

day for melting the pig metal for use in the Bessemer converter, but in 

this country it was long ago abandoned for such work. This type of 

furnace when thus used was hopelessly slow in melting and very wasteful in fuel. As rearranged for gas tiring with regenerators, and for use 

in premelting for a machine puddler, it leaves little to be desired in 

respect to economy and convenience.

Cupola. The use of this furnace (No. 12) was a very important step 

in advance in the adaptation to American needs of the general plant 

for making steel which was so highly perfected by Sir Henry Bessemer. 

Speed of melting the iron for conversion was quickly found to be absolutely essential to progress, and the so-called "cupola," long known in 

iron foundries, was brought into use. This is a cylindrical furnace 

about 8 feet in diameter and 40 to 50 feet high. About 20 feet from the 

bottom is set the charging door at which the materials are put in, pig

(361)
26 STEEL INDUSTRY. |BULL.;.'5.

iron, sometimes steel scrap, coal or coke, and limestone. About 3 or 4 

feet.from the bottom the tuyeres are set in the wall, from six to twenty 

or more in number, and they are supplied with blast from a suitable 

blower, each tuyere having in nearly all cases its own external connection to the blast main. If a large number of small tuyeres are used 

they are generally fed from a belt or chest set against the shell of the 

furnace and extending entirely around it. The melted metal is gathered in the lower part of the furnace and is tapped out into a ladle at 

convenient intervals. The slag which is formed by the combination of 

the limestone with the ash of the fuel is run out through a tapping hole 

usually set in the back of tlie furnace. Changes have been proposed 

from time to time in the outlines of these cupola furnaces as adapted to 

the rapid melting in continuous operation of large quantities of iron, 

and some of these modifications have been put into use. It is by no 

inenns certain, however, that any better results have been obtained 

than have followed the adherence to the earlier straight outlines, which 

are much more readily kept in good working order. Careful attention 

to details of mixture of fuel and of charging the furnace are found to 

have an important bearing on the efficiency of the whole. The length 

of time during which one of these larger sized cupolas can be kept in 

free working order varies from two to four days, and during that time 

it can be made to melt freely from 8 to 10 tons of iron per hour.

With the growing attention which is given, and must be, to the use of 

"direct metal" from the blast furnace in the converter, the cupola as a 

melting furnace becomes less important. Some works still use it in 

melting all the iron supplied to the converter and some for the " Sunday" iron only. There is still need that care should be taken that the 

work it does shall be well done, and hence almost constant study has 

been given to it to promote its efficiency and economy. The only duty 

required of this furnace is to melt quickly and cheaply, and the limit of 

the most efficient working, in cost in fuel, is about 12 pounds of iron to 

1 pound of a mixed fuel, one-third coke and two-thirds anthracite coal. 

Two changes of some importance have been made during the last few 

years in construction and arrangement. One is the increase in the 

height of the cupola from the base to the cha.rging door, so that more 

material is in the furnace at any given m.omeut, and hence there is a 

larger useful a.bsorptiou by it of the heat proceeding upward from the intense combustion in the lower part of the furnace, which otherwise would 

pass away into the open air and be wasted. Another improvement 

which has led to an important saving of labor is the dropping of the sill 

of the charging door close down upon the floor of the gallery on which 

the materials are brought to the furnace. Thus it becomes possible to 

run all these materials directly into the furnace without any hand svork 

or with the least possible. In some of the large cupolas two or more 

charging doors are cut in the shell, and through them the stock can be 

more uniformly spread than through the single door formerly used.

(362)
BARNEB.] FURNACES. 27

The Bessemer converter (No. 13) is not a furnace in the sense in 

which other kinds of furnace apparatus are spoken of, in Avhich an 

application of heat from some external source is made, more or less 

directly, to the metal under treatment: The metal takes with it into 

the converter within its own substance the fuel, carbon and silicon, 

needed not only to keep it from being chilled by the blast of air admitted 

through the tuyeres, but also to maintain the whole mass in a melted 

.condition,- even after these elements have been nearly or quite burned 

away. In other words, by the oxidation of these elements the heat of 

the converter and its contents is gradually raised from about the temperature of the melted pig metal to that of melted steel, from, a high 

red heat to a brilliant yellow or a dull white. The heat thus developed 

is sufficient not only to raise the temperature of the metal itself, but 

also that of the great volume of air passed through-it from the blowing 

engine, and also to heat to the full limit the inner surface of the refractory lining. In case the metal is more than usually high in silicon there 

is a reserve of heat still available for melting the steel scrap, which is 

then put in to control the extreme temperature thus developed. The 

converter in all its essential points is the conception of Sir Henry Bessemer, who at the first advanced the whole in all its marked features to 

the complete state in which it is now found. American engineers have 

added from time to time useful details of construction, which have been 

proved to be indispensable since the pressure has become so extreme 

for rapid and economical working. Several sizes of these converters 

have been built and are now running, but the preference is very marked 

in the later works for those of moderate capacity. Some unexpected 

results have been obtained in the operation of the smaller converters, 

some of these of a nominal capacity of 4 tons fdr each heat having been 

so stimulated as to press very closely upon the record of production of 

those of twice the size.

The preheating furnace (No. 14) is an aid in the open-hearth process 

and in the production of some grades of steel in which the heat of the 

melting furnace must be kept at an extremely high point it is essential 

to the obtaining of the best results. Generally speaking, it is found 

preferable that the melting furnace should be kept for use strictly as a 

melting furnace, and hence that the stock, especially the heavier pieces, 

should be brought to as full a heat as possible before being put into the 

melting chamber. This method of working preserves the more friable 

refractory material in the roof and walls of the melting furnace from the 

liability to injury by the cooling due to putting in cold stock. It also 

preserves aud holds more effectively for immediate use the reserve of 

heat in the regenerators, as contrasted with the loss of heat due to the 

absorption by the cold material. The most important use of these preheating furnaces has no doubt been made in the works abroad, in which 

very large masses are melted and held for treatment and for subsequent 

additions of material, and in which the added cost of labor due to this

(363)
28 STEEL INDUSTRY. ". [BULL. 25.

second handling after preheating does not form so impertant an item' 

as here. The furnace may be either gas-fired or worked direct with 

coal. The heat at which it is run is not so high as to lead to any important.loss by oxidation if the coal flame plays on the metal. When 

the furnace is so placed that the stock can be ran by an inclined spout 

directly into the door of the melting furnace the convenience and economy of working it are very marked.

The Siemens open-hearth furnace (No. 15) has already been commented 

upon in respect to some of its' important features in connection with 

their use in the crucible furnace. The advantage attending the use of 

the furnace as a whole is", even more noteworthy as a means for melting 

on the open hearth, for thus it has been made practicable not only to melt 

.any material whatever (as regards size of piece, kind, or quality) likely 

ever to be used as a raw material for steel, but also (what is more important) to' hold it for any probable time whatever at its full ('using 

temperature, for the purpose of testing its quality and applying such 

'additional or modifying materials as these tests or the working of the 

furnace may indicate. These furnaces have been built in all sizes, from 

those which hold only 3 tons of metal in the shallow basin-shaped 

hearth up to those which can take in 20 to 36 tons at a single melting. 

Most of them hold from 10 to 15 tons«under ordinary conditions of working. The range of qualities which may be produced through the agency 

of this furnace arid held under accurate control is wide; so wide and so 

clearly marked in fact that there appears to be little room for any important advaucementin the possibilities of this branch of the manufacture except by some wholly new and radical transformation of which the present state of the art gives no sign or promise. The important advances 

made in the construction of these furnaces during the few years just 

passed have related almost solely to the details which have to do with reduction of first cost and of repairs. The endurance exhibited by one of 

these furnaces as now run by a prudent inelter is very marked as compared with that which was found common at an earlier day. This is 

due to an improvement in the actual handling of the furnace itself, and 

even more to the advance made in the character of the firebrick and 

other refractory materials employed. In some cases important attempts 

have been made to modify the arrangement of flues and regenerators 

with reference to their connection with the melting chamber. There 

may fairly be supposed to be still room for saving in cost of repairs in 

these particulars, but the general principle holds good in these lines or 

forms of construction that the cost of experimenting in new directions 

is so heavy and the delay due to failures so serious that few consider 

themselves warranted in taking such risks except in what may be called 

very small fractions of construction, from which a change back to the 

original approved outline may be quickly and cheaply made if need' 

shall compel it.

The soaking pit (No. 16), or equalizing cell, as it might be more accu-

(364)
BARNE8.J FURNACES. 29

rately named, is a device long since thought of, but it has been brought 

into actual current use only within a very short time. In a few words, 

it is simply a cell or pit, in a heavy mass of firebrick work large enough 

to take in a single ingot. Several of these are built in a compact group, 

sometimes with an iron lining in each, sunk below the floor or so that 

the mouth of the pit shall be at the floor level, and into them the hot 

iugots are put as soon as they are lifted from the casting pit. Under 

all ordinary conditions of working the ingot molds are stripped off from 

the ingots as soon as their outer surfaces have been cooled, by standing, to a-high red heat or a low yellow. The ingots at this point are 

still in a liquid state in their interior, or at least in a pasty condition, 

so that if the attempt were made to roll or to hammer the metal without any reheating of the outer crust, or a proper cooling of the inner 

part, it would be wholly destroyed by the cracking and breaking up of 

the outer shell and the scattering of the softer interior. Tt was, therefore, found necessary from the first to reheat the ingots, even if they 

were not allowed to cool entirely before they could be rolled or hammered. As some of them were unavoidably cooled by the chances of 

irregular working, ample furnace capacity had to be provided for reheating these from the cold state. The hot ingots have heretofore been 

put into these furnaces for the "equalizing" required, or until the shell 

of the ingot had been heated again to the proper temperature for rolling, in part by the absorption of the heat radiated from the liquid or 

pasty interior and in part by the external action of the heated atmosphere of the furnace. In some cases it has been found that even in 

quite skillful hands the chances of wasting or oxidation in this reheating furnace have been important and such as should be avoided if possible. This as a chief reason led to the development of the soaking pit, 

which, in the theory of its action, is perfect within the obvious physical 

limits which exist. If the mold can be invariably stripped off at or 

above a certain temperature, there must unquestionably be heat enough 

remaining in the interior of the ingot to reheat the outer crust to the 

needful temperature and to allow for the loss due to exposure while 

being placed in the pit, and also to supply the fraction of heat lost by 

the radiation into the surrounding earth, that is, to keep the pit itself 

fully heated to the required point. In theory also it is perfectly practicable to maintain a non-oxidizing atmosphere in the soaking pit, 

while the ingot remains in it from twenty to thirty minutes, so that the. 

waste due to this process of self-reheating shall be the least possible. 

This is rendered certain by the close covering up and sealing of the pit 

after the ingot has been put in. A speedy combustion of the oxygen 

in the air remaining in the pit ta.kes. place, or its expulsion is assured 

by the gas which is usually evolved from the hot ingot. .

Some of the difficulties which have attended the use of the soaking 

pit are worthy of mention and brief consideration. It is obvious that 

if the ingot or any part of it, as the smaller end of a large one, gets

(365)
30 STEEL INDUSTRY.

too cold before it is put into the pit, it cannot thus be equalized. It is 

also clear that if in any way the pit itself becomes too much cooled, 

there must be an interruption until by the passing through it of several 

hot ingots or by some added fire heat it has been brought up again. 

Nor is it by any means impossible that by a delay in the rolling a part 

of the ingots, or all of- them, which are actually in the pits may become 

too much cooled. In other words, the absolute control of the process, 

upon which all such operations must depend for their success, is far 

from being complete. The cost of labor in the handling of the ingots 

cannot be materially less than that called for in the ordinary furnace 

work which is more common, and the ability to regulate and hasten or 

retard the heating or equalizing in these furnaces, as indicated by delay 

at the casting pit or the rolling mill, is ample. This leaves the question 

of oxidation or wasting still open, and however true it may be that a loss 

of this character is that of a metal of comparatively high value, the 

test of extended experience alone can show how valuable, on the whole, 

this method of treatment in the soaking pit really is to the steel manufacture.

In some of the oldest steel works the impossibility of so placing the 

soaking pits that they should be conveniently supplied from the casting 

pit has been clearly shown. This has led to the contrivance of a 

group of the pits so joined and mounted on a truck as to be portable, 

the truck being designed to serve as a transfer car to the rolling mill, 

and thus to accomplish a double purpose.

The occasional imperfect working of the earlier soaking pits suggested the design of a gas-heated furnace, with cells so arranged as 

to receive four ingots of ordinary size in substantially the same way as 

they had been placed in the soaking pit. This plan had the obvious 

advantage of assuring the perfect control of the heating, so that little 

or much fuel could be used as required, and in new works it furnished also probably the best means of taking care of all the ingots 

made, whether cold or hot; that is, a means of soaking or equalizing all 

the ingots brought forward in a direct way from the casting pit, and 

also of reheating from the cold state all that had been delayed.

Heating furnace, coal-fired. This furnace (No. 17) is in general type 

or kind the one universally employed for many years, in both the iron 

and the steel manufacture, in the reheating of the metal for the later 

operations of hammering and rolling. In general outline the furnace 

is rectangular, 4 feet wide by 12 feet long being a common size of the 

sand bed on which the iron " piles " or the steel ingots or blooms are 

placed for heating. At one end is the fire box, separated from the 

heating chamber by a bridge wall over which the flame passes. The 

coal lies on a grate with the ashpit beneath, and the fire is in some 

cases forced by an artificial blast. At the farther end of the heating 

chamber the outline is narrowed down to the size of the stack, or uptake flue, which is built over this neck or reduced part of the furnace.

(366)
BARNBB.) FURNACES. 31

The whole is inclosed with substantial walls and roof. Doorways are 

put in for convenient access to the interior of the fufnace, and the 

whole is bound in all directions with iron plates and rods, not only to 

sustain the thrust of the arched roof but also so as to support the side 

walls, which, with the wide changing of temperature of the furnace, 

soon become cracked and lose somewhat the strength which as simple 

brickwork they may have had in the first place.

This coal-fired furnace has been built in a few instances of late years 

in a " slope " form, or with the end of the bed nearest the neck of the 

furnace considerably higher than the other end. In this furnace the 

ingots or blooms are put in at the upper'end one after another, and as 

they become gradually heated they are rolled over down the slope 

toward the hot end of the furnace. The ingot or bloom nearest the

bridge wall or fire box is drawn first, and the next one is rolled into its 

place for the last fraction of the heating required. The advantage 

sougiit in the use of this furnace is the more complete absorption, by 

the colder ingots at the upper end, of the heat which is developed in 

the fire box after it has spent itself as fully as may be needful in heating the 'hotter ingots at the lower end. It is therefore in a certain 

sense a regenerative, or more correctly a continuous furnace, at one 

point in the course of which the cold material may be put in, while at 

another point the heated pieces may be taken out iii. a continuous succession. The very obvious disadvantage of such a method of working 

lies in the cost of labor required for the turning of the pieces in their 

course through the furnace.

This kind of direct heating usually requires the best coal to be used 

in the furnace or a grade decidedly more costly than need be used in 

gas producers if the latter are skillfully run. To this need of a higher 

grade of coal must be added as an objection to the use of the coaMired 

furnace the chance of the blowing over of the coal or the particles of 

ash on to the pieces which are heating, and the injury by the sulphur 

or other impurity thus lodged. There is also a serious chance of the 

fire "working hollow," or -into a crust with holes through it, so that 

currents of free oxygen come over the bridge into the heating chamber 

with wasting effect at the higher temperatures maintained in the furnace.

From the neck and uptake of a coal-fired furnace the hot waste gas 

is sometimes led under a steam boiler, care being usually taken that 

the column of flame liable to be sent out from the furnace shall strike 

only on a brick arch or shell set in to protect the boiler plates at this 

point.

Seating furnace, gas-fired. This furnace (No. 18) is the exact counterpart of No. 17 in the work to which it is applied. It is built in the 

same general dimensions, but the fire box at one end and the neck at 

the other end are replaced by a series of ports or passages in the end 

walls, through which the gas and air currents enter the furnace and

(367)
32 ' STEEL INDUSTRY. (BULL. 25.

the waste gas passes out. The regenerators are almost invariably 

placed under the furnace, and the reversing valves at one side or end, 

usually beneath the floor level. These regenerators, or heat-storing 

chambers, are almost invariably adopted when Siemens gas is employed, and must be used without exception when high temperatures 

are called for. A moderate red heat can be obtained with tin's Siemens 

gas in a furnace tired with it direct, and it has been somewhat used in 

this way. In furnaces with regenerators in which natural gas has been 

used the air alone has usually been preheated. Both of the regenerators at each end of the furnace are devoted to the air supply, and the 

gas is turned directly into the furnace ports at the extreme ends of the 

heating chamber.

Some important secondary fixtures and tools are used at these heating-furnaces for handling either the massive ingots or the lighter and 

more numerous blooms. These are of various sorts, according to the 

preference of the manager of the works, and consist of substantial buggies and cars on which the pieces are brought to the furnace door by 

hand power or by a locomotive or wire rope connection. A shaft with 

a chain drum is sometimes used to drag the piece into and out of the 

furnace. Some use a hydraulic cylinder for obtaining this motion, the 

object aipied at befng the same in each case, the certainty of prompt 

operation and the greatest economy of hand labor in the moving of the 

heavy pieces. For the lighter blooms a u peel" (a narrow-bladed longhandled shovel), hung by a gooseneck to a light crane, is generally used. 

This crane is so placed near the furnace that the bloom can be picked 

up from a buggy near by and swung around and pushed clear in at the 

furnace door to the exact spot in which it must lie while heating.

Annealing furnace.±-Thi8 furnace (No. 19) takes on various forms and

sizes according to the uses for which it may be reqmretl or the shape 

and weight of the pieces for which it must 'be specially adapted. 

Generally speaking the object of the annealing process in steel .working is to relax the condition into which the particles may have been 

brought by some unequal cooling or working^ in order that the molecular attraction of these particles may be permitted to act normally, 

bringing the whole texture of the metal into a state of uniformity in 

this respect. The advantage of annealing steel castings and some 

other pieces is disputed by many, the objection being apparently as 

much to the method of doing the work as against the principle underlying it. Almost any form of heating furnace can be adapted to 

this work of annealing, although the rate of heating and cooling, an. 

important point sometimes, generally needs to be more carefully controlled and to be slower than is common in the usual working of any 

ordinary heating furnace. For this reason such furnaces are almost invariably gas-fired, and have special fixtures or arrangements in their 

original design for closing-them up perfectly airtight. -Thus the heating can be carried on at the slowest rate desired and with a uou-wast-

(368) '.
FURNACES. .-33

ing gas flame, and the process of codling can also be continued or delayed as long as may be needful.

Closed forge fire. This furnace (No. 20) is simply one of the lesser 

conveniences of the blacksmith shop where tools are to be made for use 

in other parts of a works, or where the work carried on is the forging 

or the manufacture in a commercial way of all sorts of steel goods. It 

is of the highest importance that all the heating thus called for, whether 

for bending or hammering or tempering, should be quickly, uniformly, 

and, in a word, properly done, in order that the quality of the metal 

may remain unimpaired and the whole work be done at a profit. This 

need has led to the contrivance, largely on the part of steel manufacturers themselves, of closed forges, in which, on a suitable grate, a solid 

fire of hard coal or coke is built and urged as needful with a blast. On 

the surface of this burning mass of clean fuel the bars which are to be 

heated are placed, and over the whole is fixed, as a permanent element 

of the construction and quite close down, a firebrick roof or cover. 

Thus the metal is bathed in a heated atmosphere as the pieces are 

turned over during the heating, and the effect obtained is the most 

gentle and uniform possible. This method of working steel in carefully 

designed fires, even for such apparently trifling needs, may seem, too 

obvious to require the briefest mention, but the records of the advance 

of the manufacture as a whole .are too full of disappointments and losses, 

dependent upon precisely such things as this to warrant the notion 

that any detail is unworthy of notice by means of which more exact and 

correct methods may be secured.

In the furnace department, as devoted to reheating, there must always be room for the less efficient methods to be improved up to the 

standard or limit of the best. In some cases the actual facts of construction, or the possibilities of fitting new work to old to any advantage, must limit the use of improved fixtures, however desirable they 

may be. Sometimes, too, the conservatism of managers stands immovably in the path of advancement, even in details concerning which 

their own judgment has been convinced. The tendency is toward more 

substantial details of masonry and iron work, to the use of wroughtiron plates and binding fixtures in general, and to the adoption of all 

such heavier weights and proportions of parts as shall insure the highest durability even at the comparatively low heat at which all this work 

of reheating steel is done. Even if the soaking pit comes largely into 

use there must still remain enough reheating to be done from the cold 

state of the ingot to warrant the use of the best apparatus for the purpose.

In the cost for labor of handling at furnaces much has already been

saved by the adoption of the method of direct rolling to the finished

rail from the ingot, but something remains for study in some of the

 vorks in this respect. The later methods of assigning one crew of men,

Bull. 25 3 (369)
STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

to the work of several furnaces has proved an important advance over 

the former practice of giving a furnace to each two men, without reference to the amount or character of the heating done by it. The simplest 

methods of handling the material, whether by hand or by steam or hydraulic power, are not ;\et fully recognized as useful, if this recognition 

is to be measured by their actual adoption and use.

Some important savings in fuel have been effected by sending the 

blooms direct from the blooming mill to the rail mill without any reheating, or with but a partial reheating as compared with the early 

practice of allowing them to become wholly or partially cooled. These 

savings may be readily calculated for any given case or ratio as compared with previous practice by means of some such method of stating 

the cost as that given on another page of this paper.

FUELS.

Kinds. The fuels which have beeu sused in the maimlacture of steel 

have ranged from the hardest and purest coke down to the most completely water-soaked dust and other saw mill refuse which can be made 

to burn in a " gas producer." Out of this series the items which are 

used from choice are obviously few in number, and to a certain and important extent they have been used interchangeably. In some localities 

the question of price determines this choice, as it varies from time to 

time; and in others the preferences of managers or men rule almost 

irrespective of price. The chief items in this somewhat extended list 

of available fuels are given in the table, with analyses. These analyses 

may be taken as characteristic or approximate, although others can be 

drawn from equally trustworthy sources which would be found to differ 

somewhat from these.

Typical analyses of fuels.

Carbon ...............................

Ash .................................

Water ................................

 8

£

49.7

1.9

41.2

5.9

1.3

100.0

s

8

o

88.0

1.2

1.4

9.4

100.0

Coal.

5

SX

CD S> 

5^3

g^

5S

<\

86.8

5.5

4.3

100.0

s

PM

Sfr

 9fe S*

o

W

59.6

8.2

30.1

1.3

.8

100.0

fi

S-?

§1

§

M. '

70.4

7.9

4.9

14.5

2.3

100.0

a

a

5

>)

go

R

6t

® ^s

a

89.3

10.0

.7

100.0

Gas.

Co

R

5 43 2

W

1.0 

62.0

30.0

7.0

100.0

IB 

fl 

O

S

35

12.0 

64.0

18 fl

6.0

100.0

o

§.

"3

1

fr

.8

22.5 

7.3

2.3

60.3

6.8

100.0

C-l

gfr

+3 5.fc

.8

22.0 

3.0

.6

.0

67.0

6.0

100.0

(370)
BAI:.\KS.J . FUELS. 35

Brief mention may be permitted of the uses which are made of these 

fuels iu the ordinary processes of manufacture.

Wood. This is used more sparingly each year, and almost wholly as 

a kindling material for the more enduring fuels. Where other kinds of 

fuel are scarce, and hence costly, it is used somewhat as a supply for 

gas producers, either in the form of sawdust or of other mill refuse, 

long and short. When thus used great care is taken to condense out 

of the gas which is obtained the large volume of watery vapor which is 

driven off iu the producer before the gas is made at all from it. If this 

were not clone the heat would be wholly insufficient in the furnace for 

many purposes, or if the needful temperature had been once obtained it 

would be liable to chilling by the influx from the producer of a flood of 

moisture due to a fresh firing of damp materials. To this chance of 

trouble from watery vapor must be added the danger of additional and 

serious oxidation or wasting of the contents of the furnace. Nearly the 

only important use made of wood in a Bessemer works is the drying 

and slight heating of the ladles into which the steel is poured from the 

converter, and even this use is limited to a lew works only. In some 

countries wood has been employed in reverberatory furnaces for puddling iron and in converting furuaces for crucible steel stock, but to a 

very limited extent as measured by its proportion of the whole production of these metals.

Charcoal. This is the fuel of the bloomary forge and of the smaller 

class of blast furnaces which make so large a part of the higher grades 

of pig iron. It is also used to some small extent for heating ladles in 

steel works.

Anthracite coal. This is used in the production of nearly 40 per cent, 

of the pig iron made in the United States. In the steel works proper it 

is used in melting in the cupola furnace for the supply of the Bessemer 

converting process and to some extent in heating ovens for the drying 

of spare bottoms for the converters. It also finds an important use under boilers for making steam. The value of anthracite refuse or culm 

and dust is attractiug more attention, especially for steam purposes. 

Some small amounts are used in gas producers for the supply of heating furnaces, but this use hardly appears to be extending.

Bituminous coal. This is by far the most important fuel in the whole 

series to the steel manufacturer. It is very largely used for making 

steam; in reverberatory furnaces, in which the material is heated by 

the direct flame from the coal; and in gas producers for the supply of 

gas to the very important and extended series of regenerative furnaces 

to which reference has already been made.

Colte. In steel works coke is used.chiefly in the crucible tteel-melting

holes and> in the cupola furnaces in melting for the Bessemer process.

Some small quantities are used iu the furnace, fixtures which are needed

for heating recarburizing materials and for drying bottoms used in

Converter repairs. It is also used for drying and heating the convert

(371)
36 STEEL INDUSTRY.

era themselves after linings have been renewed or repaired. A trifling 

amount is used in the closed forge fires which are employed in the heating of steel in the later operations of making miscellaneous steel forgings and shapes of all kinds. It is of the highest importance that coke 

for all these uses should be of the hardest and purest quality. It is 

used either for producing the highest heats if employed in place of gas 

for crucible melting holes or in furnaces in Which it is brought into direct 

contact with the iron or steel at high temperature. The impurity most 

likely to cause injury to the metal is the sulphur which is sometimes 

found even in the better^ grades of coke and against which the most 

careful watch is maintained.

Blast-furnace gas. This fuel is very largely used in the pig iron manufacture at the blast furnace in heating the hot-blast stoves and the 

boilers for the supply of the steam machinery. It is a waste product 

of the operation so far as the furnace itself is concerned, but is of the 

highest economic importance for these other parts of the apparatus. Its 

heating power is low, but by the use of an ample are"a of heating surface 

in the stoves and boilers the best effects are produced. This gas is 

sometimes used in the calcining kiln referred to in the list of furnaces. 

Nearly the only direct use made of it in the steel process itself is that 

sometimes called for in drying and heating the railroad ladles in which 

pig iron is transferred in the melted state directly from the blast furnace to the converter.

Siemens gas. This is so called as a convenient means of noting the 

difference between it and the "natural gas" of the western Pennsylvania district, and also the so-called " water gas " which from time to 

time has been brought to notice as of importance to the iron and 

steel manufacture. Brief mention of the general features of the gas 

producer should be made here, as being an agent in the preparation of 

this fuel for distribution and use. In its most common form, a closed 

furnace or oven about 7 feet by 7 feet by 8 feet high, it was developed 

many years ago by Sir William Siemens and his associates, and it has 

undergone only comparatively slight modifications down to the present 

day. Those changes which have been made have been designed almost 

solely to lessen the cost of labor in attending the producer, and there 

appears to be even yet room for some improvement in this direction. 

The work done by the producer is the transformation, by slow and incomplete combustion, of the bituminous coal into a combustible ga» 

which can be sent through flues and suitable valves into the furnace* 

in a continuous flow. The ash from the fuel remains in the producer, 

being formed usually at low temperature and hence without any 

troublesome clinging to the walls and grates. Thus the supply of 

fuel to the furnace can be maintained indefinitely, without th^slightest 

hindrance or loss due to the throwing in of fresh fuel into the fire box, 

as in the more common and older type of furnace which is fired direct, 

a hindrance which is absolutely fatal to the success of any process.

(372)
BA1WK8.] FUELS. 37

calling for the high and long continued heats of steel making. The 

producers are usually set in blocks of four, each having a separate connection to a general gas flue, and several of these blocks are connected 

together, so that the same general coal supply may suffice for all. In a 

few cases a single producer is made to serve for the supply of a single 

furnace, but for the sake of greater regularity in the working of the 

furnace it is more common to use two producers. Thus the chance of the 

slight diminution of the gas supply, due perhaps to an occasional use 

of wet coal in one producer or to a slackness in working in the other, 

in the cleaning of the fire grate, is rendered the least possible; and when 

a series of twenty or more producers is used working into one common 

flue these sources of the inequality of the gas supply wholly disappear. 

Thus the important requirement is fully provided for not only that the 

steel melting furnace shall run uniformly during the six or ten hoursof 

a single heat, but also that it shall be kept at full temperature for days, 

as is often needful, and for weeks if required. The fuel in the producer 

rests in a compact mass on the grate, some 4 to 6 feet deep, and burns 

with considerable intensity closedown to the grate. The carbonic acid 

thus formed in passing upward through the heated mass of fuel in the 

producer is transformed into carbonic oxide, a combustible gas which 

goes out into the gas flue. The hydrogen of the coal is set free at the 

lower temperature of the upper part of the fuel bed and passes out 

also. The hydrocarbon elements are also sent over and are usually 

condensed in the more exposed parts of the flue connections. The water 

which may be present in combination with the coal, or may happen to 

be on it by exposure to the weather, is sent over from.the producer, but 

is or may be condensed in the flue. This is of the highest importance 

when fuels such as sawdust or refuse coal are used; and it is somewhat 

common to use scrubbers or condensing fixtures in the flue close to the 

producer, so that this great excess of water may be condensed out of1 

the gas. Some of the later producers are built in a form nearly cylindrical, for greater convenience in the feeding of the coal and in the general maintenance of the whole in best working order. Blast is usually 

supplied to them by a steam jet blowing fixture. It will be readily understood that all the nitrogen which enters with the atmospheric air 

into the interior of the producer remains unchanged, passing over into 

the furnace as an inseparable component part of the fuel supply. The 

action of the regenerative fixtures is such, however, that the nitrogen is 

heated before entering the furnaces, and hence by its presence it exerts 

410 such hurtful effect, by an absorption of the useful heat of the furnace, 

as is common and universal in the iurnace which is fired direct.

Natural gas. This valuable fuel forms the subject of a paper on 

pages233 et seq. of "Mineral Kesources of the United States, 1883 and 

1884," and hence no mention need be made of it in this essay other than 

to call attention to the clearly marked differences, as shown in the table 

of analyses (p. 34), in the quality of the gas which have been observed.

(373)
38 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

So far as the actual supply and the possibility of distribution will permit, it is fully available for use in all the branches of the steel manufacture to which gas can be adapted. The exact value of this gas for 

these purposes has not yet been fully determined under all the conditions in which it has been or is likely to be used.

REFRACTORIES.

All the materials of the general firebrick kind are included in this 

term, whether more or less refractory, which are used for walls or 

linings to resist actual wasting by heat and also to protect various 

iron-work parts from injury, even though this lining or inner facing 

may itself be subject to little or no wear. This naturally includes 

a very wide range of materials, for the necessities in respect of cost 

in each location call for a ' study and trial of the local supplies, if 

there are any at all, which shall most nearly approach the standard of 

quality known to be approved elsewhere. From the first there were 

difficulties encountered in the lining of the Bessemer converter, through 

the rapid wasting by the intense heat and the mechanical washing away 

of the material by the violent agitation of the iron. This was checked 

and stopped quite completely in the.English works by the early use of 

a so-called " ganister," a silicious rock which had been previously used 

in repairs of steel-works furnaces and melting holes. Considerable 

quantities of this material were at one time brought to this country, 

but the high cost of such supply quickly led to search here in many 

directions. Chemical determinations were also made of all the characteristic elements in the materials thus gathered for trial, and the 

joint action of chemists and managers has shown that results can be 

obtained in the use of these local materials, from many different sources,

which shall go far toward meeting the most pressing demands of the 

. manufacture. The tendency to the greatest simplicity in these mixtures 

has been marked, chiefly because amply good results have been thus 

obtained, and also because thus the smallest' stock of materials need 

be .kept on hand and the simplest care and labor in mixing are called 

for. The practice at some places appears in fact to be really crude and 

injudicious in part of the details, but it does not always appear by any 

means that the cost in such cases is necessarily in excess of that which 

may prevail elsewhere under very different management.

The nearest approach to a material which shall answer the requirements of this service, if used singly, appears to be a quartz rock from 

Lake Superior, of which a typioal analysis is given. This has shown 

great endurance when used with one-eighth part of a high-grade plastic 

clay and ground very fine. An equally important point in the use of 

this material is the ease or completeness with which it permits of 

repairs.

In some cases the ground rock is rammed into place in the converter

(374)
3AKNE8.]. REFEACTORIES CONVERTING METHODS. 39

lining in a solid mass around a cylindrical mold. In others the rock 

is slapped into place in the lining in rudely formed plastic blocks of 10 

or 12 inches diameter. The repairs which are needed in the converter 

linings are made usually with masses of soft rock and clay material, 

thrown or rammed into place as may be needful or practicable. In most 

converter linings the weakest point is found to lie in the tuyeres in the 

bottom. Although these are made of high-class material and molded 

under heavy pressure, the friction due to the violent rush of the air 

blast through the holes carries away the small particles of the tuyere 

if by any chance they.become at all loosened at the end exposed to the 

heat and to the violent action of the metal. This leads sometimes to a 

deep burrowing into the tuyere, abound the air holes of the melted metal 

and compels the renewal of the bottom of the converter, which is made 

removable for greater convenience and economy of repair.

In the table given herewith are shown analyses of common samples 

of refractory materials. It is important to observe, however, that 

excellent results are obtained in practice in the use of materials which, 

differ widely from those here shown.

- Typical analyses of refractory materials.

"Wnffii*

Lake

Superior 

quartz

rock.

Per cent.

96.3

1.9

.2

.0

.9

.7

100.0

Western

Pennsylvania

mixture.

Per cent.

91.0

5.3

.5

1.5

1.7

100.0

Western

Pennsylvania 

tuyere

material.

Per cent.

57.2

41.3

1.1

.4

100.0

Plastic 

clay.

Per cent.

58.7

24.4

.2

.8

3.2

2.2

n

e

100.0

Loam.

Per cent.

78.9

9

C

1.4

1.2

3

Q

3.2 i a

100.0

SPECIAL DETAILS OF CONVERTING METHODS.

Direct metal. The use of iron in the Bessemer converter taken direct 

from the blast furnace without remelting in the cupola has become, if 

not the rule in this country, at least a very important exception. The 

saving in fuel, in metal, and in labor, all favor the practice j while 

the chief argument urged against it is the doubt as to quality in the 

finished product as affected by irregularity in the working of the blast 

furnace. It is quite sufficient for the present purpose to say that with 

the recognized margin in quality of product in rails the practice,' in a 

technical sense, is fully approved. It may be doubted whether it will 

largely prevail here for the production of anything but rails, for the 

differences in cost in. this particular, as in others, are in favor of the 

large production. The disposal of the blast-furnace product for Sun-
40 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL.25.

days renders it needful to keep up something of a cupola plant in the 

Bessemer works for remelting it, in case there may be no general market outlet for it and the furnace managers do not choose to bank their 

furnaces for the Sundays. The fixtures needed for this special department of a Bessemer works for the transfer of the iron are simple, and 

the same in kind as those needed in other parts of the works. These 

are a track leading by the most practicable route from the furnace to 

the converter, a series of railroad ladle cars, and one or more locomotives. These cars are usually run close to the base of the blast furnace, so that they receive the metal with least possible Joss of heat; 

and equally close to the nose of the converter, so that the iron may bo 

poured into it without the intervention of a spout or runner of any 

kind.

Old steel rails and scrap. In the early history of the Bessemer man: - 

facture it was considered very doubtful whether the metal which wa& 

then urged upon the market in the form of new steel rails could ever be 

utilized, or even sold at all, when after some period of time, then quite 

uncertain and believed to be very long, it should be offered as a worn-out 

material. This metal was so wholly unlike the iron rail, which had 

nearly always been reworked without difficulty, that it was clearly found 

impossible to pile, reheat, and reroll it in th.e same way, although some 

very ski 11 ful efforts to do this are on record. The quantity of new 

steel rails thus made and sold even at this early time was so enormously 

in excess of any current requirements of crucible-steel inelters for remelting, that quite an interesting field for speculation and study appeared. Fortunately the way was also opened, before any important 

accumulations had been gathered, for the utilization of the whole of this 

worn or disused material by the development of the open-hearth furnace. By lueaDS of this important ally of the steel melter not only all 

the old steel rails that are ever likely to come to it may be transformed 

into new ingots, but also an important variety of materials, good, indifferent, and oftentimes bad, are or may be remelted and reworked or so 

modified that they shall not only be salable but highly desirable for 

many purposes.

Some important secondary industries have been based upon the use 

of old steel rails, and on very general principles it is understood now, 

however obscure the outlook n:ay have been years ago, that no metal 

so useful in the arts as this would long be permitted to lie unused when 

worn out, by whatever process it had been converted from the more 

crude state. It is clear that the limit of this secondary use of old steel 

rails by slitting and hammering or rolling them is to an important extent marked by the shape and sizes of the pieces thus obtained, which 

are not large, and in many cases by the quality of the metal itself, 

which, as already noted, is not high. At the same time it is true that 

a very important proportion of the consumption of steel in miscellaneous 

tools and bars is or may be of the general rail quality, and being thus

(376)
VARNB8.] BASIC PROCESS. 41

made iu large quantities in the Bessemer converter it can be bought at 

prices which commend it to consumers who need a stiffness and endurance such as iron bars or tools do not possess unless made of much 

heavier weights.

Brief mention may be made of the difficulties encountered in the 

efforts, which have not yet ceased, to utilize this miscellaneous scrap 

steel material by piling and welding. Among these may be found the 

uncertainty in the exact uniformity of quality as dependent upon'the carbon that may be present in it, and hence the heat at which the various 

parts of the mass may be properly welded. Next to this may be mentioned the certainty that some parts of such a mass will be overheated 

or melted, thus leading to serious oxidation and waste. Another objection is that so long urged against iron and the methods of working 

it, that the cinder due in part to the fusing of the rust and dirt on the 

material is almost infallibly caught and held fast in the mass when drawn 

out under the hammer or in the rolls. No useful result can be regularly 

obtained in such an operation and held to in current working except 

by the exercise of an amount of care and skill such as can be looked 

for in only a lew workmen out of the many who would be likely to be 

called upon for such work. When this skill has been secured it is found 

that the cost of treatment by these indirect ways is far above the more 

rational process ot direct fusion and recomposition, either in the crucible or the open-hearth furnace.

BASIC PROCESS.

General history. For some years past it had been known that the 

presence of silicious materials in the lining of the Bessemer converter 

prevented the removal of phosphorus in the slag by reason of the 

stronger affinity of the phosphorus for the metal than for the slag at the 

high heat at which the process was completed. It was also known that 

if lime could be made into a practicable lining so that a reaction could 

be set up and maintained between it and the phosphorus in the iron, 

then this hurtful element could be so completely removed by absorption into the slag as to permit the use for steel making of considerable 

quantities of iron ore which had previously been wholly inadmissible. 

The use of this stronger material, lime, as a " base" for this desired chemical combination, has given the somewhat indeterminate name "basic" 

to this method of lining the converters. The records of the actual application of the lime lining and this general method of treatment are 

growing daily, and already indicate a degree of stability and permanence in the manufacture which are extremely promising. How far the 

in arkecl differences in cost of labor between the foreign works and ourown 

may tend to prevent the introduction of the process here is not yet wholly 

clear; nor is it yet a settled thing jit what prices the lower grades of pig 

metal can be produced, the use of which alone can make the cost of the 

process practicable in other respects.

(377)
42 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25,

American study of the process. Some very important studies have 

been made of this process in this country and skillful adaptations of 

existing plants have been effected for the purpose of simplifying the 

operations needful in the carrying on of the process, but only a moderate 

amount of work has been done in the actual use of the lime lining. 

That which was done proved to be thoroughly characteristic in kind as 

compared with the best results obtained in foreign works, and indicated 

clearly that when any pressing need shall be developed, the choice of 

American materials, the convenience of apparatus, and the ingenuity 

and faculty of management of American works will be found amply 

equal to the call likely to be made on them.

Details of process. The lime lining is put into the converters in various 

ways, the material itself being first calcined and ground fine; it is then 

mixed with boiled tar to give it the needful plastic character, and is 

sometimes rammed into place in the usual way. In some cases this 

lime mixture is made into blocks and burned at a strong heat, these 

blocks being built into the lining as a wall. Usually the bottom of the 

converter is made up by ramming the lime into the proper outline on 

the removable section of the converter shell. Pins are set in this 

material so as to leave holes, after the mass has been baked at a high 

heat, for the admission of the blast, these holes through the solid 

material taking the place of the tuyeres in the older form of lining.

The most serious difficulty thus far encountered in the management 

of the process arises from the extremely friable character of this lining 

material. It is washed out of place very freely by the mechanical action 

of the iron and the blast and permits only a very brief duration of the 

bottoms and the more exposed parts of the lining. The nature of the 

reactions occurring urthe process also requires the addition of 15 to 20 

per cent, of burned lime to each heat of metal, all of which must be 

gotten rid of as a slag after it has served its purpose of taking up the 

phosphorus from the iron. The removal from the converter of the slag 

thus formed in large quantity from this lime put in during the process, 

and from the wasting of the lining, becomes a troublesome and somewhat costly part of the operation. The comparatively infusible nature 

of this slag also tends to a choking of the nose of the converter and to 

the chance of a thickening up of the lining in the less exposed parts. 

Thus it becomes quite needful, in order to secure the least cost of renewal 

and generdl repair of the linings, to take the whole converter bodily 

out of its trunnion section and to remove it to a convenient repair shop 

near at hand, a newly limed one being at once brought into the converting house so that the operations shall suffer the least possible delay.

Future needs. The indications of all the work done in this way point 

to the need of establishing the manufacture in works built expressly for 

it, in order that the fullest economy of treatment in every detail may be 

secured. When this has been done, as schemed in the studies of new 

plant referred to, experience seems to show fully that even with the use

(378)
BAKNKB.J BASIC PROCESS. 43

of materials differing in important respects the production of a metal 

can be continuously maintained which shall fully meet all technical 

requirements, and in some conditions of the market the commercial 

limitations of cost, which at present so completely shut it out. It is 

said that the proportion of American ores which are available in their 

comparative degree of freedom from phosphorus for the earlier or " acid " 

process in the converter is fully three times as great as that of the English ores. The proportion of the entire production of American ore 

which is thus suitable for use is said to be about 36 per cent., while the 

proportion of English ore for the same purpose is about 12 per cent, of 

the whole amount raised. These differences are in themselves of the 

highest importance, as indicating the call which may be likely to be 

made for the use of this process in different parts of the world.

Use in open-hearth furnace. Although the metal thus made in the 

Bessemer converter by the basic process has been largely devoted to 

the finer grades of finished product, yet the adaptation of the special 

materials of the liine lining to the open-hearth furnace and the processes carried on in it.have called for and have received the most careful attention. This is paiticulaily desirable, as the supply of heat and 

the control of the temperature of the metal in the open-hearth furnace; 

are entirely independent of the nature of the process and of the metal 

under treatment. It thus becomes a much simpler matter to deal with 

the excessive quantities of slag sometimes present by tapping it out of 

the furnace repeatedly during the continuance of the process. Thus the 

phosphorus which may have entered into combination with the slag is 

absolutely removed from the furnace beyond the possibility of the reabsorption by the metal, which has sometimes taken place at the latest 

stages of the process. This adaptation of the open-hearth furnace cannot justly be said to have advanced very far as yet in the obtaining of 

clearly marked commercial results. The roofs of these furnaces appear 

still to require the use of silica brick, the lime blocks being too friable 

for such service, and some trouble has been found in the wasting of this 

side wall and roof materlai at the line of joining with the lime of the 

bottom. Some relief in this particular has been obtained by the use of 

a layer or course of blocks of an extremely refractory iron ore at this 

point. The repairs of the roof and side walls of an open-hearth furnace 

are at best somewhat expensive work, and hence any lessened duration 

of their life due to such causes must add materially to the cost of the 

basic process when carried on in this furnace.

Analyses. Very extensive series of analyses and other examinations 

of the materials used in this basic process have been made from the 

very first. The selection from these which is given herewith may fairly 

be taken as-showing approximately the means used and the results 

obtained in ordinary conditions of working, both in this country and 

abroad.

(379)
44 STEEL INDUSTRY. 

Acid and basic linings compared.

[BULL, 2G.

Silica..............................................................;..............

Acid or 

older lining.

Per cent.

01

6

1

2

100

Baeie 

lining.

Per cent. 

It

.4

50

31

3

100

Metals used and produced in the basic process in the Bessemer converter.

a

Pig metal.

Acid.

Per cent. 

3.80 

2.10 

.75 

.10 

.09

Basic.

Per cent. 

3.35 

1.30 

.60 

.15 

1.75

Ball steel.

Acid.

Per cent. 

.35 

.06 

1.11 

.06 

.05

Basic. ,

Per cent. 

.40 

Trace. 

1.18 

.05 

.06

The li washing " process. A considerable degree of attention has been 

given in France and Germany to a so-called "washing" process for 

pig metal containing a sufficiently large percentage of phosphorus to 

render it undesirable or wholly unfit for use in the open-hearth furnace. 

This process consists in the treatment of the pig metal, usually in a gasheated revolving furnace, in contact with a lining or heavy fettling of 

iron ore. At the comparatively low temperature of the melting point 

of pig metal it becomes possible to form and to maintain a combination 

of the phosphorus in the pig with the oxygen of the iron-ore lining of 

the furnace, and the metallic iron thus reduced from the lining is added 

to the metal under treatment. This is not unlike the refining process so 

. long ocarried on in the common puddling furnace, in which some of the 

purest wrought irons ever known have been produced. Some careful 

thought has been given in this country to this subject of " washing" 

pig metal, but it is not yet clear whether the three chief points of importance have been fully determined, viz, the kinds of pig that may 

most usefully be employed, the cost of the process when carried on continuously, and also the uses to which with real advantage the resulting 

metal may be put. It would appear that this process should be managed as an adjunct to one or the other of two already in actual use, 

either to the blast furnace, taking the metal from it direct into the 

washing furnace, or to the open-hearth furnace, delivering the washed 

metal to it while still in the melted state. The results obtained in skillful hands in the dephosphorization of pig metal by the use of this process 

have been very complete and satisfactory in a technical sense. Metal

(380)
BARNK8.] ' APPARATUS. 45

containing .8 of 1 per cent, of phosphorus has been washed or refined 

so that the metal run out from the furnace has held less than .15 of 

1 per cent.

APPARATUS.

Ladles. The ladles used in the steel works are circular or slightly 

oval in outline, and vary in'size from those which can take simply the 

product of a 3-ton furnace up to such as will hold a 10-ton heat from a 

Bessemer converter, and so onward to those of such substantial capacity 

that they can contain 25 or 35 tons or more at a single heat; The construction is almost alwajs the same, the material of the ladle shell 

being a heavy plate iron and the lining a refractory mixture of sand and 

loam put in slightly dampened so as to pack well against the sides and 

bottom of the ladle. In some cases bricks are laid on the bottom of 

the ladle to resist more perfectly the heavy fall of the stream of metal, 

which sometimes runs from a spout 6 feet or more above the bottom oj 

the ladle. The casting ladle in which the steel is received from the furnace or the converter is usually set in a cradle which rests on the beama 

of the ladle crane. Trunnions are riveted to the ladle so that it may be 

swung slightly to suit the exact position of the molds, or so that it 

may be tipped completely over to pour out the slag or other de'bria 

which may remain after the steel has been run out.

Ladle crane. This is made up of a ram acted upon by water pressure, and a pair of beams with braces, on which the ladle rests. A 

vertical motion of the whole is thus provided for and a smaller hydraulic 

cylinder is usually set on the beams, by which a motion can be given iu, 

and out in a radial direction to the ladle as it rests on the crane beams. 

A handwheel and worm are sometimes fitted, by which a slight rotary 

motion can be given to the ladle trunnion. In some of these cranes, 

which are used not only for handling the steel but also for transferring 

the pig metal from the cupola to the converter iu the Bessemer works, 

the ladle hangs beneath the beams of the ladle crane. In this case 

another small hydraulic cylinder is added, by which the transfer ladle 

with the melted pig iron is tipped so that its contents are poured into 

the nose of the converter. Usually the control of all of the motions of 

the ladle crane which depend upon the water pressure is assigned to 

the men on a gallery, from which the needful view of the working of 

every part can be obtained.

Nozzle and stopper. In the bottom of the ladle a firebrick nozzle is 

set in the lining, through which the metal is run into the molds. Into 

this nozzle a stopper is fitted made of a clay-plumbago mixture and 

fastened to the end of a heavy rod which extends upward and out over 

the side of the ladle to a lever attachment provided for lifting it. 

This stopper rod is protected along the part that reaches through the 

melted metal in the ladle by a casing of loam and sand molded upon 

it and dried. The ladle is brought to each mold in its turn, the stopper 

being lifted and dropped again as required in casting the steel.

(381)
46 STEEL INDUSTRY. fBuu.25.

Molds. These are set in a circle such as shall suit the radius of 

the ladle crane and near the outer circumference of the casting pit. 

This pit is usually 3 feet deep, and extends round to and under the 

converters or close up against them. In some cases this pit is dispensed with, all the operations being carried out on the general floor 

level of the works, but the convenience of working usually requires 

that the molds shall be sunk part of their depth in a pit. Safety 

from the rush of metal which sometimes occurs in the spilling of steel 

also suggests the desirableness of confining it in the pit, in which, at 

the moment of casting, no one need be standing in the way. The 

molds are heavy iron boxes of such size as shall suit the ingots called 

for and from 2£ to 3 J inches thick. They stand on iron plates or blocks 

on which the steel strikes as it runs from the nozzle in the ladle. For 

small ingots the molds are often made in halves and securely banded 

together. In such cases the ingots are made with parallel sides and 

could not be gotten out if the molds were made solid or in one piece. 

For all ingots of large sizes the molds are made solid arid are tapered 

enough in outline to permit the ingots to drop out as soon as they have 

slightly cooled. As soon as the molds have been lifted off from the ingots they are sometimes laid on cars at a very dull red beat and hauled 

out of the converting house to cool, others being at the same time 

brought in after cooling. In some cases the molds are showered with 

water, the object aimed at being the prevention of the cutting or roughening of the surface of the mold by the melted steel. This is the more 

rapid in proportion to the temperature of the mold at the moment of 

casting. When the molds have thus become somewhat roughened, the 

ingots may fail to drop out, and in this case the ingot and' mold are 

lifted upon the frame of a massive hydraulic press, by which the ingot 

is forced out. It can then go forward at once in its turn to the rolling

department with the least possible loss of beat. The molds are usually 

made of an iron which is fit for making steel, so that when they must 

finally be broken up the metal is sent at once to the melting furnaces 

and thus disposed of,

Except in a few cases the steel is always run in at the top of the 

mold. Many trials have been made of methods of bottom casting, but 

the expense of providing properly for it has prevented their extended 

use except for ingots in which special care needs to be taken to secure 

and to preserve the utmost uniformity of structure, as in plates and 

similar work, and sometimes for those of quite small size.

STEAM MACHINERY.

The steam machinery and plant of the steel manufacture comprise 

the boilers, the blowing engines, and the rolling-mill engines as the 

chief items, and to these may be added for the sake of completeness 

the extensive series of smaller engines and pumps found in every works,

whether large or small.

(382)
BAKNE8] STEAM MACHINERY. 47

Boilers. These are of all kinds, according to the general preference 

which is so marked in some districts, or as determined by the more or 

less clearly defined choice of the manager by whom they may have been 

selected. These differences of practice it is impossible to reconcile, and 

no brief study of the subject can be specially useful unless directed 

to the points clearly established by long experience among prudent men. 

The fuel supplied for use at the boilers is often of a low grade and 

hence the efficiency is apt to be low. This leads to an important tendCM icy to irregularity of pressure of steam, and this still further to a 

danger of loss of speed in the blowing and rolling-mill engines. These 

difficulties are surmounted in some cases by the use of prime fuels only 

and in others by the use of more boilers fired with the cheaper fuel and 

urged by artificial draft or blast under the grates. Some recognize 

fully the value in this rolling-mill line of service, with its extremely 

interrnitteut calls for steam, of boilers with an unusually large water 

capacity, so that there shall be thus stored up in the water a reserve 

supply of heat ready for transformation into steam at the very short 

notice usually given in these kinds of work. The fuels delivered at the 

boilers sometimes change unawares, in the water or the ash contained 

in them; and as it is of vital importance, as already noted, that speed 

in the machinery should be maintained, these reserve limits of heating 

surface and water capacity are worthy of the highest consideration they 

have ever received.

The boilers in steel works are at the present day almost exclusively 

fired with coal. In the blast-furnace plant the waste gas is burned 

under them aud in some instances Siemens producer gas has been used 

in an experimental way. Within the limits of the u natural gas" belt 

that remarkable fuel has been largely used under boilers with great 

economy of labor and with the best promise in respect to current repairs of all the parts involved. Before the use of the regenerative furnace for reheating had become so common, many boilers were fired by 

the application of the waste gas from the numerous coal-fired heating 

furnaces. This use of waste heat is an economy of the truest type, 

for a boiler may be very correctly spoken of as a " regenerator," or a 

device for the storing and the transformation into useful effect of the 

heat which passes beneath or through it. As the non-regenerative furmace which supplies this waste heat to such boilers is fired direct with 

coal, there must exist in connection with its use the tendency to oxidation, or cutting aud wasting by the flame, from which the gas-fired furnace may be kept so completely free.

Blowing engines. The uiost recent practice in the design of these 

engines tends to a slight increase in speed. This is the more admissible 

in view of the adoption of an increased weight of parts and because 

of important changes shown in the type of framing used in some of 

the engines. Most of these machines, as used for Bessemer converters, 

are of the upright type, with shaft and flywheel set close down upon

(383)
48 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

the foundation at or near the floor level. The steam cylinder stands 

above the shaft and the blowing cylinder is placed still higher up and 

directly above the steam cylinder, so that both of the piston rods are 

connected directly to the cross head in the same vertical line. In some 

of the older engines the steam cylinder is partly inclosed by the side 

frames, upon the top of which is placed the blowing cylinder. In these 

engines the cross head is put in above the steam cylinder, and from 

each end of it a connecting rod reaches down outside of the flywheel 

to a crank pin which is set in the wheel hub

In some of the newest engines in which the attempt is made to secure 

a higher degree of economy than had been practicable in earlier forms, 

the Eeyuolds-Corliss type of gear ior steam distribution has been introduced with important and characteristic results. In general workmanship these Bessemer blowing engines have always been kept to a good 

standard, as the work they do is hard in kind and must be done sharply 

when it is called for at the short intervals which separate the " heats."

In their details of valves the blowing cylinders have undergone important changes since the high pressures for this service were first 

called for, nearly thirty years ago. The best results are found to be obtained in the use of a large number of quite small solid metal valves 

with a spring attached to each, so as to insure prompt closing. The 

inlet and outlet valves are set either on the cylinder head or so as to 

open to a narrow belt at the end of the cylinder, the closest limit of 

space only being allowed in the clearance thus given.

Cupola blower. For the cupolas two types of blowing machinery are 

used, the high-speed "fan" blower and the low-speed "paddle-wheel" 

type. Both give excellent results in the efficiency of the action of the 

furnaces they supply, and the workmanship of the best specimens of 

both kinds is such as to secure great durability.

Polling-mill engines. Reference is made in another place to these 

engines as specially related to the roll trains to which they belong. So 

far as their character as steam-consuming machines is concerned, it 

may be said, generally, that the work done by nearly all the larger 

ones is heavy and subject at the shortest notice to the widest variations. 

That is, the work done by the engine, the flywheel being for the moment considered as a part of it, may vary within the space of one or 

two seconds of time from 75 or 100 horse power up to 600 or even 800, 

either upward or downward, as the work of rolljug may be off or on the 

rolls. This change, of greater or less degree, may take place ten to fifteen 

times per minute with but brief cessation throughout each entire week, 

and it is obvious that there is needed an'automatic apparatus of the 

most exact description which shall correctly measure the consumption 

of steam at each instant, as suited to the work then doing, if a rigid 

economy is to be maintained and if the needful uniformity of speed is 

to be preserved. Not only is this true, but the strength of all the parts 

involved, from the bottom of the foundation upward, including all the

(384)
HYDEAULIC MACHINERY. 49

trifling details of these automatic fixtures, must be such as shall stand 

\vholly beyond the destructive effect of shocks due to the derangements 

of working sometimes encountered. Every effort is made to interpose 

breaking pieces between the rolls, in which these shocks generally originate, and the more costly parts of the engine, but even these sometimes fail to ward off a blow of serious weight. These needs of exact 

adjustment to work done have been very fully met, and so also have 

been the demands made upon builders for durable, engines. Quite 

small sizes of engines are furnished with all needful fixtures of these 

kinds and they run with great accuracy and economy.

HYDRAULIC MACHINERY.

General character. This department of a fully equipped steel works 

may justly be said to be to it, in the completeness and convenience of its 

working, what the hand and arm are to the human body. Nearly all 

the moving and lifting of the heavy masses, both hot and cold, which 

must be dealt with are thus accomplished, and little more can be looked 

for or desired than the present efficiency of the working of well planned 

fixtures of this kind.

The general scheme of the present system of hydraulic machinery as 

adapted to use in a steel converting house is very largely the design of 

Bessemer himself, who recognized at the first the entire impracticability of handling promptly or at all by older methods the masses of metal 

with which he proposed to deal. Some important improvements in details of outline and construction have been made in later years and by 

many hands, but the prime requirements of simplicity and concentration of parts were fully provided for in the first fixtures that were 

erected twenty-five years ago.

Steam pump. The pump which distributes the water to the different 

parts of the hydraulic machinery is usually, in this country, of the " duplex" type, with compound steam cylinders and condensing apparatus. 

Some of these pumps are 21 inches and 36 inches diameter by 30 inches 

stroke on the steam end and 9£ inches diameter with the same stroke 

of plunger on the water end. This duplex pump has been found to be 

especially adapted to this kind of work, the forcing of water under high 

pressure, since from the nature of the motion of the pump each plunger 

comes to a state of rest for a moment until the valves can seat themselves quietly, and without shock in the body of water which had been 

in motion.

In some cases a series of plunger pumps placed side by side.have been 

used, deriving their motion from a double or triple-throw crank shaft in 

which each crank is set a fraction in advance of the one next behind it. 

Thus the motion of the series of plungers is continuous in an important 

sense. The jar, if any, due to the cessation of motion of the plunger is 

the least possible, as one only comes to rest at any one instant. Some 

Bull. 25 4 (385)
50 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

have held that a crank shaft and flywheel motion is preferable for such 

work, permitting the more economical use of stea.m in the cylinder of 

the engine; but, as the compound duplex pumps work with an expenditure for feed water of about 26 pounds per hour for each indicated horse 

power, there is no large room left for such preference in the lines of 

work thus far undertaken. From the pump the water passes into the 

general circulation of the works, either through the accumulator itself 

or through a system of pipes in free communication with it, so that the 

full hydrostatic pressure shall be constantly maintained.

Accumulator. This acts to a certain extent as a reserve supply, so 

far as its contents go; but it fills also the more important office of determining and maintaining the pressure upon the whole system. It 

consists of a cylinder within which works vertically a plunger, packed 

watertight at the upper end, 18 inches diameter by 12 feet stroke being 

a common size. On the upper end of the plunger, as it extends upward 

above the top of the cylinder, is fitted a plate-iron box. This is filled 

with gravel or any convenient material which shall be, in total weight 

resting on the plunger, sufficient\to correspond to the pressure per 

square inch required in the area beneath the plunger or the standard 

called for in the general scheme of the works. This is usually from 300 

to 350 pounds per square inch in the American works.

Two principal methods of doing the work have been employed, or 

rather two motions only need to be provided for, one in a right linp, 

as in a crane, which must lift a load vertically, and the other a rotary 

motion, as of the converter.

Hydraulic crane. The first is provided for by the use of a crane cylinder or column set on a suitable pier or foundation, within which is 

placed a ram or plunger of such diameter as shall correspond to the 

weight to be lifted. To the head of this ram is attached a framing 

made up of a vertical mast, with suitable braces, which reaches up into 

the roof for a top support, and a pair of iron beams which reach out 

laterally 20 to 25 feet, or as far as may be needed to cover the space for 

which the crane is required. On these beams a trolley runs from which 

a chain hangs down far enough to be reached from the floor. The 

weight to be lifted is attached to this chain by suitable tongs or slings, 

and upon the admission of the water to the cylinder of the crane the 

ram rises, carrying with it the mast and beam framework and also the 

load which may have been attached. The crane is in most cases swung 

round by a hand line fastened to the outer end of the beams and the 

load is pushed in or out on these beams by hand also.

Double-acting cylinder. The second or rotary motion is effected by the 

use of a cylinder with a piston and rod, to which is attached a toothed 

rack of suitable length. This rack engages with a gear of such diameter that the needful arc of rotation shall be provided for. Thus by admitting the water upon one side or the other of the piston the rotation 

is effected.

(386)
BABNBS.] FINISHING MACHINERY. 51

Water-pressure engines. In a few cases the use of reciprocating engines 

connected to a crank shaft has been found desirable for the rotation of 

such machinery, to be actuated by the same water pressure, but it has 

not been common in any of the American works.

Direct lifts. For long lifts the use of cylinders and' plungers of the 

full length called for have been somewhat common. In some cases the 

use of chains or wire ropes has been preferred, in combination with a 

shorter cylinder and multiplying-wheels, but in every case the chief requirement of freedom from derangement or any need of repair, even in 

the hands of heedless workmen, is the thing to be assured.

Hand valves. It is usual to gather the valves by which the motion 

of these hydraulic fixtures is controlled in one place, so that the men 

who oversee or actually do this part of the work of the house shall have 

the whole as fully under control as possible. This is done by placing 

the valves on a central supply box, which is fed with water from the 

pressure pump, and from each valve a pipe is led to the crane or other 

hydraulic cylinder to which it may be assigned. The workmen usually 

stand upon an elevated platform directly above these water valves, and 

to this point are brought also the valves which control the supply of air. 

to the converter.

Traveling cranes. The use of power traveling cranes and of ordinary 

cranes worked by steam engines has been urged for some of these operations, but it is far from clear whether such comparatively intricate 

kinds of machinery would endure the exposure to dust and to careless 

treatment to which they would be subject. To supply the water under 

pressure economically requires an engine of high grade, but this can 

always be suitably housed and skillfully taken care of. After this supply has been provided for it is difficult to see what just call there can be 

for any other than the simplest type of apparatus for this whole range 

of operations throughout the entire manufacture.

FINISHING MACHINERY.

Chief requirements. It is not far from the truth to say that the prime 

qualities found in all successful finishing machinery for steel are rugged, 

massive proportion of parts and a degree of simplicity of mechanism 

which borders almost upon crudeness. Differences in first cost in favor 

of any probable reduction in dead weight wholly disappear, as do also 

any savings in fuel due to the use of excessive refinements of adjustment 

in steam machinery, before the possibilities of breakdowns or detentions of whatever degree that crowd themselves upon every manager. 

Experience has most conclusively shown that in no other way can those 

exigencies be met which are likely to be encountered in nearly every 

department of steel working than by a use of material so lavish in 

quantity as to appear absurd to one who sees it working under what 

appear to be normal conditions. The real fact is that the limit which

(387)
52 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

must be held to by the constructor as normal is the stress due to an accidental fouling of the machinery when running at full speed, and this, 

sooner or later, is encountered in all rolling mills.

Separate grouping. The first result to which some years ago these 

possibilities of breakage led, even while iron was still the principal 

metal dealt with, was the entire separation of each part or item in the 

rolling and finishing machinery from every other. At an early day it 

was quite common to find one central engine driving an extensive series 

of roll trains, shears, and kindred machines spread out in some cases 

over considerable areas in the mill buildings. Any derangement of any 

one of these machines, or even of some trifling detail of the connections, 

was necessarily felt in the stoppage of the entire system, and in the loss 

of product until the injury was repaired or the derangement adjusted, 

or at least until the broken-down fraction could be disconnected, leaving the other parts to go on. At the present day in the best works 

every part or individual item of the machinery is detached from the 

rest, especially in respect to its motive power. In fact, some of the 

more complex machines have two or three engines in immediate connection with them, so that there shall be the least possible number of 

parts, such as connecting shafts or links, which shall be liable to give 

out in any way and thus to cause detention. It is somewhat difficult to 

make a list of these items of machinery in the rolling department which 

shall be strictly consecutive in the order in which the metal passes 

through them. Some of these items are so related one to another that 

both should be named in the same connection, although the actual work 

done by one lies along quite a different path from that of its fellow.

Engines. The engines used in steel rolling and finishing are of various types and sizes, ranging in dimensions of cylinder from about 8 

inches diameter by 10 inches stroke up to 40 inches diameter by 60 

inches stroke. They run at all speeds, from about two hundred revolutions per iniuute for the smallest, to ninety and sometimes less, for the 

largest. A majority of them are fitted with the usual shaft and flywheel coinrnou in other lines of manufacture, both the shaft and the 

wheel being, however, of most generous dimensions and weight, reaching sometimes the substantial total of 70 to 80 tons if taken together. 

Some of these engines are coupled direct to the roll trains through the 

coupling "spindle" and a " box," the latter being usually reduced to 

the lowest reserve of strength which shall suffice to do the current work 

of the mill. It thus becomes a breaking piece, which, by its breaking 

on the instant of the occurrence of a wrecking stress at any point in the 

mill, shall insure the instantaneous stopping of the rolls before the momentum of the flywheel can damage or destroy any part which might 

prove a hundredfold more costly in repair than the breaking box itself.

Belt connections. Some engines are connected to their work by belts 

leading from a pulley on the crank shaft to a similar one, though usually it is much smaller, on a counter shaft, To th,e end of this the driv-

- (388)
BAKftftS. FINISHING MACHINERY. 63

ing spindle is connected, as before mentioned. These belt connections 

are usually employed when the rolls must be run at comparatively high 

speed, and a well-planned arrangement of this kind leaves very little to 

be desired in smoothness of operation and endurance of parts.

Reversing engines. Some engines, designed more particularly for the 

latest methods of rail rolling, are built as reversing engines, without any 

flywheel and with two cylinders, which are coupled to cranks placed at 

right angles with each other on the main shaft, so that the continuity 

of the motion of the engine can be fully maintained even under the 

heavy load of the rolling. The reversing engines are coupled to their 

roll trains direct from the crank shaft in some cases, though the preference seems rather to lie in favor of the use of a counter shaft with very 

massive gearing between it and the crank shaft of the engine. This 

latter arrangement permits the use of "overhung" crank pins and obviates the necessity for the use of a shaft with "return " cranks. These 

" return-crank " shafts in large sizes, whether cut out of the solid metal 

or made as " built-up " cranks, are very costly if not dangerous, and are 

rarely adopted, except upon compulsion, as on board steamships, where 

some considerations must be sacrificed to compactness of outline. Eeversing engines have been common abroad for some time past, but here 

they have been brought into important use only within a very few years. 

The most careful study has been devoted to some of these to secure the 

fullest simplicity of design by which strength and accessibility in every 

part shall be insured and so that the highest degree of economy in working shall be reached consistent with entire durability in the automatic or 

similar fixtures upon which the control of the steam supply may depend. 

The use of the reversing engine in rolling rails has usually been joined 

with the practice of rolling in double and even in quadruple lengths. 

This use of long and heavy blooms in the rail mill has been possible in 

this case, as the piece in this method of rolling does not have to be lifted 

as in the three-high mill. In this practice of rolling pieces of extreme 

length, 120 to 125 feet, it'becomes possible to considerably increase the 

speed at which the piece passes through the rolls after it has once 

entered, so that some advantage is gained in that way. As the full 

load is on the engine, in this case of the use ol long pieces, for a larger 

fraction of the time, there is some room for a more economical use of the 

steam than when, with short pieces, the work is done in heavy spurts, 

and hence with less possibility of expansive working. An objection to 

the use of the reversing engine is the greater loss due 10 the friction of 

additional parts and to the use of steam in two cylinders instead of 

in one only. As an' offset to these considerations may be placed the loss 

in the friction due to the great weight of the flywheel, which the reversing engine does not require. A few of these engines have been made 

with compound cylinders and condensing apparatus, and these when 

built after well-approved designs have been run with excellent results 

in durability and high economy.

(389)
54 STEEL INDtJST&Y. . [BULL. 25.

The two-high roll train. This is the simplest form of rolling mill," 

and for many years it alone served in this branch of the manufacture of 

iron. The train as a whole stands on a massive foundation, usually 

built as a part of the engine pier or walls. .A bed plate is bolted to the 

foundation and on this stand the "housings" or heavy frames in which 

the rolls are to be placed. Within these housings are fitted boxes 

which hold firmly, although permitting adjustment, the turned necks of 

the rolls as they revolve. In the "two-high" train two rolls only are 

used, one above the other. The work of rolling is done as the piece 

passes between the rolls, the gradual reduction in the thickness or other 

dimension of the bar being due to the reduced area of the grooves which 

are turned in the surface of the rolls, and through which, one after another, the bar is passed. The top roll is held down, against the tendency of the rolling operation to lift it, by a substantial screw set in the 

top of the housing. By slackening this screw, the distance between the 

two rolls may be varied at pleasure, within obvious limits, and hence 

the sizes in respect of thickness or similar dimension of all pieces rolled 

in the mill- can be readily adjusted. ,The boxes which hold the roll 

necks have also lesser adjustments to compensate for wear and various 

conveniences for keeping them clean while at work and for lubrication. 

Motion is given to one of these rolls directly from the engine or the 

counter shaft through the spindle referred to, a pinion, and a second 

spindle. This pinion, a heavy-toothed gear or wheel, is held in housings, and close above it and engaging with it is placed a second pinion. 

The upper pinion is coupled to the top roll by a spindle and boxes, so 

that each roll is driven independently of the other through the pinions 

from the engine. The piece passes through the rolls, being reduced by 

the difference in area'already referred to, between any one groove and 

the preceding groove. It is then passed back over the top of the upper 

roll to the front side of the rolls and is again sent through between 

them. In this method of working it will be seen that, strictly speaking, 

the roll train is doing useful work only about one-half of the time, although the general expense of maintaining the whole apparatus of the 

mill remains unchanged.

Three-high mill. This led many years ago to the use of the " threehigh" mill, which is made up, as its name suggests, by adding a third 

roll to the combination just described. A third pinion was also put in 

and the engine connection made with the middle pinion of the group. 

By this means it became possible to do useful work on the bar during 

its movement in both directions, the upper set of grooves being so proportioned to those below as to work correctly with them in the reduction 

required. Thus the product of the roll train was at once increased from 

60 to 80 per cent., with an outlay for the additional fixtures of trifling 

amount. A very large fraction of the whole production of iron and steel 

in the form of bars of medium and light weights, including rails and

(390)
FINISHING MACHINERY. 55

most structural shapes, is now rolled in three-high trains of this general 

description.

Feeding tables for three-high mills. In connection with the three-high 

blooming mill used for rail ingots, some very complete lifting fixtures 

were devised some years ago and they have been perfected with the 

added experience of their use in many hands. These consist of a series 

of rollers on each side of the train set in substantial frames. The roller 

tables, thus made up, rest on lifting rods reaching down beneath the 

floor, where they are coupled to lifting arms keyed to a series of substantial shafts. These shafts are rotated far enough by a hydraulic 

cylinder to lift vertically the tables thus connected to them a distance 

corresponding to the height at which the groove between the upper rolls 

stands above the lower.groove. The rollers on the tables are driven in 

either direction by a small reversing engine, so that the ingot may be 

fed into the roll grooves from each side of the train. The ingot is delivered on the first table from the furnace and is at once fed into the 

lower groove by starting the table engine. After the bloom has passed 

through the lower groove it is received on the second table on the back 

of the train. Both of the tables are then raised and by the roller engine 

the bloom is fed into the upper groove, from which it is received upon 

the first table, which had been raised at the same moment with the bloom 

itself on the second table. While lying on the first ta;ble the bloom is 

now lowered and is again fed into the rolls. It is needful that the bloom 

during the rolling should be repeatedly turned up on its edge, so as to 

be equally reduced on all four sides. To do this a line of horns is placed 

between the rollers of the first table so fixed on a frame on the foundation beneath that the horns can travel across the length of the bloom. 

As the bloom is descending on the first table these horns are run forward by a hydraulic cylinder so as to catch just beneath the edge of 

one side of the bloom, and as the table is still farther lowered, the bloom, 

being thus caught along one side, is tumbled over as required. The 

line of horns can be so traversed across the front of the rolls as to turn 

in this same way the bloom as it issues from either of the four or five 

roll grooves. The control of all these fixtures is usually given to one 

man, who can so manage the combined motions of the bloom in its passing through the roll-grooves, the raising and lowering of the tables, the 

turning over and pushing from side to side, and the feeding motion of 

the table rollers, that the ingot shall appear of its own will to move 

through each step of the process in its turn.

Some ingenious contrivances have recently been adapted to the handling of the pieces in the working of the three-high train for rail rolling, 

chiefly in connection with the transfer of the bloom from one groove to 

another. This has long been done by " hooks " or levers suspended 

from above, and handled by men at considerable cost. Some labor is 

also needed in the ordinary ways of working in guiding the bloom accurately as it is swung on the hooks. All this labor is likely to be saved

(391)
56 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

by the use of the guide-bars and roller tables fitted to the most improved 

mills.

The two-high mill in its more primitive form has been retained in use 

chiefly in cases where a few bars only of any given size are likely to be 

called for at a time and hence in which the greater cost of changing 

the rolls and adjusting the three-high fixtures would not be found admissible. A wide variety of smaller fixtures and°hand tools are used 

around these roll trains, such as tongs for holding and guiding the 

pieces, hooks and bars for lifting or carrying them from one groove in 

the rolls to the next. Generally speaking the whole equipment of roll 

trains in a modern rolling mill is, based upon the outline thus described. 

The special forms of mill and the important contrivances found in them, 

by which they are made to do special and sometimes intricate work, are 

numerous. Only a part of these come properly within the scope of 

this paper and these will be briefly described.

The two-high reversing mill. This has been used abroad for many 

years, but no large amount of work has been done with it here until a 

comparatively recent date. In these mills the engine in a very few 

cases has been of the flywheel type, and the change of motion has been 

effected by the use of substantial friction clutches, with intermediate 

gearing between the engine and the train. This kind of reversing apparatus has been found to be far from durable in its operation, although 

it has been made to do a good deal of heavy work. Great relief had 

been found, however, in doing some kinds of work in these trains by 

the use of the reversing engine referred to. This first became common 

abroad in order that the existing two-high fixtures might be utilized, 

and because of a general conservatism, which held that the two-high 

mill was just the thing., In this country the three-high mill from the 

first found more favor than abroad, and hence the importance of a reversing mill was less strongly felt.

in the rolling of rails after the ingot has been drawn from the soaking pit or the reheating furnace, the current practice varies somewhat 

at different works. In some cases, following still the earliest methods, 

the long piece, as it leaves the blooming mill, is cut in a shear or under 

a hammer into several pieces, each long enough to make one rail. 

These short blooms are then transferred, sometimes over a considerable distance, to a second furnace; are reheated and then rolled out into 

finished rails. In later methods, the blooms are cut and rolled out 

without a reheating. In the most recent practice, with the use of reversing trains and engines, the full-length bloom, usually long enough 

for four rails, is transferred at once from the blooming mill to the rail 

mill and rolled out into a single piece 125 to 130 feet long. This is cut 

into the standard lengths called for, and the rails are sent forward and 

finished in the usual way. Some extremely important savings have 

been made in the cost of production by these more direct methods of 

worKag, in the reduction in labor of heating, in the waste in the fur-

-(392)
BARNBS.] FINISHING MACHINERY. 57

nace, and in the reduced weight of metal in the crop ends which are 

sawed from the single-length rails and thrown aside for remelting.

Universal mill. Probably the earliest important use of the reversing 

mill here was made in the rolling of very long plates, comparatively 

thin and narrow, for use in bridge building. These could not well be 

rolled in a three-high mill, and it was essential that they should be 

finished, whatever might be their width or thickness, with straight and 

square edges. This led at once to the contrivance of a form of the 

"universal" mill, iii which the usual top and bottom rolls of the twohigh mill were turned perfectly plain and straight on their faces and 

were fitted with a series of smaller vertical rolls so set as to bear against 

the edge of the piece as it moved back and forth between them. The 

top roll is raised sufficiently to g,dmit the piece when brought from the 

heating furnace, and by suitable hand attachments it is screwed down

by a small amount after each movement of the piece between the rolls. 

Thus by repeated reversings of the engine and rolls the plate or bar, 

of whatever width or thickness, was gradually rolled down to the size 

called for, and finished with straight edges and in any length up to 60 

or 80 feet or more, according to the facilities for handling.

Carrying rollers. It was found needful from the first to provide 

rollers on both the front and back of the train, so that the pieces should 

be properly supported and readily and promptly fed into the rolls 

after each reversing. These rollers are therefore set accurately in long 

frames on proper foundations, and are driven in either direction by a 

small independent reversing engine. After the rolling of each piece is 

finished it is left on the roller table until cooled enough to permit handling without distortion, and it is then dragged away. In some cases, 

when heavy bars are to be rolled- in this way, it is needful that the 

vertical or " edging" rolls should themselves be driven, so that the bar 

may be compressed upon its edges more than can be possible when the 

only pressure exerted by these rolls is that due to the very slight 

"spread" of the piece as it is reduced in thickness. Sometimes the 

edging rolls are made adjustable laterally, so that the width of the bar 

may thus be more accurately controlled. Nearly all of the so-called 

eye bars for bridge work are rolled in mills of this type. Some special 

fixtures for opening and closing the.rolls have been contrived, by means' 

of which these bars have been rolled with the enlarged ends which are 

needed for the pin connections.

Reversing mills for steel. As soon as the call became clearly defined 

for steel blooms in various sizes and lengths, it was found that some 

more perfect means for rolling the long pieces was needed than had 

existed in the three-high blooming mills used for rail-ingots. This led 

to the development of a two-high reversing mill of the most substantial 

construction, with engine and roller tables complete. In this it has been 

found practicable to roll, with great economy of time and labor, an ingot 

14 inches by 14 inches by about 5-feet long into a bloom 4 by 4 inches

(393)
58 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

by about 60 to 70 feet long, or to any intermediate size whatever. This 

mill is made with, shallow grooves in the rolls, so placed that the ingot 

shall be rolled flatways and then edgeways, the grooves being reduced 

in width toward one end of the roll, so that as the rolling progresses, 

the piece shall still be held somewhat firmly against the sides of the 

groove as it passes through. The successful use of this two-high blooming mill was so marked that it has found its way into use for rail blooms. 

«One important detail of the handling of the ingots in the reversing mill 

is worthy of mention. It is that the weight of the piece does not need 

to be lifted at all. It has to be turned up. on its edge, but the cost and 

the repairs of the carrying fixtures are greatly reduced.

Continuous mills. The "continuous" type of rolling mill is also a 

very important addition to the general series of rolling machinery with 

which modern mills are provided. It first became recognized and 

successful abroad, but valuable advances have been made here in the 

general plan of construction and in the endless items of detail upon 

which so large a proportion, if not the whole, of the success of such machinery depends. In general terms, the construction of the continuous 

mill is such that the piece, 15 feet to 30 feet long to start with, is fed 

into a pair of rolls running at moderate speed. It then passes after 

this first reduction directly into a second set, placed close by and running at a higher speed, so that the piece shall travel as much faster 

through the second set than through the first as its area of cross section 

or size is less. The piece then goes on, passing directly from the groove 

in one set of rolls to the smaller groove in the next size, until it has 

been reduced to the size and shape called for. It is obvious that the 

grooves are carefully arranged, both in shape and area, so that the 

piece shall be taken up at once and properly reduced. It is also clear 

that great pains must be taken to see that the guides and pipes and

other fixtures, by which the end of the piece is transferred from one 

groove to another, are perfect in shape and kept accurately in place. 

If the piece or " billet" is of the common size for this kind of work, 1£ 

inches square, and the finished product or " rod" is five-sixteenths of an 

inch diameter, it will be^seen that as it approaches the finished end of 

the series of rolls the rod must actually fly from one groove to the next 

at a very high velocity in order to keep out of the way of the parts 

which follow, even though the billet may be moving into the first set of 

rolls at quite a low speed. The whole train is usually so placed that 

the billet shall enter at once upon being drawn out of the door of the 

furnace, so that not more than a few inches of the length of the billet 

are exposed to cooling before it enters the rolls. The billet is thus 

drawn out of the furnace only as fast as it passes through the first set 

of rolls.

Belgian mill. Another mill for doing the same kind of work in a way 

which-may fairly be called continuous is the so-called "Belgian" mill. 

In this as first made the piece was passed repeatedly through a set of

(394)
FINISHING MACfllNER^. 59

rolls running rather slowly until it had been somewhat reduced and comparatively flexible. The end of the rod, upon issuing from the first groove 

in the second set of rolls, run at higher speed, is skillfully caught by 

a boy with tongs and put into the next groove. It is then caught and 

put forward again, and so on until the rod is rolling in six or seven sets 

of rolls all at the same time, these rolls forming parts of the same series 

and all running at the same speed. The " bight" or slack part of the 

rod between these different grooves lies on the floor of the mill in convolutions of the most striking character as the rod passes swiftly 

through them from one groove to the next. An important improvement even upon this method of doing this work, or rather a muchneeded addition to it, has been made in the use of additional rolls of 

larger size and running more slowly. In this "Garrett" combination 

a 4-inch bloom is rolled at one heat in an 18-inch train to about 1£ inches 

square. It then passes through a 12-inch set of rolls and then forward 

to two 9-inch trains. In these last two sets of rolls the piece is turned 

in and out in the manner already described. An important feature of 

this combination is also the use of four separate engines for driving the 

trains, so that each can be run at its own proper speed and with no 

chance of hindrance from any outside source. In all these high-speed 

rod mills, as soon as the end of the finished rod issues from the last set 

of rolls, it is caught and taken to a reel, upon which it is wound up and 

fastened together as a compact coil for use as required. The product 

'of this last-named mill may be given as 80,000 pounds of rods .22 inch 

in diameter per turn of nine and one-half hours.

These forms of mills, which work more or less fully on the continuous 

plan, are more largely used for wire-rods than any thing else 5 but adaptations of them are possible, and have been made, to the rolling of heavier 

rods and to the making of hoops and other light bands up to 3 or 4 

inches in width.

In the rolling in these high-speed trains the detentions and losses of 

product by actual breakages arid by imperfect working are now cut 

down to a very low figure. It becomes the more important that this 

should be so, as the speed of the machinery in doing such work is increased, for thus the cost rapidly increases, and hence the loss on any 

part of the product which may be interrupted, and' thrown back for 

remelting by any imperfect working of the machinery or by an actual 

breakage.

Plate mill. Turning from this lighter class of machinery to the 

plate mill, it may be noted that the general type of the best modern 

examples is that of the three-liigli mill, with roller tables attached. 

The so-called "Lauth" combination is chiefly used, in which the middle 

roll of the group of three is much smaller than the others, the top and 

bottom rolls being in some cases 32 inches in diameter, while the middle roll is 20 inches. Two advantages attend the use of this combination of a small middle roll with larger top and bottom rolls. One is the

(395)
60 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BOLL. 25.

greater ease with which the reduction of the metal takes place in the 

rolling, and another, the less distance through" which the plate as it is 

rolled must be lifted in order to return between the upper pair of rolls. 

The strength of the middle roll is found ample, even though it is of 

smaller size; for when the rolling is against its lower surface it bears 

over its whole length against the large upper roll, and in the same 

way against the lower roll when the plate is being rolled between the 

upper pair of rolls. The screws by which the rolls are moved and 

adjusted vertically are turned in the smaller mills usually by large handwheels. In the larger mills a belt connected to the engine shaft is sometimes used. In some a hydraulic cylinder and piston are fitted, and in 

others still a small reversing engine. The latest plate mills erected in 

this country are by far the most substantial pieces of machinery yet 

found in rolling-mill establishments. Plates 9 feet wide and of any required length can be rolled in several of these mills. The rolls themselves 

have usually been "chilled," so that they have a hard, smooth' surface 

when turned. In some cases steel castings have been used for these 

rolls, although the absolute endurance of this metal in such lines of 

work has not been fully determined. There is no reason for supposing 

that the full limit of size in plates has yet been reached. It is possible 

that few shops, if any, in which plates are worked up into finished 

forms in boilers or any similar work, are prepared to handle in their 

oWn manufacture any size of plates at all approaching those which have 

been within the limit of the rolling-mill machinery for several years 

past. Great care is needed in the cooling of the plates that they shall 

not become buckled or warped. The plate-ingots are cast in nearly all 

sizes up. to about 3 feet by 5 feet by 10 or 12 inches thick. This general requirement of steel working holds good in plate rolling, that an 

ingot should be reduced to about one-tenth its original thickness or 

cross section in order to develop its maximum strength.

The approximate weights of the principal parts of one of these large 

plate mills of the " Hemphill" pattern are as follows:

Parts. Pounds.

37, 000

51,000

14, 000

8,300

29, 000

12, 000

The nominal diameters of the various sizes of roll trains range between 48 inches as an extreme downward to 8 inches, including between 

these extremes some ten or more intermediate sizes. These are used in 

rolling plates, blooms, rails, billets, bars, and rods, the preference for 

any exact size for a given purpose depending chiefly upon the individual preference of the manager. Rails are usually rolled in a train not

(396)
BARNIIB.] FINISHING MACHINERY. 61

larger than 23 inches diameter, and bars 1£ inches diameter in a 12-inch 

train.

For bars and rods smaller than medium and fall-sized rails the same 

general method of treatment after the rolling prevails. If bars are occasionally found crooked when cold they arc straightened under a press 

or by hand, as may be needful. All these lighter forms of rolled bars 

are laid out for cooling on carefully leveled beds or floors, so that there 

may be as little chance as possible of twisting or bending in anyway. 

For some purposes the call for exact straight bars is so rigid that an 

important fraction of the cost of such bars is the labor of straightening.

The shears and other secondary machines required for plates and 

bars are of the same general type as the rolling machinery itself, substantial and of simple design. These vary in size from those intended 

for snipping off the end of a rod one-half inch diameter, up to the massive shears for heavy steel plate, which will cut a plate 100 inches wide 

and 1 inch thick. Several of these large machines of the " Morgan " pattern are built in a very compact outline and weigh upwards of 70 tons.

Bloom shear. The use of a shear for cutting hot steel blooms was 

almost forced upon managers of steel mills by the inability of the hammers to keep up with the increasing production of the works and by 

the large comparative cost of running them. It had longbeen a common 

thing to cut off miscellaneous bars and forgings at the hammer as they 

were finished, and as soon as ingots began to be made large enough for 

more than one rail the haulmer was clearly the first,and only thing 

thought of or available for use in cutting them. The strength needed 

in the parts of a shear and the power required to work it were little 

more than matters of conjecture, when, at length, the first one was 

undertaken. Actual trial showed, however, that even a 7 by 7-inch 

bloom, when at the ordinary heat called for in the best practice in rolling, required less power to cut it than was anticipated, and also that 

the dimensions of parts which were adopted in the design of the shear 

were sufficient for average conditions of work. Experience soon showed 

that cold pieces were likely to be put into the machine, and these proved, 

as might have been expected, too much for the endurance of some of the 

parts, substantial though they were. The first complete shear of this 

class was made witj/a horizontal movement for the knife, derived from 

an eccentric on a third-motion shaft. The machine was driven by an 

engine with heavy flywheel, geared direct in the ratio of about 12 to 1. 

The same type of machine continues in well approved use, although the 

parts subject to these stresses have been enlarged, until as a whole the 

weight of one of these machines has reached 50 tons.

Vertical shear. With the development of the trade in general sizes 

of steel blooms and slabs there came a call for a form of heavy shear 

with a knife moving vertically, so that slabs 14 or 15 inches wide could 

be cut while lying flat on the shear bed. These had to be cut frequently 

into sliort pieces, so that this shear was set to run somewhat faster, and

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62 STEEL INDUSTRY.. JUULL.25.

a counterweight was added to lift the knife when the driving .clutch 

had been thrown out of gear, so as to insure that when stopped the 

throat of the shear should always open.

General design. These massive tools are good examples of the desirableness and even the necessity of designing .them in such forms that 

the strength of the whole shall lie in a very few pieces, which simply 

bear upon each other instead of being held together by bolts or fastenings of any kind. The stresses which must occasionally be endured in 

such machines are so extreme that they can be successfully resisted only 

by the use of a frame or similar part of such massive dimensions and 

strength that the stress due to the current ordinary work shall be quite 

trifling when compared with it. These shears are always driven by 

independent engines, sometimes attached directly to the frame. The 

pieces are brought up to the shear and fed in as required, by a line of 

rollers leading from the roll train and in some cases driven by an engine 

set for the purpose. From the shear the miscellaneous blooms are removed to the stock yard or are sent out for immediate use elsewhere.

Chipping hammers. In the earlier days of Bessemer-steel making the 

difficulty was encountered at times of the cracking of the blooms on 

the corners in hammering and rolling. This was due to various causes, 

most of which are now fully understood and guarded against; but the 

necessity then existed of cutting or chipping the cracks out of the 

bloom, lest, if permitted to remain, they should injure or wholly" destroy 

the finished rail or other piece. For this purpose medium-sized hammers were erected in some of the works under which the chipping was 

done. These were also available for general use in making the numerous bars and other hand tools required. At the present day any such 

tendency to cracking is accepted on the instant as an indication that 

something is amiss in the earlier parts of the process of manufacture 

and remedies are quickly applied.

Hammer. This has been from the very earliest days of steel making 

an important appliance, and for many purposes it still holds its place. 

For some kinds of steel the rolls are now preferred, as the reduction of 

the ingots can thus be effected at far less cost. The closest study has 

been devoted for many years to the improvement of the hammer, as to 

the general form which shall be given to it and in the details of material 

and workmanship. The best hammers now stand fully abreast with 

other high-class tools and machinery of the steel manufacture, and they 

are made in a wide variety of forms, so that all possible requirements of 

duty shall be fully met. The steam hammer is more subject to destructive shocks and stresses from the absolute nature of the work which 

it must do than almost any other of the machines of the steel manufacture, but the advance in the adaptation of the materials of which 

the hammer is made has been so complete that the endurance of the 

Whole has been very greatly increased over what was common .or even

(398) .
FINISHING MACHINERY" 63

noteworthy ten or fifteen years ago. Few of the hammers used in the 

United States exceed 8 tons in the weight of the ram or head by the 

fall of which the work is done. For very light work these heads weigh 

150 or 200 pounds, and for making forgings of very substantial weight 

a head of 15 to 20 tons is' called for. In the great works abroad there 

are a few hammers of extreme weight which have been erected for the 

forging of heavy guns and other similar work. Only a moderate amount 

of work has yet been done by these great tools, and experienced men 

differ in their judgment of the expediency of a pursuit of this line of 

research and practice, as contrasted with the use of a metal which shall 

be cast to a more exact outline, and subjected to treatment by fluid 

compression and by. hydraulic forging apparatus.

In hammers of very large sizes the cost of the anvil and of the foundation becomes excessive, and of this fraction of the whole cost a very

large proportion may be wholly saved if the work done by the hammer 

can be performed by these other means.

Hydraulic forging machinery. This, in general idea, simply substitutes 

the quiet but intense pressure due to the use of a heavily loaded accumulator for the blow of a falling head or ram. This kind of machinery 

has been used on a limited scale and for light work for many years, 

but an entirely new call appears now to be made for machinery of this 

type of the most substantial description. Tbe demand, for heavy shafts 

and other similar pieces for industrial purposes has quite fully overtaken the limit of capacity of the hammers which are available for 

making them, and the call for heavy guns appears likely at no distant 

day to reach beyond the ability even of the gigantic hammers of which 

one or two have been set at work. There are the best reasons for believing that even the largest forging machine which is likely to be 

built will compare favorably with t/he hammer as a means of reducing 

the heavy ingots required in these more recent calls. Some experience has already been acquired in doing rather heavy work by means 

of hydraulic pressure, and thus far the indications seem to show that 

the cost of doing even the heaviest work and the excellence of the result when complete will be altogether in favor of this more quiet method 

of treatment. It is probable that the massive outliues of the machines 

which will eventually be called for will quite exceed present expectations which are held concerning them, but past experience in the contrivance and the construction of such apparatus indicates clearly that 

no well-defined call of this kind can possibly fail of a prompt and successful response. It is also probable that the quiet character of the 

work thus done will permit the location of the machine close to the 

door of the furnace, from which the ingot may be taken, or between 

two furnaces, so that the loss of heat in the ingot shall be the least possible.

(399) 
64 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 2? 

SECONDARY MACHINES.;

Transfer rollers. The smaller machines in the rolling department of 

the steel manufacture may be briefly referred to. In rail mills the rail 

when finished is delivered to a series of rollers which may be driven in 

either direction, usually by a connection from the saw engine, and upon 

which the rail simply lies on its side. At intervals along this line 

of rollers are others which can be reversed and are so set on vertical axes 

and in pairs that the rail shall be gripped and firmly held by them in 

order that it rna,y be thus sent forward promptly to the saws, and accurately set in front of them, to be cut off to the exact length called for. 

The saws are driven and placed in various ways, but usually so that 

they shall cut off the rail by being swung up against it laterally. The 

crop-ends are dragged away and piled up to await sale or use elsewhere in the works. By additional sets of gripping rollers the rail is 

now sent into the " cambering machine," by which the curvature is 

given to it which shall compensate for the greater contraction in the 

final cooling due to the excess of thickness-in the head of the rail over 

that in the flange.

Cambering machine. In this " Gustin" machine are two lines of 

rollers, set on vertical shafts, of three each, so placed that the rail. 

passes between the lines. The middle roller of one line is adjusted laterally a trifle on one side, so that the rail in passing between it and the 

end-rollers of the opposite line is deflected and thus curved by an amount 

corresponding to the temperature at which the rail may leave^the machine. These roller shafts are all driven by suitably geared connections 

from the saw engine. The machine as a whole can be very accurately 

adjusted, so that the rail when finally cooled shall be so straight as to 

require the least possible subsequent treatment. After passing through

this machine it is delivered on the cooling bed, and is hauled away 

laterally out of the way of those which are to follow.

Straightening machine. As soon as the rail has cooled it is passed beneath a straightening press, in which any curvature which may remain, 

due to the action of the cambering machine or to any other cause, is 

straightened.

Drills and punches. The rail is then passed to the drilling machines 

at which the holes for the fish-plate connections at the ends are drilled, 

and to the punches, in which, if called for, the notches for spikes are 

cut near the ends, or for special end-fastenings which are sometimes required. They are then usually loaded at once on cars for shipment as 

required.

Farther advances. It is probable that, aside from the question of the 

comparative economy in labor and repairs of different methods of rolling, there is less room for discussion and for improvement anywhere in 

the detail of the rail manufacture than in this finishing department, as 

it may very properly be called. All experience tends to show that the

(400)
STEEL CASTINGS. . 65

structure of the steel, as a rolled metal, is completely determined before 

it becomes cold after rolling. Hence the necessity, if the rail has been 

thus rightly made and finished, that the character of the metal should 

not be impaired by any improper treatment when cold. The importance has been shown, by many trials, of so cambering the rail, and of 

handling it while cooling, that it shall be exactly straight when at length 

it has become fully cooled. In this way the value of a machine becomes 

quite apparent which can be accurately adjusted at short notice to suit 

the size of the rail and the change, if any, in the average heat at which 

the rolling is finished, and this leads to the least possible use of the cold 

straightening press on the rail. The action of this press in giving a 

permanent set to the rail in the cold straightening tends directly to a 

disturbance of the internal structure of the metal, and this has been 

clearly proved to be a source of weakness in the rail, for breakages in 

actual service have repeatedly been shown at points where the stroke 

of this press had left its mark. It does not yet appear how the use of 

this cold straightening process can be dispensed with. It is nearly the 

only remaining detail of the earliest method of manufacture which has 

survived unchanged, in spite of the obvious evil which attends it and 

the serious cost of doing the work.

For some years it was held that the holes near the ends of the rails 

for the fish-plate connections could be punched as well as not, so far as 

injury to the rail is concerned. Some makers have claimed that the 

punching is in itself a test of the fitness of the metal for use in rails; 

that is, that if it cracked or showed^ unusual resistance to the punch, 

it should be taken for granted that the metal was unfit for use for this 

purpose. This and some other similar considerations appear to have 

been waived by common consent in favor of drilling the holes, although 

punches are still used for the notches sometimes, called for in the edges 

of the rail flange. So long as these are cut with rounded inner angles 

the strength of the rail does not appear to be impaired.

Experimental straightening machinery. Several machines have.beeu 

contrived, more or less automatic in their action, and great labor has 

been expended in the effort of adapting them to their work, for this 

cold straightening process;.but the problem is an extremely difficult 

one. So far it does not appear possible to dispense with the use of the 

eye of a trained workman in detecting the crooked place in the rail, 

or with the exercise of his judgment in the working of the simple press, 

so that the rail when it leaves the machine shall be perfectly straight.

STEEL CASTINGS.

The use of steel as cast direct to exact outlines, in molds of sand or 

other suitable material, is an obvious outgrowth of the steel-melting 

process itself, and has been practiced with various degrees of success 

from a very early day. It has been made, within a few years only, of 

25 5 (401)
66 STEEL INDUSTRY. (DULL. 25.

actual service in a commercial sense to the engineering world, for nearly 

all the earlier efforts to produce a trustworthy metal cast to pattern 

were taken as incidental only, the product being used if it was found 

to be good enough and remelted with but little study if it was not.

An important part of the later development of this art is due to the 

systematic study and practice of French engineers and steel melters, 

upon whom a clearly denned call was made for the supply of material 

which should pass higher standards of testing than had been before required. This call was in fact for the creation, or at least the exact development, of a process for making uniformly and certainly a metal 

capable of enduring the extreme service called for in the use of shot 

and shell, and in general the full requirements likely to be specified in 

a complete series of artillery and ordnance supplies.

Difficulties encountered, Eefereuce will be made, to some of the details 

of this part of the general manufacture of steel, but it may be said 

briefly at this point that those who have pursued the subject farthest 

and who have made the best absolute progress find-themselves still 

hedged in with obscure difficulties. They are still unable to reduce 

completely the uncertainties of their methods, even those which they 

practice as being on the whole the ones most likely to prove effective 

in the solution of the general problem. At the same time it is true 

that the production of steel castings at such prices, both in respect to 

cost aud selling value to the purchaser, as shall insure their continued 

use, is by far the most important phase of the steel manufacture at the 

present moment. It is also true that the indications of current processes 

of treatment of the metal and of the lines of study which have led up 

to present developments are such as point to the full realization of the 

anticipations of those who call for this high-grade metal and also of 

those who expect to make a profit in its manufacture.

Tests in the icork. These have been continuously made by some of 

the steel melters of the most exhaustive kinds, both physical and chemical, of the structure of the metals thus produced and of their composition. 

They have been carried on by the side of the furnace and the forge, as 

the most cautious experimenters have recognized the absolute need that 

tests should be made on the full-size scale of actual daily practice. The 

determinations of the laboratory apparatus, especially in questions involving treatment at high temperatures, do not show all the needful 

facts, however important these laboratory operations may be both as 

leading the way in new processes and as collateral at every step.

Character of earliest efforts. As already noted, each steel-melting 

works has made trial, almost without exception, of imperfect methods 

of making castings, for use in their own current repairs of machinery, 

and in similar ways. Many of these castings when thus made proved 

to be -nearly or quite useless, even though sooner or later the whole 

series of grades of metal were tried from gray pig iron up to a sharp 

high-grade steel and then to as mild a metal as could be run into a

(403)
BAUNEB.] STEEL CASTINGS. 67

molded outline in a fluid state. The same-type or kind of difficulty 

remained in all, apart from the absolute temper or hardness of the 

metal the tendency to form "blowholes" in the body of the casting, 

which prevented entirely the current sale of goods even if occasionally a good heat were made. This fact led rather to a general discouragement of the whole idea of making steel castings, and thus the 

progress actually made has been in the hands of comparatively a few, 

such as could see through, or made a way for seeing into, the confused network of indications afforded by the early trials thus made 

in numerous hands. The uncertainty of quality, even in the castings 

which were produced of sound texture, was so great that all the devices 

of annealing and tempering which had been common in the forging of 

steel were brought into use; but however important these supplementary operations, they are wholly subordinate to the chief requirement

that the metal should first be uniformly and continually solid and free 

from blowholes.

Bloivlioles. The formation of these cavities, which are not wholly 

unlike the bubbles secreted in masses of ice, is, due to the collection of occluded gas liberated from the minute interstices of the metal in the grad: 

ual solidifying of the mass of the ingot. All metals possess to some 

extent the power of absorbing and retaining gases in substantially the 

same way that water is known to hold them. Some of these metals, as 

steel, appear to hold or retain the gas less firmly in the solid or cold 

state than when in a state of fusion. Hence, as the steel crystallizes 

and cools, important quantities of gas are released, and some of it finds 

its way out of the ingot through the side crust of metal which forms 

against the shell of the ingot mold and some by an actual bursting or 

crowding up to the top through the liquid or soft steel iu the center of 

the ingot. Other particles of gas remain fixed in the bubble-like cavities just beneath the shell of the ingot, and in some cases they are so 

numerous and widespread as to transform the ingot nearly into a honeycomb.

Methods of prevention. Two methods thus far appear to be available 

for preventing this loss of strength iu castings due to the existence of 

these blowholes. One is to prevent the liberation of the gas which thus 

divides the particles of the metal, and the other is to compel, by very 

heavy pressure upon the fluid metal as it solidifies, the complete diffusion of this tendency to secretion throughout the entire mass, so that 

whatever secretion of gas does occur shall be in' the most minute particles or cavities, such, in fact, as shall not differ from the molecular interstices themselves.

Use of silicon. It would seem that the discovery was made, at first 

to a certain extent by accident, that an addition of silicon to the finished 

metal in the furnace prevented, or very largely controlled, the formation of blowholes in steel ingots or other castings. This led to a careful 

review and combination of results obtained at different times in the

(403)
68 STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

prosecution of such work, and thus has been developed, by great painstaking and experiment and with laborious study, the general current 

practice of mixing with the finished metal a silicide of manganese or a 

ferro-silicon containing these elements in quantity substantially as shown 

below: 

Per cent.

12

20

r.a

100

The presence of silicon, in the quantity thus assured appears to 

have the effect, speaking very generally, of increasing the ability of 

the metal to hold the gases which ic contains more completely in solution or combination with it, so that these gases, being thus held,-do not 

become secreted (or liberated from the pores of the metal) during the 

solidifying and cooling of the ingot or other piece. This method of 

treatment of the liquid metal is clearly available in the production of 

masses of all sizes, from those of trifling weight in which the metal 

solidifies almost on the instant of striking the mold up to those of 

such mass that they continue in a fluid or pasty state in their interior 

for considerable spaces of time.

Fluid compression. It is to these last named heavy masses only, for 

obvious reasons, that any process of " fluid compression" can be usefully 

applied, for this, to be effective, must be commenced almost on the instant of the cessation of the flow from the.casting ladle and hence 

before any actual crystallization has taken place in the outer parts of 

the mass. This process of compression -is also available only for pieces 

of massive outline throughout every part, so that the general rate of 

solidifying shall be uniform. Actual experience in the use of .fluid 

compression on a really large scale, that is, with heavy masses and with 

extreme pressures, has been very limited, so that it is difficult to say 

what results have been reached, or what proportion of the excellence 

of these apparent results is really due to the compression process itself. 

It is not long since the utmost which could be said with reference to 

this process was simply that it could not be known whether more was 

not due in the evident good quality of the metal to the excellent grades 

of raw material which had been employed in its manufacture and to the 

great skill of the furnace treatment. It is certainly safe to say, however, 

'that the results obtained in methods most nearly analogous to this fluid 

compression in other departments of the manufacture are such as to 

warrant fully a large degree of confidence in it. It would probably be 

hard to say why it should not be as reasonable a thing to aim at a 

control of the first crystallization of the fluid metal, by an intense compression process which can be rigidly held to the end of the pasty state

(404)
BARNKS.J STEEL CASTINGS. ° 69

through which the metal must pass, as to seek with, other appliances 

and processes (subsequent to this first cooling) of heating and hammering to improve its density and'hence its molecular structure.

Agitation. It has been urged for many years by some skillful steel 

melters that this troublesome evolution of gas from the steel, a part of 

which is secreted and confined with such hurtful results, can be promoted by agitation of the fluid metal in the ladle up to the instant before casting, and that within an entirely practicable time it can be 

wholly completed. Thus by the use of a simple mechanical " agitator" 

or stirring apparatus the metal can be so " quieted "as to leave no 

room for a call for special treatment of any other kind.

Need of farther advance. It is a matter of tne highest interest and 

importance that these more perfect methods for the production of a 

strong metal, in special forms or shapes, such as have been heretofore

obtained at large comparative expense by hand processes of forging, 

should be even more fully advanced. The manufacture of the metal in 

the open-hearth furnace is of the simplest kind, so far as the mechanical manipulation and heating of the furnace is concerned, and the 

.money cost is reasonable when compared with any of the other forms 

of metal which could take its place. There appears thus far to be no 

limit to the application of the metal in these directly-cast forms except 

the one of handling the dead weight of the masses produced, and the 

mere mention of a difficulty of this type suggests and eventually secures the remedy.

Chief use of castings. Probably the most important use made abroad, 

in any considerable quantity, of castings of medium weight has been in 

the parts of marine engines, for shafts, cranks, and various pieces of 

substantial section or outline, and also in the somewhat complicated 

pieces used as sternposts for large vessels. These kinds of work are 

the more important in that they must stand the rigid requirements of 

Lloyd's inspection before the certificate can be granted to the ship in 

which, the parts are to be used. One of the general tests specified thus 

is that a test piece, properly cut from the casting, shall show a tensile 

strength of at least 60,000 pounds per square inch, and that a bar 1£ 

inches square made from the steel shall stand a cold-bending test to 

an angle of 90° on a radius in the bend of If inches.

In the United States the use of steel castings is extending in important ways and with very favorable results. The texture of the metal is 

such as to assure the utmost resistance to wear, as in the teeth of 

gearwheels; while at the same time the strength and ductility may be 

made such that it shall endure perfectly the intense vibration and the 

heavy shocks to which such parts are often constantly subject.

Cooling. The molding and cooling of the pieces present some difficulties quite apart from the character of the metal as fixed by the 

melter's treatment. The trouble of an unequal cooling, so constantly 

met with in the production of iron castings, is aggravated in work-

(405)
70 " * STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

ing in steel, as the metal becomes solid at a much higher temperature, 

and in its complete cooling is extremely liable to an internal stress which 

may tear apart the outline of the casting.

.Annealing. Some 'makers of the heavier forms of these castings 

hold that a difficulty not unlike this is liable to be met with in the annealing processes sometimes adopted for the relief and relaxation of 

these internal disturbances. They believe that the chance of unequal 

heating in the heavier and lighter parts of a casting may lead to as 

hurtful results in the development of rents and cracks as the supposed 

imperfect original cooling. Hence they prefer to make the first cooling 

the slowest practicable, making the mold of the most friable material 

possible, so that the contraction of the metal, 2 per cent, or more, shall 

not be in the least hindered by the resistance of the mold to the needful compression or crushing as the casting shrinks.

STEEL PLATES.

Early practice. The manufacture of steel plates was attempted during the very earliest practice of the Bessemer process, and with marked 

success in effecting a relief from the tendency to blister which had been 

so serious a failing in iron plates. Troubles were encountered continually in the rolling of so compact and hard a metal as tbe steel was found 

to be, in the old and comparatively weak mills. After a time it became 

more fully understood that plates, and the new steel product of that 

day in general, should be made much softer than was at first supposed. It was known that hard steel was stronger, and it was thought, 

in the absence at that time of any systematic tests, that as plates for 

boilers and such uses needed strength they should be made hard. 

Some of the pioneers realized this fact, and, having acted upon it 

in their manufacture of plate iugots, have thus permitted an unquestioned record, continuous from the first down to.the present day, of the 

use of steel plates in boilers and for other purposes without failure of 

any kind due to the essential character or quality of the metal.

Present practice in quality. The casting of plate ingots and the rolling of plates has now reached in this country a degree of advancement 

which appears likely to halt for a time. It does not seem needful or 

even practicable to specify additional tests of quality or mechanical 

structure above those which are now recognized as amply rigid and 

sufficient. Whether important saving in cost of production can be 

made by further study and in the use of the great mills now in operation is an open question. The advance most likely to be made in this 

department of the steel industry is in the designs and appliances of 

those who consume the plates.

Uniformity. The importance of uniformity in the making of plate 

steel is clearly seen in the fact that a*cubic inch of the ingot mayspread out by the rolling over a surface of 4 square inches in a quarter-

(406)
BAIZES.] STEEL PLATES. 71

inch plate. Hence any imperfection in the cubic inch may be found 

extended through the whole of this thin strip in the finished plate, 

whether it be due to a blowhole or to some particle of sand, or to an. 

imperfect mechanical mixture of the elements of the metal. This is the 

more important since it can never be known where such an imperfectiolii will come in the working or the use of the finished plate, whether 

in a corner of some flange, between a rivet hole and the edge of the 

plate, or close against the fuel in an intensely heated fire-box sheet. 

So also some risk has always existed of the occurrence of flaws in bars 

and other similar pieces which are exposed to tension and cannot be 

so rigidly inspected as plates of comparatively slight thickness. It is 

at the same time true that the general character of the tests now 

applied to steel, and which are held to be worthy, of present discussion, 

do not now relate, except to a very limited degree, to the question of 

the mechanical soundness of the metal, except as it may depend upon 

the existence of blowholes that may have existed in the ingot and which 

may or may not have been closed up solid in the working'of the metal 

into its finished state as a bar or plate.

'Quality due to furnace methods. The use of steel in boiler plates began 

before the adoption to any important extent of the more strictly modern 

process of making the metal. Crucible steel plates have been largely 

used, and although as produced by some makers their grade in carbon 

was for a time kept too high, yet they held the confidence of consumers 

who could pay the price necessarily charged for them, until equally 

trustworthy material could be obtained by other means. The fact was 

recognized, in reference to this class of steel products as well as others, 

that the essential qualities .of the metal are so completely given to it 

in the actual process of manufacture that every effort should be made 

to permio the work of a skillful inelter to remain unimpaired in this 

respect. In other words, as soon as it was seen by prudent men that 

in punching, bending, flanging, and riveting these plates there was 

danger of impairing or unequally modifying the absolute molecular 

structure of the metal, then the utmost pains began to be taken to do 

all these kinds of work, which must be done in the use of the plates, in 

the most watchful and painstaking ways.

Plate-worlcing machines. This has led to some extent to the use in 

plate shops of better classes of machine tools and more accurate methods. 

It is true that the general standard of workmanship in some of these 

shops has advanced and better work in any case would have been done. 

All such improvements in methods, however, serve an important purpose in enabling the man who buys and uses the boiler or other finished 

plate structure to enjoy the benefit of the labor and study of the steel 

melter to the fullest possible extent. Thus the more accurate the formfng of the parts which are made up into boiler work the less need be 

the chance of injury to the metal by the sledging of the plates, close

(407)
72 STEEt INDUSTRY. [HUM. 26.

down one upon another, which is sometimes tolerated. So also the use 

of the more accurate method of multiple drilling in place of the cheaper 

use of a punch is preferred by many, and insisted upon by those who 

call for the best work. The differences which have been noted among 

authorities as to the injury really done to the metal by punching, in the 

intense hardening of the metal close around the punched hole, are 

not easy to reconcile. It appears to be. agreed that to ream out the 

hole a trifle larger after it has been punched, thus wholly removing the 

injured metal, or to anneal the part punched, is a means of remedying 

the evil; but when the cost of doing this additional work has been fully 

allowed for it is reasonably certain that those who pay for the cost of 

doing the work on suitable automatic multiple drills are the gainers 

thereby. Eiveted joints at best are an evil too largely tolerated, in view 

of the ease of obtaining plates of almost any probable large size.

Important uses of steel plates. Probably the most important current 

use of steel plates is found in the building of the gigantic steam boilers 

needed for the high-speed steamships which have become so common. 

The high pressures which must be carried in these boilers are fully 

warranted by the materials employed and the workmanship exhibited. 

They may most justly be pointed out as good illustrations at once of 

the need and the actual advance of the art of the steel melter. For the 

proper forming of these great plates the use of presses for flanging and 

bending has been common, in which the work is done by gentle means, 

so that exact outlines are obtained with trifling cost for labor, and 

with the least conceivable injury to the texture of the metal. Among 

the best builders the whole subject of riveting steel plates has received 

careful attention, that is, as to the manner of doing the work of riveting, 

and quite apart from the question of the proper design of the joint in 

respect to its strength. The use of machines in drilling the holes after 

the plates have been put together has rendered it practicable to fit the 

rivets much more accurately in the holes, into which they must go at 

best with some looseness. The use of a mild steel for these rivets puts 

completely into this part of the work a material which, under the intense pressure of the riveting machine, may be made to flow, and which 

does flow, into the slightest inequalities of the hole and into a proper, 

close-fitting outline for the head. In the use of these mild and ductile 

materials, too, the slight yielding which must take place in so complex 

a structure as a boiler is most amply provided for, the plates and rivets 

stretching or bulging by trifling amounts until the exact bearing of 

each surface upon its counterpart has been fully obtained.

GENERAL METHODS AND REQUIREMENTS IN TESTING.

Chemical tests. The development of the art of the steel-works analytical chemist has kept nearly even pace with that of the manipulation of the metal in the works. From time to time each has seemed to

(408)
BARKES.] TESTING. . 73

drift or to be pushed in advance of the other, the chemist first pointing 

out a step clearly desirable and practicable in the abstract^ but yet of 

s such a nature that the technical obstacles in the works have either 

proved impossible to be overcome or else too costly as measured by selling values of the product at the given moment. So, on the other hand, 

there have been differences of results in the treatment of metals which 

to all appearances should have been identical, but which in the present 

state of the art cannot be fully accounted for upon any supposition as 

to elementary coinbinatipns which appears reasonable. In fact the 

steel works as a whole, the melting department more especially, may 

most usefully be considered, and its processes studied, as- a gigantic 

laboratory. The conditions surrounding these operations and the heats 

at which they must be managed and perfected, if at all, are such that 

the critical study and care of them must be undertaken on the spot. 

The measurement arid comparison of these results, when once they have 

been completed, is naturally a work for the more retired laboratory and 

testing room. Thus the way may be pointed out, and has been many 

times, for advances of the highest value, but the following of these suggestions and instructions is to be managed only in the smoke and intense heat of the furnace room, where, to the eye of one new to the 

scene, it would seem absurd to try to trace and follow out delicate indications in the operations, and nearly impossible that any such traces 

of change should even have an existence.

In the creation of this new department of steel-works chemistry, 

Americans have been among the very first in respect to the time when 

their critical labors began and in the actual advance in the art which 

has been due" to their efforts. It has been found practicable in all the 

laboratories to assign a large part of the lesser detail of the work to 

assistants, so that the efforts of the leaders in many instances have 

been freely devoted to the wider and more general subjects of research 

through the consideration of which the art has thus advanced. Many 

new methods of laboratory work have been devised, tested, and perfected if found worthy of being adopted for current use. The processes 

which, were standard and had served their purpose well in the infancy 

of the business have been freely modified or displaced, so that the processes for determining elements now in use, that is, the tools of the laboratory, are as strictly modern and efficient as any parts of the fixtures 

or the machinery in other departments of the works.

One advantage which has resulted from this general development of 

the art of the steel-works chemist is the advance to positions of importance in the management of steel works of men who have had an ample 

technical training in this department. They have thus been able to 

give such accurate direction to the effort of the melter who controls or 

does the hand work of the open-hearth furnace, or to the inside manager of the Bessemer converting house, as to secure the very best possible results from the general operation of the works.

(409)
74 STEEL INDUSTRY. '[BULL. 25.

Testing machines. The advance of the whole art of steel melting and 

of the manufacture of steel in general has been accompanied by the invention ,and development of the testing machipe, if indeed the relation 

be not a more interdependent one than this. The need of the more 

exact development of the steel industry called for additional apparatus 

by which the progress made could be definitely measured in itself day 

by day and also compared with what had preceded it in other metals. 

So also the adaptation of the testing machine, and its current manufacture in many different forms, to all the kinds of tests which the 

nature of the material could suggest or call for have made the way 

clearer than it could have been by any other possible means to advances 

which have proved to be of the highest possible value.

The testing machine, in fewest words, is simply a weighing apparatus 

or "scale," to use the common word, by means,of which the absolute 

strength of a bar or other piece of the metal shall be determined. This 

is done by weighing the load required to pull the bar or test piece 

asunder, this load being sustained during the gradual stretching and 

yielding by the test piece itself. -This stress is brought on the test 

piece either through a combination of screws with nuts which are revolved upon them or by a hydraulic press, depending upon the intensity of the effort which is required to stretch or to break the piece iu 

hand, or upon the limit, whether high or low, of tests for which the machine has been designed. The indications of results are admirably 

made, in the best forms of apparatus, by the use of automatic mechanism, a pencil record being made on paper showing the absolute strength 

of the piece, the limit up to which no perceptible stretching occurred, 

the rate of stretching when it had once begun, and the amount of this 

yielding up to the instant of rupture. Thus in the clearest'way these 

important facts can be determined and recorded, for test pieces from 

each heat of metal, as soon as the piece can be hammered or otherwise 

worked into the proper form for placing in the jaws of the machine. 

The evidence is thus obtained in the clearest way which shall show 

whether the changes made between two heats, or even-two successive 

tests of the same heat, either in mixture of metals or in method of treatment, have been useful or not. The utmost care has been devoted to 

the design of these machines and the highest skill to their construe, 

tion, so that errors of observation which had existed in the earlier forms 

have been overcome and the apparatus has been put into such form 

that entire confidence may be felt in tb^e result of each test. This renders it certain that each set of two tests or any larger group of the 

same material shall be accurately comparable with each other and 

shall not be vitiated by some obscure or unsuspected friction or stiffness of parts in the testing machine itself.

The most important part of this general advance in the art of building testing machines has probably been the devising and perfecting the

(410)
BABNEB.J TESTING. 75

details of the large machines, upon which stresses both in tension and 

compression can be exerted and accurately measured up to 300 and 

even to 500 tons. . In these machines it has become possible, as never 

before, to test full-sized bars, beams, posts, and all similar pieces up to 

any probable length whatever, under precisely the same circumstances 

of length, breadth, and thickness, as must attend the use of these pieces 

in the structure of whatever kind in which they must form a part. For 

many years it had been supposed by some that the use of a small test 

piece cut out of a larger bar, or a small model column or beam, would 

yield in a testing machine of small or medium capacity results which 

should be accurately proportional to the area of bar actually tested or 

to the reduced scale of the model column. It was little less than an 

actual discovery that the advent of the great 200 to 500 ton machines 

of the present day showed these results of earlier study to be entirely 

misleading. The chief need of the steel industry at the present moment, 

in respect to some of these more exact lines of study which it requires, 

is that means, both financial and critical, should be found for the constant employment of these splendid machines in original, research, for 

which the present advancing though, hesitating state of the steel industry so urgently calls.

The range of uses to which steel is put at the present time is so extremely wide, taking the word steel in its most general sense, that no 

exhaustive discussion of methods or indications in testing can be undertaken within the limits of this paper. Little more can be attempted 

than to enumerate in general terms some of the directions in which the 

employment of this higher-grade metal has been a means of relief from 

the absolute distress which had attended the use of the more crude forms 

of iron, and also some of the branches of trade in which the use of steel 

has been comparatively a matter of indifference, the preference for steel 

or iron turning partly upon the current price and partly upon the preference of the agent or manager to whom the choice or purchase may have 

been committed. In this same connection brief mention should be 

made, or attempted, of the variety of tests which are specified or required of the metal in its finished state; that is, in the form of a bar or 

a forging as delivered from the rolling mill or the hammer.

Rail steel For rails, the largest single item of production, the tests 

required in nearly every case are few and of the simplest character. 

The color test for carbon is usually made for the guidance of the manager of the works, whether called for by an inspector or not. This 

color test, in few words, is made by dissolving a sample of the metal in 

nitric acid and comparing the intensity of the characteristic brown tint 

of the diluted solution with the color of a similar acid solution made 

from a sample of steel of a definitely known composition. In some 

cases a standard tinted solution is made, for reference day by day as a 

more convenient method.

Determinations are also made of manganese and phosphorus and

(411)
76 STEEL INDUSTRY.

other elements, either daily or at such-intervals of time as shall insure 

the correct mixture of the stock on hand in the current manufacture 

and guard against the possibility of a change or loss of quality in the 

materials supplied from sources outside of the personal management 

of the works. To an important extent the variations in the elements 

manganese and sulphur are judged of or detected by the behavior of 

the steel in the rolls. How much manganese is really needful to insure 

good rolling and how much may be safely tolerated above this limit are 

somewhat uncertain questions. Manganese appears to increase the 

tenacity of the metal without diminishing its elongation when strained 

or its po.wer to resist shocks. In other words, it gives hardness to tiie 

metal without brittleness. One and a half per cent, appears to be the 

extreme limit for this element. The judgment of a manager in any 

given case is almost certain to be based upon some points which appear 

to him pertinent simply because he knows them minutely or judges of 

their probability from apparent trifles. To illustrate the fact that important differences may exist in the proportions of those characteristic 

elements in rail steels which have been found by the conclusive tests of 

experience to wear well, a table is given of thirteen samples of rail 

steel, part being American, part English, and part German. Eecent 

experiments have shown that for certain purposes much higher proportions of manganese are allowable.

Typica I composition of rail steels.

No.l.

Perct. 

.40

.05

1 OK

:OQ

No. 2.

Perct. 

.21

.53

.67

.03

.10

No. 8.

Perct. 

.38

.06

1.20

.03

.04

No. 3.

Perct. 

.49

.09

.37

.03

.10

No. 9.

Perct. 

.44

.14

.82

.04

.07

No. 4.

Perct. 

.33

.29

.45

.04

.20

No. 10.

Perct. 

.32

.14

.37

.04

.15

No. 5.

Perct.

.28

.05

.24

- .04

.24

No. 11.

Per ct. 

.38

.J4

.48

.04

.08

No. 6.

Per ct. 

.30

.02

7K

.03

.16

No. 12.

Perct. 

.17

.47

.59

.04

.17

No. 7.

Perct.

9Q

.50

.97

.04

.08

No. 13.

Perct. 

.20

.12

.24

.03

.07

Drop test. Some years ago a test of the finished metal as contained 

in the rail itself was required under a heavy falling weight. For this 

purpose one of the rail crop ends was usually taken and laid on a substautautial block on knife edges 3 feet apart. For some inspectors a 

weight of 1 ton falling 20 feet was required to be used, while others 

called for a weight of 3 tons falling 2 feet. It was supposed that the 

heavier weight falling through the less distance represented more accurately the stress actually brought upon the rail in current service. The 

enormous increase in the production of the rail mills more than any

(413)
BABNKS.] . TESTING. 77

other reason led finally to the abandonment of this test. In place of 

this cold-bending test some inspectors required that a bar should be 

hammered out from the head part of a crop end, three-fourths inch square 

and 12 inches long. This bar was required to stand perfectly a cold 

bend of 90° on a radius of 1£ inches.

Recent simpler tests. The inspection and testing of rails has been 

reduced by some purchasers to a simple examination of each, rail for 

flaws or mechanical imperfections of any kind, especially those due to a 

failure to cut the crop end far enough back to insure a perfectly sound 

end. It is also important to determine whether the rail is straight and 

free from kinks and twists, and that it has been correctly drilled, or 

punched, for the end connections. So far as the chemical tests or determinations are concerned a very large proportion of all the rails made 

are accepted by purchasers upon the simple understanding that they 

shall meet the general current requirement of the market 8.S to endurance. The actual breakages in service from causes that could be clearly 

traced to the manufacturer have been so few that the time guarantee, 

which has sometimes been required, has never been brought at all prominently into notice.

Careful study and exhaustive discussion have been brought to bear 

upon the general question of the chemical composition of rails as affecting their resistance to wear; but it is by no means clear that any useful conclusions have yet been reached which command the uniform 

approval and agreement of many of the men who are interested in the 

matter. This disagreement as to exact quality, so clearly shown by the 

figures of the foregoing table, simply illustrates the fact that in rail 

steel the limits between which variation in nearly all the elements may 

safely be permitted are really very wide. The sulphur is seen to be the 

only element in which there is any approach to an agreement between 

the analyses of the samples quoted.

Upon the general subject of quality, as advised or preferred by consumers of the metal for widely differing purposes, some light may be 

afforded by a brief discussion of the requirements, real or supposed, 

which appear to be called for. These apparent needs, as shown by specifications furnished by purchasers, change from time to time, and from 

an early day down to the present have undergone as a whole an entire 

transformation. Nor does it appear that there now exists so complete 

an agreement among consumers of steel as to warrant in the slightest 

degree the belief that the end of useful study of the subject has been 

reached. On the contrary the objections of some men who have looked 

long and anxiously in this direction of the farther use of steel, of its use 

in-works of their own designing, are of so clearly marked a character 

that they are becoming each day more conservative in their views, even 

as based upon the actual experience of other men. It should be remembered that all these advancing uses of steel are strictly competitive, or 

comparative, to a greater or less degree. That is, the metal must be

(413) _
78 STEEL INDUSTRY. |BULL.25.

furnished for use at such an advance upon the price of iron, if any, as 

shall convince those who expect to purchase that the saving in dead 

weight or in endurance will fully compensate for the difference in 

price.

BECENT APPLICATIONS OF STEEL.

Some of the large uses to which steel was applied many years ago 

have been of such a nature, in the tests which actual experience has 

brought to bear upon them, that they have been long placed beyond 

the limit of doubt. Among these, rails stand easily the first, locomotive 

driving-wheel tires and boiler plaIos coming next in order. Next to 

these uses should probably stand the call which has been made for steel 

in countless ways for miscellaneous small parts of all kinds of machines 

and construction. Something that shall stand cold bending perfectly, 

the forming of a thin head under cold pressure, the turning perfectly 

with fine finish, or the treatment in a drop-forging press, is called for 

in enormous total quantity. For these purposes the cost of the metal 

quite completely disappears as a thing of any consequence provided the 

metal will meet the actual want.

The use of steel in ship plates and frames has passed the experimental 

state so far as technical considerations are concerned, and it would 

seem, if the records of insurance companies are to be trusted, as though 

the use of it, or a strictly equivalent metal, should be made quite compulsory for such work. For better or worse, the line of price as well as 

of quality in such products is sharply marked, and must be met in too 

many cases, so that the engineers and builders who may recommend 

high standards do not always find themselves supported in their efforts.

Bridge icork. In the general series of eye bars and shaped work for 

bridges, a well-defined expectation has long existed that more would 

be done in steel, if not everything, at a very early day. Some important things have been done, it is true, and more are doing daily, but the 

total use of such steel as compared with the entire current production 

of bridge work has been quite trifling. The tendency is still clearly 

marked, as it has been for some years, to the farther use of steel as fast 

as actual trial of the material shall warrant, that is, the well-planned 

tests of full-sized construction parts, and as compared with actual contract prices of well approved iron structures. The chief element in 

close discussion of the fitness of the newer forms of steel as adapted to 

this work is nearly always found to be the original or essential character of the metal. It is simply impossible to give in a few words even 

a pretense of a summary of the important technical papers and discussions of the recent past upon this subject of steel in bridge work. It 

must be sufficient for the present purpose to say that bridge engineers 

are necessarily conservative, and however rigid and watchful their study 

of the subject in itself and by comparison of other uses of steel, the

(414)
BABNE8.J APPLICATIONS OF STEEL. 79

way is by no means fully open to any large extensions of the use of 

steel in this department of engineering construction.

Axles. The endeavor to bring steel axles into use under locomotives 

and cars of all kinds early suggested itself, largely because an imporant call appeared likely to be made for them as a means of saving dead 

weight and of providing against the breakages in service which were 

known to exist with iron axles. For some years, however, it did not 

appear that any advance would be likely to be made in this use of steel; 

for the earlier attempts, as in so many other things, were based upon 

the effort to secure strength (and thus the proposed saving in weight) 

at the sacrifice of ductility. Hence the early steel axles broke freely 

in service and the use of steel for this purpose was delayed until the 

more exact requirements of the service had been determined. This has 

been done somewhat minutely, although in a few cases the other extreme of quality has been called for, the furnishing of so soft a metal 

that the wear of the journals has proved very rapid and quite fatal to 

any advance iu the use of such grades of steel for this purpose. The 

medium course is now taken in the rather limited use at present made 

of steel for axles, and the quality is indicated as a rule by the " drop 

test," one of which, for freight-car axles, provides that the test axle 

shall stand without fracture five blows of 20-foot fall of a 1,640-pound 

weight, striking midway between supports 3 feet apart, the axle being 

turned over after each blow. The use of steel for this purpose is too 

often hindered by the consent of railroad managers, sometimes given 

without careful consideration, to the use of iron axles of such a quality 

that no steel worthy of the name could be expected-to compete with it.

I-beams. The call has been very limited for these shapes; so slight 

in fact that little has yet been done in the designing of new outlines 

for the sections. The preference seems rather to be iu favor of retaining the old outlines and increasing the load slightly when the way appears open to do so. Experience seems to show that a soft steel beam, 

below the ordinary limit of carbon in rails, for example, rolls with less 

stress upon the machinery than iron. At the same time it is true that 

considerable amounts of rather low-grade iron find their way into some 

of these beams, and thus the question of price becomes a trying one as 

limiting the use of steel in this class of work.

An important limiting point iu the use of steel in built work in bridge 

construction, such parts as are required for posts and top chords, is 

found in the marked uncertainty of the effect produced by the punching and riveting of those parts which must be thus joined together. 

These posts, and all similar pieces which serve as compression members, 

need stiffness as an essential quality; but if the metal supplied for their 

manufacture is in itself stiff enough to meet this requirement it is likely 

to be injured in the punching and general fitting needed. Some relief 

may be found from this chance of injury by the use of drilling machines 

in the place of punches for the holesj although this must lead to an in-

(415)
80 . STEEL INDUSTRY. [BULL. 25.

crease of cost in the finished work. Careful study is still given, in the 

increase of the manufacture of the milder grades of the metal for these 

purposes, to the possibility elsewhere referred to in this paper, of developing more fully this extremely desirable element of stiffness without involving a degree of brittleness such as shall be dangerous.

By the use of ingots cast roughly to outline the rolling of beams is 

somewhat simplified, and the greater certainty above iron of rolling 

perfectly sound bars of great length aids in the reduction of cost to the 

manufacturer and in the convenience of use of the bars for some purposes in which long single pieces are desirable.

Shafting. This constitutes an important fraction of the whole product of bars of medium and heavier weight in iron and naturally an outlet 

has been sought in this direction for steel. It does not appear, however, that more than 6 or 8 per cent, of the whole production of shafting has been made of steel,, as indicated in current orders at the present 

day. The need in .this case is for a metal which shall resist twisting 

and shall take a good polish on the journal surfaces. The resistance 

to bending has been most usefully provided for by putting up the hangers at very frequent intervals, so that little remains upon which to base 

a choice, except the cost price to the purchaser. The selection is still 

farther narrowed in favor of steel by the well-established fact that such 

metal as is suitable for shafting can be turned and finished more 

cheaply than iron, although the high quality of ductility in steel is of 

less importance in shafting than in some other kinds of bars upon which 

some supplementary forging must often be done.

Nail plate. The latest important advance in the use of rolled forms 

of steel is undoubtedly found in the commencement of the manufacture 

by the Bessemer process, in large quantity, of nail-plate blooms or 

slabs. This advance includes also the.development of the possibility 

of cutting the nails without important changes of any kind on the machines from a quality of steel which shall clearly meet the requirements 

of the market in respect to stiffness. As the quantity of nails consumed each year in this country is upwards of 300,000 tons, it is clear 

that any important change of the raw material of this industry must 

affect large numbers of men and must call for considerable expenditures of money in providing a new plant and also the laying off and possible destruction of important items of the older furnaces and fixtures.

The manufacture appears to have advanced far enough with the new 

plant and fixtures to show conclusively that the anticipations of those 

concerned are likely to be realized in the relief experienced from man^ 

troublesome complications which had existed under the older order of 

things. The cost of the new qualities of slabs may be subject to more 

mature development, but some little savings are noted, such that in 

the aggregate they may prove to be important items in the case. 

These are the saving of waste in heating, due to the lower temperature called for in the rolling of the plates, the saving in the time, and

' (416)
BARNKS.] APPLICATIONS OF STEEL. 81

the double saving of fuel, due both to the reduction of temperature and 

of time. The smoother edges of the plates made of steel also count favorably. The very careful watching of the production of a converter 

when worked up into this form very clearly shows a degree of uniformity of texture in every way commendable and fully equal to that of 

the best boiler plate.

In the use of steel after it has left the rolling mill or forge as a finished plate or bar much yet remains to be learned. In many cases it 

has been an absolute misfortune, however unavoidable, that it has been 

given up to workmen who have always been used to working iron, and 

in whose hands the finest material has more than once undergone speedy 

condemnation. Leading men among consumers of steel do not always 

recognize the fact that steel, although derived from iron ore, is quite 

another metal from iron, using these words in their commercial sense 

rather than a technical one; and as such might reasonably be expected 

to require different methods of treatment. An endless series of illustrations of the truth of these statements could be given, each tending 

to show that a very large fraction of the defects which are reported in 

steel, as delivered from the mill and as failing in the hands of the workman, is simply due to the protest which the metal itself makes against 

the methods pursued in its later manufacture. Some of the parties interested have appreciated the peculiarities of the metal after they have 

been shown, by quiet explanation and the simplest tests, where the 

truth lies. No doubt some failures in working and in use have occurred through an absolute lack of any proper quality, but more by 

far have been recorded as the result of efforts to presume upon the 

characteristic properties of a metal which may have been set forth to 

some workman as better 4han iron, but who does not realize that it 

may need to be handled more carefully if its good qualities'are to be 

preserved or even to be exhibited at all. There can be no doubt that 

the chief complaint, a lack of uniformity, has been very largely due to 

a difficulty on the part of the user of the metal in realizing that he has 

worked the parts of the metal in different ways, even though this difference may have been so slight as to have escaped his attention.

COST OF PRODUCTION.

Statements relating to any of these processes which are given in sufficient minuteness of detail to be really useful in any way, are difficult 

to obtain. Methods of keeping such accounts differ widely, so that 

it is rare that any two"statements can be usefully compared without 

an important amount of guesswork in the rearranging of I he items, 

which must impair the exact comparative value they might otherwise possess. At some works the details of cost are kept separately 

and classified upon the basis of a general schedule for tbe various departments, so that any undue excess cf cost which may be discovered 

Bull. 25 6 (417)
STEEL INDUSTRY. [HULL. 25.

or suspected can be iraced with the utmost certainty to its source and 

the needful remedy applied. It is quite obvious that the skill and painstaking character of the management of a works cannot appear on the 

face of any cost statement, however carefully it may be made up, for 

circumstances often differ extremely at one works from those which 

may prevail at another, however closely these works may seem to resemble each other. The most cautious efforts of management, amounting even to sacrifice, may fail in maintaining a profit in the conduct of 

a works, however favorable the location and general circumstances may 

appear to be.

The important reduction in the quantity of the softer grades produced 

must always act as a tendency toward an increase in cost in the use of 

the Bessemer process or until a more extended experience has been acquired. The constant watchfulness needed to hold the metal within the 

recognized limit of quality, whatever may be fixed as that limit, must 

serve to check rapidity of operation. The frequent changing of carbon 

grades or of other proportions of elements needed to fill exact orders, and 

th« checking of work at the rolls due to changes in sizes of blooms to 

be rolled or to be cut at the shear, both tend to that increase of cost 

which in so many cases is urged against the purchase of the metal after

 all other needful requirements may have been filled. In few things at 

;»11 of its kind is the reduction in cost which is due to an increase in the

 output of the furnaces so marked and so large in actual amount as in 

the production of steel. All the furnace plant must be kept at nearly 

or quite full heat, if anything at all is done, whether the product be lit 

tie or much, and, as a rule the full staff of men must be kept on.

In the approximate and quite recent statement of cost of rails which 

is given herewith the items are noted in the ratio each bears to the 

total in the division to which it belongs. It may thus be ascertained 

what the cost of each item is, upon the basis of any assumed or known 

<cost of the finished rail or of the rough ingot. Thus it will be seen 

that blooms heavy enough to make a ton of rails will cost $32.25 if the 

Unished rail is known to cost $36 per ton. So also it may be seen that 

the cost of fuel in m'aking blooms is about 61 cents if the finished rail 

u $36.

Statement of ratio of items in steel rail-making operations.

Items.

(Ftoel

Ingots.

.897

.019

.012

.044

.016

.004

.008

1.000

Blooms.

.935

.009

.001

. 027

.017

.007

.004

1.000

Bails.

.896

.Oil

.001

.000

.020

.008

.004

1.000

(418)
INDEX.

Accumulator................................................................. 50'

Annealing .................................................................. 70 r Annealing furnace .......................................................... 32:

Apparatus .................................................................. 45

Axles, use of steel in ........................................................ 79'

Basic process................................................................ 41

Belgian mill ................................................................ 58-

Bessemer converter.......................................................... 27'

Bessemer process............................................................ 17

Blastfurnace ............................................................... 22:

Bloomary forge ............................................................. 21

Bloom shear ................................................................ 6fc

Blow-holes in steel castings...'............................................... 67

Blowing engines ............................................................ 47

Boilers ....... ........... i.................................................. 47

Bridge work, use of steel in........................ .......................... 78

Calcining kiln .............................................................. 20

Carbon, proportion of, in steel............................................... 12

Carrying rollers............................................................. 57

Cbarcoal, use of, in steel manufacture ....................................... 35

Chemical tests of steel ...................................................... 72

Coal, anthracite, use of, in steel manufacture ................................ 35

Coal, bituminous, use of, in steel manufacture ............................... 35

. Coke, use of; in steel manufacture........................................... 35

Continuous mills ............................................................ 58

Converting methods......................................................... 39>

Cooling of steel castings.... .................... T ................ ............ 6S>

Cranes, hydraulic ................ ........................................... 50

Cranes, traveling ................... .^........................................ 51

Crucible furnace, gas-fired .................................................. 24

Crucible process ............................................................ 15

Cupola ..................................................................... 25>

Cupola blower ................................ ....... ........................ 48

Double-acting cylinder............................ .......................... 50-

Drop test................................................................... 7ft

Engines, blowing ........................................................... 47

Engines, reversing, for finishing machinery .................................. 53;

Engines, rolling-mill ...... ...... .................................... ........ 4&

Engines for finishing machinery ............................................. 52

Feed ing tables for three-high mills........................................... 55

Finishing machinery ........................................................ 51

Fluid compression .......................................................... 68

Forge fire, closed ..........'...............................................'.. 33;

Fuels, analyses of ........................................................... 34

Furnace, annealing ....................................... .................. 32

Furnaces, varieties of ....................................................... 20

Furnace methods as influencing quality of steel plate......................... 71

(419) 83
84 INDEX.

	Page. 

Gas, blast furnace, use of, in steel manufacture............................... 36

Gas, natural, use of, in steel manufacture .................................... 37

Gas, Siemens, use of, in steel manufacture ................................... 36

Hammer.................................................................... 62

-Hand-puddling furnace .............. ...... ................................. 23

Hand valves ................................................................ 51

Heating furnace, coal-fired .................................................. 30

Heating furnace, gas-fired................................................... 31

Hydraulic crane ............................................................ 50

Hydraulic forging machinery................................................ 63

Hydraulic machinery........................................................ 49

Ladle crane................................................................. 45

Ladles...................................................................... 45

I-beams, use of steel for ..................................................... 79

-Machine puddler............................................................ 23

-Machines for testing .......................................................: 74

-Manganese, proportion of, in steel ........................................... 13

Mills ....................................:.................................. 53

Molds....................................................................... 46

Nail plate, use of steel for ...... .............................................. 80

Nozzle and stopper .......................................................... 45

Open-hearth furnace, basic process applied to.... ............................ 43

Open-hearth process.......................................................... 18

Pernot dephosphorizing furnace ............................................. 22

Phosphorus, proportion of, in steol........................................... 14

Plate mill................................................................... 59

Preheating furnaee................ .......................................... 27

Processes in steel manufacture ...... ........................................ 14,41

Production, cost of.......................................................... 81

Pump, steam................................................................ 49

Rail-making, proportionate cost of items in steel............................. 82

Rail steel................................................................... 75

Rail steel, composition of.................................................... 76

Refractories ................................................................ 38

Refractory materials, analyses of............................................ 39

Reversing engines for finishing machinery ..'................................. 53

Reversing mills ............................................................. 57

Rolling-mill engines ........................................................ 48

Secondary machines ................................... .................. 64

Shafting, use of steel for .................................................... 80

Shear, bloom................................................................ 61

Shear, vertical.............................................................. 61

Siemens open-hearth furnace ................................................ 28

Siemens process ............................................................ 16

Siemens rotator ............................................................. 21

Silicon as a preventive of blow-holes ........................................ 67

Silicon, proportion of, in steel................................................. 13

Soaking pit................................................................. 28

Steam machinery in steel mannfaoture....................................... 46

Steam pump .................. ...................................^.......... 49

Steel, definition of .......................................................... 10

Steel, elements of........................................................... 12

Steel, recent applications of................................................. 78

-Steel castings............................................................... '65

(420)
INDEX. ' 85

\

Steel castings, chief uses of.................................................. 69

Steel-making materials, typical composition of............................... 11

Steel plates................................................................. 70

Sulphur, proportion of, in steel.............................................. 13

Testing, general methods and requirements in ............................... 72

Tests for steel castings .................................. . ... 66

Three-high roll train ........................................................ 64

Traveling cranes............................................................ 51

Two-high reversing mill ........................ ......................... 56

Two-high roll train ......................................................... ^54

Universal mill ............................................................... 57

Vertical shear .............................................................. 61

Washing process............................ .............................. 44

Wood, use of, in steel manufacture. ..............................b....... 35

(421)