The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1859-06-10
The New Process of Manufacturing


Mr.. MeItenherger, au experienced Iron
master gives the following description
of the new process OF manufacturing bar
iron from the ore with raw coal:
Ii is not certainly known through what
chemical process iron undergoes from It's
crude state TO tnat of malleable iron, but
the generally received theory is, that the
ore is charged with carbon white charcoal,
coke, or coal, in the blast furnace, and the
impurities float on the surface and are
discharged in what is called cinder or
Stag, the result Of the process being pig
metal; this meta, being exposed to the
fiame OF another furnace till il absOrbs Oxy-
gen, becomes malleable In the first pro-
cess it is crystalized, in the latter fibrous !;
the whole operation requiring two separate
and distinct furnaces.
The St. Louis ore furnace is but one, but
with two parts; the lower furnace being
like any ordinary boiling furnace, some three
feet longer, and being supplied with a draft
OF air from a fan, Immediately over this lower
furnace (where the heat leaves NJ by a flue,
and discharges through the stack directly
over the crate bars. This upper furnace is
square and contains forty-eight tubes six
teen 10y six inches, in pairs, opened by slides
at the bottom. These tubes, eight feet deep,
are constructed of friedrich, tongued and
grooved, to keep out the fame of the lower
fire, the waste heat from the lower furnace
passes between eight rows of six each on its
way to the stack.
These bricks become heated, and transmit
their heat to the orc and coal poured into
them-the ore and coal being pulveriZed,
the heat sets free the carbon which enters
! the orc and decdr6onizes a. While the inn
purities pass off as gases, the top of the
4 tubes being open, being in such small parti-
| cles, and in such close contact with the ore,
also in small particles, and given the time
! (4S hours), the work must needs be thor
! oushly done without the least waste of una
/ terial.
| Ou being dropped into the lower furnace,
il is therefore Pig Iron in small PARTICLES
/ Watching it closely rs it fell, could sec
! that the carbon was entirely consumed and
became coke, which helps TO heat the metal
\ till il is consumed. The metal is then
showed up nearer the bridge or greatest heat
of the fire, when it is operated the same as
! any other iron; and when every article has
! absorbed oxygen, it is then malleable, and
| is rolled into balls for the squeezcr.
The whole improvement consists in not
only making pig-metal with the waste heat
Of the furnace but avoiding that anomaly
in the manufacture of pig iron of carbonizing
with charcoal and oridizin9 with an air
blast, at the same time causing waste of ma
| terial and large amounts oil fuel to overcome
! il. In hot blast furnaces part of this waste
is overcome, as part of the oxygen is con-
Sumed before entering the blast furnace.
The time given it CAS- hours) seems to
! have the effect to evaporate all the sulphur,
! (which has always been the bug bear to all
attempts heretofore TO make good iron with
! sulphurious coal, for which iron has great
affinity,) tcifhout tcGste ot material, as the
product of 81 per cent. is nearly rs much as
I pig metal can be produced out of the same
ore $50 at the Mountain works.
An examination Of the muck bars shows
that it is all Gbrous; not a crystal is in il,
which are abundant in all cold short irons
and is attributed to the sulphur in the coal
with which il is worked.
The muck has also another property
which will make it especially valuable fol
fhlIS, lilut -, vi NcIlluS AT very iON neat
saw the bars, while reeling, doubled. and
welded while at about a "cherry-red heat
The fault of English rails scaling is, because
of the imperfect weld separating like the
crust of rich pastry, and after the top crust
is off the rest ia worthless.
The quality of the iron having been tested
BY myself, after rolling it into bar iron,
have no hesitation in prononncing il supe
rior, and from the facts Of my own observa
ton, can safely predict that the old saying
of "Coals to Newcastle" will be fulfilled il
"A very few years by the shipment of Mis-
souri, bar iron TO Pittsburg and the Ohio
river, made from the Missouri ore direct int
bar iron, and to predict future for th
city that the widest dream has neve,