The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-08-06
One of the Great Workshops Of
Pennsylvania.

of the industrial establishments OF Penn
sylvania is situated This is the Cambria
Iron Company's Works, for the manufac
ture of railroad bars. 1t is All establish
ment that the people of Philadelphia
shon'd have knowledge of, for it is owned
in this city; it is one that the people Of
the State should feel deep interest in,
for it is the foremost Of the great rolling
| mills and iron works peculiar TO this
| Commonwealth, and il is one that should
| elicit the pride of Americans everywhere,
/ for it is the largest single establishment
of the kind in the world. 1t is turning
out rails, to-day, at the rate of five miles
/ IN length, or sufficient TO lay tive and
half miles Of track every day. Expressed
in pounds, the daily product of rails is five
! hundred thousand pounds-two hundred
I and fifty tons-a quantity sufficient to
/ freight good sized a-going weasel, ard
it would take fleet of three hundred such
! vessels to carry the product fer one year.
| But few persons can form an adequate
| idea Of the number and magnitude of the
| agencies which so vast a product sets in
motion. This it is our purpose to present
! as well as cur brief space will permit
he picturesque hills which surround the
Works are filled with coal and iron, clay
for fire brick, cement, and nearly all the
essentials for the manufacture of pig iron.
There are three principal seams of coal,
and two principal veins of iron ore.
1h,r1 Is seam Of coal high upon the
hill, and then a seam of iron, and then
another seam Of coal, aud 50 ON down
TO the lap Of the valley. Under the soil
OF thsse hills, burrowing far into the earth,
! twelve hundred workmen are all tho time
| employed, mining coal and iron ore for
! this one mill. The enormous amount of
! coal and vi ore they have TO get out every
day viii be understood when it is stated
that it requires about five tons of coal and
nearly four tons of ore to make one ton of
rails. When the whole daily product of
the rolling mill-viz., 250 tons of rails
per days manufactured directly from
the ore and coal in these hills, it requires
the miners to get out about one thousand
tons of ore, and alb ut twelve hundred
tons of coal every day. But consider
able proportion of the rails made are from
old bars re-rolled, and from pig iron pro
| dutel at a furnace worked by the company
! near HoilidIysburg. OF the five tons of
| coal used in the manufacture of a ton OF
railroad bars, about three tons are first
! applied to the reduction of three tons of
| ore into pig iron. The coal, however, is
not used in its native form, but is first
turned into coke, in which operation large
numbers of workmen are all the time en-
| gagged. This is done by suhjectinC the
coal TO the action of smouldering fires, by
! which means the infammable and other
gases are consumed and the carbon of the
coal Is left nearly pure. The carburettsd
| hydrogen gas thus consumed is more than
twice as much as it takes to light the
| whole city of Philadelphia, in doors and
| out. The iron ore is likewise subjected
| to a preparatory process. 1t is thrown
out from the mouths of the mines into
vast hills, at the base of which cord wood
| is laid, and through which coal is inter>
| sperseh, SO as 10 make smoulde4ing fires
! here also, to 'Eroast' the injurious gases
out Of the ore. To complete this operas
| ton it takes about S;r months before the
! ore can be handled so as to feed it into
furnaces where the pig iron is made. The
making of the 'pig'' is effected in num-
| Der of immense ''cupolas," into the top of
which the coke and the 'roasted' ore are
| dumped by constant procession of carts.
day and night, year in and year out. The
| fire in one of these has not been oat for
more than three years.
| Although the material thrown into the
| tops of these cupolas looks very much like
| the dirt and clay carted off wherever a
cellar is being dug in the city it comes
out at the bottom in streams of glowing
molten iron, which, running into moulds
of sand, makes the pigs. Several hundred
hands are employed in 'scoking" and in
the furnaces described. The pig iron is
then taken to the mill, which covers an
immense area of ground. 1t first goes
into what are called pudding furnaces,
where 1t Is heated to white heat and
becomes of the consistency of dough, by
| the constant stirring CT class of wo,k
men called "puddlers.' They stand in
front of the ''fery furnaces and by means
of long iron rods thrust through small
openings, they stir the iron about until
| nearly all the carbon is burned out of it
and it is at last brought out in large
| BloWluS humps, Wnlcn are loaded on iron
trucks and taken to huge revolving
wheel called = ''squeezer," and this after
revolution or two throws the iron out in
compressed masses called ''bloom' iron.
! The "blooms" are then taken to the
''rolIs," which are great trains of revoly>
ing cylinders, and after being passed
through these they come out in fat slabs
of iron about five feet long, eight OF ten
inches wide, and about an inch thick
These are next laid into ''piles" of eight
or ten slabs, the top slab being of esgran-
ular" or hard iron for the top surface of
the rail, and the bottom slab being of
fbrous or tough iron for the under sur
face. The t'piIes" are then heated to
! white heat and taken TO other trains of