Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-08-25
NUMBER 191.
From the N. Y. Tribune, Aug. 1871
THE NEW AMERICAN STEEL.

The fertile, thrifty wealthy old county Of York,
Pennsylvania lies across the Susquehanna from
Lancaster, and ia watered by the Codorns, Cone
wago and other tributaries of that broad
bosomed river. The rich valley Of the CodoruH
and its tributaries is largely underlaid by a
deposit Of the fayorite iron ore known as Brown
Hematite, which, though but little iron has yet
been smelted in this unprogressive county, is
largely mined and sent away to mix with other
and generally poorer ores-immense quantities
of it being daily sent to the great works Of David
Thomas and others in tho distant valley OF the
Lehigh.
From this valley there rises, in the townships
of North Codorus, range OF rounded, slopinE
hills, which have been long known to contain and
in good part consist of a peculiar micacious ore;
but little success and no profit has attended it's
conversion into iron, since it yields from 80 to
35 per cent. of metal, and this of poor quality.
At length it was ascertained-more by luck, we
believe, than by scientific induction-that this
unpromising ore being mixed with middling pig
iron in an ordinary reyerveratory furnace at the
rate of one to Biz, would produce, by the ordinary
pudding process, pure steel OF admirable
quality and remarkably uniform in character.
We visited on Monday the range Of hills in
question-estimated to contain seventeen mil
lions of tons of unique ore-and looked into q
dozen different shafts or drifts which have been
sunk or run into the hill nearest Hanover juno
ton on the Northern Central Railroad, distant
two miles.) The branch road to Gettysburg runs
at the southern base of the entire range. The
ore, up to thousands of tons per day, can be
mined and loaded directly oars for Baltimore,
Philadelphia, or New York. at cost of 81 per
ton Being thrown down by blast or pick, mainly
in the form of powders Of medium tenacity, It
will in time be largely shipped as ballast, and 30
transported to European as well as American
furnaces.
The owners Of the mine have Just completed
at York pudding. furnace and rolling-m
wherein we witnessed the conversion of medium
Pennsylvania Pig Iron. worth $50 per ton, into
Steel that would certainly be cheap at $150 per
ton. For ten tons of this steel, the material re-
quired would be eleven tons Of pig iron, costing
$500, and two tons the Codorus Ore, costing $40
together, 1920 Add ten tons of Btuminous
Coal, costing $780, and $3.50 for labor and all
other expenses, and very choice steel rail ought
to be made by the help of this ore at cost OF
$50 per ton.
We call the attention of railroad men and all
interested in metallurgy to this wonderful discov
cry. They can test its merits in an ordinary re-
yerberatory furnace, by simply buying few
tons of the Codorus Ore, attempting by its aid
to convert ordinary pig iron into choice steel at
a single heat. by simple processes with which
they are perfectly familiar. If they have the
requisite machinery for rolling them, they will
of course next try their hand at converting their
blooms into rails. But they are not required to
buy mines, nor erect new works, nor to take
anything on trust. II they doubt that steel is
made as above set forth, York is not far off, and
the furnace aforesaid is spacious and open to
all comers. Their own eyes are not likely to
misead them.
That the Steel made as aforesaid, at a cost
which cannot reach $50 per ton, is of choice
quality, we were assured by Col Boyer Of Potts
Vile. who has no interest in this discovery, and
never visited the mines till Monday, but who has
used the product in tool-making for his machine
shops, where only the very best Steel will answer,
His statements need no confirmation, but have
received it,
We count the Bessemer process superseded by
this discovery, whereby perfect Steel is pro-
duced, with no risk of failure, and at a cost
considerably less than that of the famous British
process. And we trust that other and equally
important triumphs in the mixture and manipu-
lation of Ores will derive their impulse from this.