Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-07-18
The Western Iron Supply.

From the Chicago TribuneI
One of the most frequent excuses
given by the iron-makers of Pennsyl-
Vania for the great cost Ofthe pig they
produce, is that the yield of the ''lean
Ores'' of Pennsylvania is comparative
ly so small. Already Lake Superior
and Missouri iron is largely manu-
featured in Pennsylvania, and all over
| Ohio, these ores being worked in with
the native product. The supply of
iron in Missouri is ineXhaustible, and
of a quality unequaled in any part
Of the United States. The iron in
Tennessee is of the same general quail
ity, and from the presence of coal and
the facilities for charcoal, car be pro-
duced in pig form six to eight
dollars per ton cheaper than it can be
made in Pennsylvania. The iron of
Missouri has to be moved in ore form
to coal fields, or the coal has to be
carried to the furnace. Southern
Illinois is a vast bed of coal,
of a quality peculiarly adapted to
making iron. The furnaces at or
near st. Louis get the ores from
| Pilot Knob by rail, III miles, and the
coal from nlinois-the expense of the
product being greatly increased by
the unavoidable transportation. But
there has been discovered a mode of
obYiating all this, and this mode is to.
bring the ore to the coal fields and
| there manufacture the iron. The
nearest point ON the Mississippi river
to the Iron Mountain is st. Genevieve,
and there is now building a railroad
between these two points which is
only forty-two miles long. Opposite
st. Genevieve lie the inexhaustiOle
coal beds of Illinois. This coal is
found within fifteen miles from the
river, at a depth of ten feet, and av-
erages six to eight feet in thickness.
1t is entirely free from sulphur, and
readily smelts iron in its native state.
The construction of the railroad from
Iron Mountain to the river has, of
course, attracted attention to these
coal fields, anda route of an additional
railroad Is miles long, on the Illinois
side, has been surveyed, aud when
that is completed the Iron of Missouri
can be smGlted at these coal beds
cheaper than it can be in any part of
Missouri. 1t will transfer to that por-
ton of Illinois the great business of.
producing pig iron for the West. An
additional short road from the fur
mace to Centralia viii put the works
in direct rail and water cOmmunica-
ton with all the Western States, and
Illinois pig iron will successfully COM
pete in Pittsburg with the monopoly
of Pennsylvania. This proceeding
will be q flank movement upon the
iron furnaces in the neighbOrhood of.
st. Louis, to which both the coal and
the ore have to be carried. Its prae-
tically a transfer OF the manufacture
of pig iron to Illinois, and places the
iron, when made, at least one
hundred miles of railroad trans
pOrtation nearer the Eastern mar
kets. The construction of the
road from Centralia to st. Genevieve,
will moreover give Chicago another
direct route through Missouri, as far
west as Fort Scott, to which point the
railroads are now under process of eX-
tension. All Southern and South
west Missouri and Arkansas will then
be in direct communication with Chi
cagO, leaving st. Louis $50 miles dis
tant from the line of travel.
The immediate benefits, however,
from this enterprise will bring to-
gether the iron and coal of the two
States, which are now only sixty
miles apart, and in that part of Illinois
build up an iron business which, in
time, Will rival that Of any other part
of the country. The purity Of the
Iron Mountain ore, and the peculiar
adaptabiiity of the coal of that region
for smelling purposes, will render the
union of the two interests not only
desirable but profitable.