Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-12-13
FACTS ABOUT EAST TENNESSEE.
Chattanooga.
NO. XLIX.

|
portant points in the State. 1t is impor-
tant as railroad centre and also as posses
sing superior advantages as manufacture
ing city. Nothing can prevent it becom-
ing one of the most important cities in the
South. Few places in the South have
made such rapid strides on the highway of
progress and improvement since the war
as Chattanooga.
\ special correspondent of the New
! York Tribune has recently visited that
/ place, and has furnished some points of
interest which we propose to give in the
present number of our series, and which
cannot but prove interesting to those de-
string to emigrate to East Tennessee. He
says:
This section is not one for a drone the
soil gives forth its product only to careful
! industry, the rivers are not largely stocked
with fish, or the woods with game but
all around are those elements which make
a nation great by the exercise of muscle
and brain. Within the very limits of the
city runs the great belt of fossiliferous iron
ore; standing on a hill within those
limits, one can for miles view the points
of out-crop of inexhaustible and easily
worked veins of coal. On two sides it is
| bounded by river which pierces far up
| into section containing agricul-
tural and mineral wealth unequal
ed by any equivalent portion of
country in the world; one arm shoots
! far eastward into the geological formation
of North Carolina, with the ores of copper
and iron peculiar thereto; another touches
the very edge of the Kentucky blue grass
lands, and lies within view of vast lodges
scanned in dozen places with every char
acter of coal, capped by that wonderful
vein of fossiliferous iron ore which runs
from the Hudson to the Alabama; while
in the center the main stem pierces far up
among the grassy hills and rich valleys of
Southwestern Virginia, bringing down
on its waters the story of the vast deposits
of iron, coal, lead and zinc, along its course;
of the beautiful variegated marble, which |
is the admiration Of the world and the |
less than half-used mineral waters that |
are so rich that they struggle to keep their |
salts in solution.
Such is the country which nature has |
made tributary to Chattanooga. With |
proper facilities and enterprise all this |
wealth must come to her and be distribut- |
ed South, Southwest, West, and North |
west. That the raw material brought |
here should be worked up and thus sent |
on, is the order which nature intended but |
lack of energy and capital has heretofore |
made the place station, not depot. In |
some matters, a change has already come !; |
twOrolling-mills and three iron foundries, |
several woodworking establishments and |
car-shops, make employment for numer-
Gus mechanics; and, as capital aggregates, |
so the site of these works at this place, as |
well as its superior location, will cause |
others to be erected. The United States |
Government were not slow to recognize |
the value of this site and here built one of |
the best appointed rail-mills in this coun- |
try, designed and built by Fritz, and after
ward bought by Cooper, Hewett & Co.
This correspondent then gives some OBJ
servations in relation to the celebrated |
Dank rotary puddlers now used by the
Roane Iron Company, which has proven
to be one of the most valuable inventions
of the age, and says of them:
The conclusions drawn from observation
and what | was told are as follows: The |
Dank rotary puddler is valuable inven-
ton; it may not make iron any cheaper,
but it substitutes brains for muscle. 1t
saves the wear and tear of human life. 1t |
belongs to the present age of civilization,
the old system to an age of brute force. 1t
enables puddler to do the work of at least
L
to 1000 pounds may be puddled and ham
died. A charge of 600 pounds of pig gains
about eight per cent, and improves in
quality. The puddlers get through their
DAYS work about 2 o'clock. It does more
work in the same amount of time than |
any ordinary pudding furnace. 1t does
this work just as we'll or better than the
ordinary puddler. It makes large ball of
uniform quality. 1t is especially adapted
to working pig-iron from the fossiliferous
iron ores or other ores making cold-short
iron. --.----
From these conclusions, it would seem
that it made iron cheaper than the old
pudding process; it may even nOw-and,
when a few improvements are made, 1t
will; but now its advantages are these:
The ore used as fix " must be of pecu-
liar character and great purity, and free
from SILICA and water the fix wears out,
and must be renewed every day by fresh
ore; this may not be disadvantage, as the
ore yields some of its iron to the ball; the
circular part and back wear away rapidly
where the rotary rubs against them, and
are somewhat costly to renew, as they
have to be cast hollow for passage of water;
the rotary heads will wear out about once
in ten months, while the rotary may last
There is somewhat compli-
Gated machinery connected with these
furnaces; not more, however, IMAM Win
any good steam engine.
These disadvantages are offset by the
fact that there are other ores than those of
Iron Mountain that can be used. Casting
the front and back of chilled iron or chill
ing their face, and casting their heads in
two or more pieces, are among the inn
provements already made, while others
will doubtless be suggested by use.
The Roane Iron Company's Rail Mill,
now use nine of Dank's Rotary Pudding
Furnaces. They charge into these fur
naces 600 pounds of pig-iron and some
scale-iron, and get. out from $50 to goo
pounds of iron, weighed after being rolled
into "fiats" They pay their puddlers
81 10 per tun, each furnishing his helpers,
except an extra man for the crane; one
crane works for two furnaces. The men
make more money than at 81 so per tun
in the old pnddling furnaces, and work