The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1871-01-05
SHE NRtBUNE.
Official City and County Paper.
THE IRON WORKS AT pEPERE.

IaE 1fCON w OFShS a LEX E1s14'
Ed. TRIBUNE Thinking that de
scription of the iron furnaces of Depere
would not be uninteresting to your many
readers, | comply with your request, to
''send you sometla.n9,' BY writing short
account ofthem. p 4 a s,
As you pass from the wooded country
into the limits Of Depere village, you see
the high. square and massive stone struc-
lures rising above the surrounding build
ings.9 Every moment tongue Of bright
blue fame shoots up into the air, and it
you are travelling at night,a strange, lurid,
reflected light shines all around you.
In com pany with some friends, we
visit them. Passing into the Office of
Blanchard & Arneld,s furnace, on the
west side of tie Fox River, we are
met by the gehtiemanly Superintendent,
Mr.. Lovelace, who finding our visist to be
one of investigation, kindly offer to
show US around. We tell him we want
to begin at the beginning and go through
the whole process OF smelling iron, with
him. We pass around the north side of
the building, and out upon the large
dock. now heaped with huge piles Of iron
ore, for an unusually large supply has
been laid in, in order to keep the furnace
employed through the winter. The ore
is bought from the iron mines near Es-
canada, the two furnaces here, keeping one
steamer and several vessels, steadily en-
gagged during the season, shipping re
and re-sbipping it again in the trm OF
pig iron.
As we pass into the ya-d, we are joined
by Mr.. Armstrong, paoi superintends the
outside duties we enter into converse
ton win hip, ana find him affable and
couroeou. I he ore, said Mr.. Armstrong,
in apsSer to- our question. is a~kind of
JImatite answering nearly to what is
known as Red Hea4atite, most of it is
what is called specular ore, and OCCASION
ally We. get,a slight mixture Of magnetic
ore, Dat that seldom happens. . : a.
During our conversation, our cal S had
been stunned by-a horrible crunching
noise. What is@.that? + said to MIR.
Lovlace. Come and see, was the reply,
as he turned in the direction of The noise
Leaving Mr.. Armstrong, we entered a
large building, in one corner of which
was massive iron frame, weighing sew
eral tons. In the lower part of this frame
was a lever worked by a pitman, the
short arm of which forms sort of under
jaw to the mouth of the ircn monster
BY the power of large water wheel the
under jaw is constantly kept in motion.
Into the open hungrylooking mouth,
huge piece of ore, as large as mans head
is tossed, and down. on the floor falls
shower of little pieces, hardly a cubic
inch in dimension, the result of single
bite from the ribbed shaped steel teeth.
We stood for some time watching the
operations of this insatiate monster, and
then Mr.. Lovelaee asked if we were
ready to look at the blowers We pass
ed into large room nearly filed with
machinery. The blowers looked like
massive steam engine; but we found that
what We at first took for engine cylinders
we're only large bellows open at each end
in the form of grating, over which fit
ted valves, which opened and shut alter
nately, drawing in air as the piston 4
moved in one direction and forcing it into I
a huge reservoir with the return stroke. 4
sthe motive power used to drive this
ponderous machinery was the same as
that for driving the crusher. Upon the
reservoir, of air was guage similar to
steam guage, showing the amount of
pressure kept up. From the reservoir
q large pipe leads into the oven, a space
blled with the burning gases which are
generated in the main body of the fur
mace. Here, said Mr.. Lovelace, the
Column OF air Is heated to about 900 deg.
Fahrenheit heat more than sufiient to
melt lead, and is .hen called shot
blast This hot blast is let into the
the oxygen requisite for combustion, at
the same time avoiding the loss of heat
which wou result from blast of cold
air.
We were next conducted up some
what dark winding stairway at The top of
which was platform rooted over. We
then found ourselves upon the summit
Of the solid pile of masonry, forming the
body OF the furnace, and the intense heat
that radiated from one corner, showed
that we had reached the place where
the furnace was charged, we waited a few
minutes, and soon saw tie operation per
formed. a large sheet iron car laden
with charcoal, is drawn up to the edge of
the fiery pit. tipped up and the whole
mass containing thirty bushels, is launch
ed inty, the fiery funnel. For an instant
the intensity Of the flame is deadoned,
shower of brilliant sparks rushes UP.
n,aking a pyrotechDic display beautiful
to see, and the fame burns on hotter
s. ano iercer than ever. Then our atten-
ton is directed to two small wheel bsr-
rows. each containing aquantity of frag-
mentory ore, on the tep of which we
notice small quantity of crushed lime
stone. The quantity seems so small in
comparison with the charcoal, that curl
osity leads us to inquire the proportions
used, and We are much astonished when
told that these two little wheel-borrows