The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-12-25
BESSEMER STEEL.
GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS
OF MAkiNa III,

| GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PROCESS
| OF AiAKiNa I'll
Jerome b. StiI1son, of the New
York World, who recently visited thu
iron works near Cleveland, describes il
the following vivid manner the process.
of making Bessemer steel:
Approaching Newburg at dusk, the
flames from blast-chimncys, the dense
black smoke from fuel fires, and the
steam from a hundred escape-pipes fill
the air. Though the windows and
doors of enormous edifices encrllsted
with cinders streams out the glare of a
hun red fires. Figures of men, with
leather APRONS on, arms stripped nearly
to the shoulders, hair matted with
sweat, faces lurid and eyes cleaning,
move to and fro in the glare until
they seem, to the half-blinded sight, to
be dancing dance wilder than that of
the witches in Macbeth" Gigantic
cranes and iron ladels swing, with men
perched on them in the perspective,
handling crow bars, as imps might
handle pitcht5tks and other prods for
thew prey. A din as of seventy thou
sands locomotive whistles i.,cs stuns you.
1t is the horrible roar of the blast.
Entering the engine room of the first
building, tWG; magnificent engines of
600 horse power are found in motion.
They are giving impulse to fan that
Is flaming the furnaces, and the blast
through the converters where the pig
iron is turned to steel.
A staircase in the rear leads up to a
floor almost on a level With the foun-
dry cupola furnaces, into whose fiery
maws the workmen continually toss
big wooden bowlsful of coal, coke, iron
and limestone; These eupolas are cir
cular, about six feet In diathetet; with
six tuyeres Of an aggregate area of 200
square inches. The method of charg-
ing ti.eta IS this The bed Of the
charge is formed of some 5, 400 pounds
of fuel, upon which is laid some three
or four tons of pig iron. A second
bed of 400 pounds of fuel is then
laid; and three iiiore tons Of pig iron
added. These alternate charges of
fuel and pig iron continue until the
cupola is filed, and it is kept thus filled
to the charging door continually. A
small quantity of limestone is added
occasionally, acting as a fux. The
cupolas will melt 100000 pounds of
iron In nine consecutive hours, and will
hold five tons during the first few
harges; but as the hearth becomes
filled with the Stag the capacity is
decreased and the furnaces require to
be oftener tapped.
In the cupolas, then, the first stage
of the Bessemer process-the deca:-
bonization of the pig IRONS accom-
plished. Emptied now from the
cupolas into enormous ladels of several
tons. capacity, the liquifed mass is
from them poured into trenches which
lead to the mouth of the huge con-
verters leach holding five tons), which
swing like kettles on axes just above
their centers. Brilliant pyrotechnics
appear. Gaseous explosions from the
hot streams toss showers of sparks high
among the beams and pillars. The
kissing of these molten rivulets is
louder than that of a thousand SER
penis.
Decarbonized, the iron is useless.
The next step In the process is to re-
carbOnize it to an exact degree, thus
steel of it. For this purpose
some smaller spiegeleism furnaces have
been charged with highly carbonized
iron imported from Belgium, and GER
tain proportions of their contents are
now emptied into each of their con-
verters. Almost simultaneously the
of the elements takes
place, and a blast of air from the fan
the fusion as the converters
are turned upright with their mouths
under the projections of neighboring
chimneys. The flame and din which
issue from these nozzels for few
are hideous enough for hell's.
Suddenly the blast ceases The
fusion is complete. The steel broth is
made. Each condenser turns down
its open nozzle and pours out Vesu-
Wan flood into the ladies waiting below
over what is called the ingot-beds.
These beds are sunken circles in the
earth. Around their rims are set rows
Of moulds, shaped like long tin. pals,
each intended to hold about the
quantity of steel needed to make a
rail. The ladies, affixed to the ends of
powerful cranes, swing around these
circles, depositing in each mould its
portion. Cooling, the several portions
from the steel ingots, which are trans
ported to the rolling mills near by,
white, and passed between
rollers after rollers until elongated and
shaped they become rails.
1t was for a considerable time doubt
Jul whether the Bessemer process could
succeed in the United States, owing
greatly to the great waste of material
The waste of Stag from the furnaces
vas discouraging, and there was an
immense sacrifice of raw ends of rails,
les, etc. 1t has been found prac-
,icable to reconvert the Stag, and the
est of the waste is obviated by the
uses to which the fragments
n leavings of the rolling mills are con-
5erted. A wire mandatory con-
lected with the works here utilities
laily tons of iron that would otherwise
,tist. Wire from the size of Il mans
title finger down to the fneness and
beauty of a maiden's hair is here COM
pressed and run through dies all day
ong, and from the coils. All this
wire is steel, some of it almost as pliable
Is silk. The other day pin manufac-
ory i'll Connecticut sent on an order
or carload, or ten tons, of pin wire
ust for an experiment.
Some of the wire is so fine that five
pounds of the quarter-inch rod from
which it is compressed make fifty miles
# it.
Third Glass Cars in SaxOny.
took third-class ticket-an I'M
ailing passport to whatever human
interest might happen to be in the |
EIrct class ara a,ontxy