The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-05-22
Iron and Steel.

general reader, being for the most part page
after page of statistics, are yet possessed of
much general interest as indicating the con-
diton and prospects of one of the most gi.
gantic of American industries. They are
such accurate compendiums Of business
knowledge, that their value has increased
annually, aud they a:e now recognized as
the most reliable authority OH the subjects
of which they treat. We of Virginia, and
especially of this section, are now SO
deeply interested in the prospects OF
the mineral interests of the country, that
anything which tends to give all insight into
the future, by that surest OF guides the eX-
perlence of the past, cannot fail to receive
attention. With the indications how OPEN
ing before us, there is every reason to- be-
lieve that ere another decade tn, ce,itre OF
The iron and steel industries of America will
be transferred to the two Virginias. The
valuable information contained in the last
report of Mr.. Swank, a synopsis of which
will be found below, cannot, therefore, fail
to prove interesting to large proportion of
our readers.
From the statistics Of the last report it is
shown that the product of pig iron last year
was 9, SIT ,3Gl net tons, which was in excess
of the product of any year since 1874, and
of every year except 1872 3 and A. At the
same rate the product Of this year will eX-
coed that OF 1872 and 10, and carry that of
next year to the unprecedented sum of
5000, 600 tons. The price, however, has
steadily declined for six years. the decline
reaching G4 per cent. or sal.25 per ton. OF
the whole l .092, $40 were made with anthra-
cite, l,19l, O92 with bituminous coal and
coke and 293, 800 with charcoal, the lat
ter being but u per cent of the whole make,
when less than half a century ago it was all.
There are tine furnaces in course of cree
ton and three were completed last year
There are five less in blast throughout the
country, which, as the product Increased
shows better furnace practice-forty per
cent. greater average productlon than in
1872. The unsold stock OF pig iron shows
steady decrease since 1874.
The $751; s5 net tons of rails male was
exceeded only in 1872 and '73, and was an
increase of 1895 tons over 1877, and the
Bessemer steel contributed $50, 1893 tons Of
all, and open hearth steel rails appear for
the first time TO the amount Of 9,397 tons.
Pennsylvania made 46.026 per cent. of all
made in twenty-one States Illinois followed
with 222G6; Ohio with 9,9l5. Colora do
made her first rails, 1000 tons; Michigan
made none, and Utah is ready to begin !;
Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland
and Missouri made 81 ,385 toas and this was
the whole southern make. The highest
price ever attained in this country for iron
rails was s153.75 in 1864 the lowest s32. so
in October, 1877, but last years average
was below that of II. Bessemer rails have
fallen from sl5S5O in 1868 to $42 % and
steel rails now cost less than half the price
of iron rails in 1872. The consumption of
rails was greater than any year since 1867
except five; but only 45 tons of steel and
none OF iron rails have been imported since
| 1876.
| Excluding rails, the product OF rolled iron
amounted to ], 1882 ,6S6 tons in 1878, an in
crease of IS, 467 over 1877, which was the
largest previous year, and more than double
| the product of 1868. Nails and spikes de-
creased 2,7ss kegs owing to over produc-
ton in 1877 plate and sheet-iron fell off 200
tons, but bar, angle, bolt, rod, ETC., increased
llO,306 tous. Maine, Rhode Island and
Georgia made no cut-nails and spikes last
year; virginia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana
and Illinois increased their manufac. ure,
and Illinois and Nebraska erected new nail
works. The manufacture OF cruci5le stee /
increased 2,476 tons that of blister. pud :
died and patented steel, decreased 1865
tons; that of open hearth steel increased
,O95 tons, and previously idle and new
works will add to this Increment. The
product of steel, excepting Bessemer and
open-hearth, was exceeded only in 1915 and
| III, and the total steel product of the coun-
try was 1852 over the ltrgest previous
year. Ten B:ssemer works were in opera
ton and one was idle, and they converted
17S,53S more tons than in 1877, mae Ill.,
! 500 more tons of steel ingots, and produce
1929 more tons OF steel rails carrying
the gross Bessemer product since ls77 to
2, 145, 595 tons. The FORCES and bloomaries
produced 2, 745 tons more than in 1877, but
l2,519 less than in 1873, and less than in
any but three years since 1864. Since 1878
the price of pig iron has declined fifty-nine
per cent. ; of bar iron forty mine; of iron
rails tifty-six; and of steel rails sixty five
per cent, averaging fifty-eight per cent.
| The imports OF iron and steel and their
manufactures hsve fallen from SOL, 1924 ,227
in 1872, to $3,943,043, although more pig
and bar iron. castings, cutlery and firearms
were imported than in 1877. The export of
domestic iron and steel aud their manufac-
lures was $l3, 1863; exceeding that of
four in the last eight years. This export in
| cluded 249 tons of steel rails-the first;
| 1868 mere tons of irou rails, eighteen more
locomotives. more stationary engines and
boilers, boiler plate, car wheels and some
other items less. bar-iron and stoves, nails.
spikes, edge-tools, files, saws, firearms, and
the business was not what it should have
been. The exports of sewing-machines,
ratus, and agricultural implements, in.
creased $s43, 930; and in four years our ex-
port of iron and steel products to Canada
has been sl3. Ais, 100. The shipments OF Lake
Superior iron ore were ,l25,231 gross tons,
and only 70,003 less than in 1873. The i'm
ports OF iron ore reached 1862, 7s7-less than
in any year but one since 1873. Large
Bessemer contracts have been made for
Spanish and Mediterranean ores this year
The fetal iron ship building of the country
since it began in 1878 has been LIS, 42l tons,
of which 26, 900 last year was but 6, 1877 less
than in 1874. We have built no iron sailing
tonnage save in 1869, 10 and II.
There were 2,747 miles of new railroad
constructed-an increase of $40 miles over
1877. Since 1872, 1918 miles OF new road
have been built, and the 81 ,955 miles in the
country would reach 100, 955 by adding sid
ings, double and qusdruple tracks. There
are 900 miles of narrow-guage road. The,
increase last wear exceeded that of every