The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-11-24
REVOLUTION TN IRON.
A PrOces in the Manufacture Of Iron
Witch viii Dispense With
Pudding.
The nost Important Development
{ Many Years in the
Iron Trade.

PITTsURG, Nov. 21.-Fuller details Of the
movement in Wheeling to revolutionize the
iron business aregiven The enterprise Of the
iron AID nail manufacturers there is to do
entirely away win pudding, puddlers, and, of
course, puddler' strikes. A syndicate was
formed in Wheeling, the scene of the recent
troublesome srike, to carry out the idea.
They have hel(a series of star-chamber ses-
siols. the result of which has been the send
ing of one of Fheeling's most prominent mill
managers Fink J. Hearne, to this city to ar
range the phiminaries for putting the plan in
operation. The gentleman was interviewed
yesterday, md, after some persuasion, he
gave the APPENDED information:
"To doaway with pudding, the only
method be pursued by the syndicate is to
use loNgrade of open hearth or Bessemer
steel inmaking nails. This movement has
been stfted by the nail manufacturers of
WheeliB, and my object in being in this city is
to fllrtbr their plan l have had numerous
blows bf sort steel made at the Bessemer
steel woKs at Braddock's and each blow &C
cu1ately analysed. This soft steel has been
made int nail-plate and quietly shipped into
the Wheeling mills, and cut into nails, with
out the alters being able to discover the diff
ference between it and common nail-iron
Our reaOn for doing this was to see whether
steel Ould make nails. The results
of on experiments have been entirely
Satisfactory, and we are now salts.
fed tat we can make nails out of
soft sHl cheaper snd of better quality
for the weight than was possible to do with
the bespuddled iron. We calculate in Wheel
ing tina we make about one-seventh Of the
nails nde in the United States. Over 5000
puddle, are employed in pudding the iron
which e cut into nails. These will all be
throwTDut Of employment unless they see fit
to worlat some other branch of labor. | am
Ill thisity now placing contracts where they
may blconcluded at any time most suitable to
the Wheeling syndicate, for all the necessary
equipments to be found in first-class Besse-
mer wrks. This is no small affair The syn
dictate AVE an unlimited command of money,
and wi break ground in January for the new
works. 1t will have capacity to start with
100000 tons per year of loWcarbOn steel.
This dtput the syndicate will divide up into
consigments, according to the capacity OF the
differet nail mills represented in the syndi-
cate, ad each will get it's allotment of SO
from te Bessemer mill. The principal mills
in the Wheeling district are connected with
the neY enterprise. Such firms as the Wheel
ing Ipn & Nail company, Laughlin Iron &
Nail forks, Martins Ferry, Riverside Iron
compny, Belmont, La Belle, Belleaire Ben
wood 6tanard, and Etna Iron works are in
teresbd in the new project to put the mega
tive lpon the possibility of puddlers' strikes
in she future. The site chosen for the works
e.Aear the Benwood mills, on the side next to
tl Riverside furnace That point is con-
velitnt to the works of the firms which
l hare already named to you, and Is only about
tw0miles from the center of Wheeling. The
Shipping facilities at that point are unexcelled
by any location in the vicinity The Benwood
mills}re the terminus of the Baltimore & Ohio :;
the Pttsburg, Cincinnati q st Louis runs
closeo them, and the Wheeling, Parkersburg
& Charleston from Charleston has the right of
way b the Riverside furnace Besides all these
facilities, two other road3-one o branch of
the Rltimore & Ohio from the center Of Ohio
and anewly proposed road from Pittsburg-
can rach the spot. These roads all have
brandles to the different mills which will use
the lessemer product, and cars loaded
with nail plate could be showed into them
daily. During the recent strike the iron
men told the puddlers in conven-
ton that the time was coming when
they would no longer be kings of the forge,
and il fact that they would live to see the day
when pudding would be tradition and pud-
dlers unknown to the face Of the earth The
same dea was advanced before the tariff com
missin, and some asserted upon that occasion
that tlere was no purpose for which iron is
now rBed but that in the next five years would
be supplied by low grade of Bessemer or
open hearth steel Mr.. Ainsworth, of the
Pittsblrg Steel Casting company, showed me
Bessener steel at his works last week that
could be welded in common blacksmith $
forge 50 that the place Of joining could not be
detected. More than that, all attempts to tenn
per it failed, and I cannot see why it is
not al essentially iron as any product
of the charcoal blast in existence. When we
begin tlrning out steel nails in Wheeling, all
other 1Ril mills III the country must follow
suit orlose their tratle-at least that is the way
it has lpen figured out by the best nail experts
in Wheeling. The organization of the COM
pany | Ehink best to keep from the public for
whileat least All wire for barbed fences
now mfde at the Cambria Iron works is made
of Bes@mer steel. Horseshoes will eventually
be mad of it. Rolled shafting, agricultural
implements, and stamped and hollow-ware,
must fdlow. regard the move as the most
important one made in years in the iron bust
ness, and it will revolutionize the trade of the
country I feel safe in predicting that, if the
movement is q success, in five years puddled
iron vii not be in the market"