Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-06-18

HOW THEY ARE MADE BY THE BESSIE
MER PROCESS.
Within sight of the battle field where
Braddock was defeated in 1855, near the
present city Of Pittsburg, the Messrs.
Carnegie have mode amends for that re-
pulse of civilization by the great victory
Of peace which is known in the CONNER
cial world as the Edgar Thomson Iron
and Steel works. Here iron ores are made
into Bessemer steel rails before they are
allowed, to cool. The ores from mines in
Pennsylvania, in Michigan, in the South,
and from abroad are unloaded in heaps.
between the walls Of which are roads for
carts and paths for wheelbarrows. laid
out as streets in city, far below the tops
of the little mountains of ore and coke
and limestone. Here the proper admix-
lures of different kinds of ores, and with
them of coke and limestone, and made
and hoisted to the furnaces. These burn
day and night, seven days week, and to
create the blast the power Of long row
of enormous engines is required. Though
singly they would have that almost inau-
dible motion Of the great Corliss engine,
in combination their own motion and the
blast they produce make roar of power
more like elemental forces than of ma
chinery of mans devising.
At the Carnegie Works the pig-iron
stage of Bessemer steel manufacture is
avoided. The molten iron is not allowed
to cool, but is conveyed IN iron cars di-
rectly to the Bessemer 'converters. The
converter" IS the elliptical vessel,
swung high above the floor, in which the
iron is converted into Bessemer steel. 1t
swings on axles at either side, and the
molten iron is run into it while it is in a
horizontal position. Another great blast
now does it's work, this time of cold air,
and as the converter gradually regains
Its vertical position the blast is started
before the metal reaches the bottom of
the vessel. With great roar the flame
shoots upward. and the oxygen is absorb
ed by the silicon and manganese. Then
the flame increases in size and brilliancy,
and becomes first orange and afterward
purple, and when the carbon is removed
it subsidies The converter is now tipped
over, and the metallic manganese (spiege-
leisen is generally used) that is necessary
to complete the making of steel is added,
and the flame and cinders shoot higher
than ever, with great brilliancy and much
noise. The space about the converter for
moment is filled with flying fame and
sparks that make as brilliant spectacle
as can be conceived. ALL that now re-
mains 70 be done IS to pour the purified
molten mass IL a-tt hss--c5 converter into
ladies' and thence into moIds, where az
soon as it becomes solid, it is Bessemer
steel in ingots. 1t is not allowed to cool,
but Is loaded by hydraulic derricks on
iron cars, and drawn by locomotive into
the rolling mill. There every ingot is
placed in furnace and again heated red
hot. On iron trucks the reheated ingot
is conveyed to the blooming train, where
it is forced between rollers time and
again, every time within a narrow space,
until it is considerably elongated. Tie
ponderous machinery moves it on to
solid carriage, where it is cut into pieces.
or "blooms," each of proper quantity to
make rail.
The rest of the process is simple, but it
is simply Titanic. The next rollers the
block of steel reaches elongate it still
more, and shape it into rail. The rail
is cut smooth at each end by circular saws
as quickly as matches are sawed from
blocks of soft wood, the difference being
that this saw-dust is red-hot sparks. The
rail is Strengthened by the eye under
another steam hammer, bolt-holes are
bored at either end. it is now allowed to
cool for the first time since it ceased to be
ore. and is ready for the market. The
manipulation of the red-hot metal, wheth.
er in malleable condition, from the blast
furnaces to the last process. is almost
wholly accomplished automatically; at the
Edgar Thomas Works the only fuel used
is natural .-Harper's Weekly.