New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-02-19
SKEPTTCAL ABOUT RUSSIAN IRON
WHAT PRACTICAL AMERICANS THINK OF RE-
PORTED DISCOVERY.

WHAT PRACTICAL AMERICANS THINh OF a kE
PORTED DISCOVERY.
report has been received by tho State Department
at Washington from the acting United States Consul
at Moscow Russia, In which he communicates the dis
covery of method for the production of iron and steel
directly from the Under this process Is claimed
that after smelling It in the ordinary way, the ore IS
taken from the furnace the rongm and turned
into sheetron IT is predicted for this new Invention
the of which is said TO be in the construction
of tho furnace. that It will create revolution In tho
manufacture of charcoal Iron. 1t Is said that while all
the furnaces of this kind in blast In Russia are
worked with charcoal that experiments have shown
that coke can be used with the same success
NowYork iron men arc disposed place little faith
In the alleged invention benjamin G. CLARKE president
of tho Iackawanna Iron and Coal COmpay when asked
for his opinion upon the subject by TRIBUNE re-
porter, said that he had no confidence in it.
I" do not believe" said Mr.. Clarke that there Is
anything in tho shape OF blast furnace that Will do
anything OF the sort. / will admit that Russian sheet
iron exceeds ANYTHING in the world OF the kind, but
you must remember that charcoal iron IS now thing
of tho past They are very secreve people in Russia
and whatever discoveries they make they won't tell
us about them you may be sure. Twenty years ago |
spent over $1,000 to send a man there to find
out how they made their sheet iron. lie came back
and proesSed have found ont all about IL. Then
expended - 600 more in experimenting upon his DIS
coveres but amounted 20 nothing. There Is nothing
practical about this cOnSul's stOrynohng to base II
You take a piece of iron ore out in NewJersey
and make It into Steel but It will take great deal OF
money-muoh more than the steel after 1t is made Is
worth.
Il can tell you something about iron making, how
ever, that is practical. For many years the problem
using fine has engaged the attention OF Inventors
and so far as we arc aware the general conviction
among blast furnace managers has been that anywhere
from to Is per cent the maximum that could be
fbpt,t ore
furnace work Nevertheless by concentration it is
possible to eliminate the phosp horus mineral In tho
Of the rocf, and ores that heretofore have been
considered unfit for In Bessemer mixtures brought
down low enough In phosphorus to be valuable Tor inc
manufacture Of BesseIner pig. During the past year
the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Con pany used In their
Scranton blast furnaces about 10000 tons of fine sep
arated magnetic from Chateaugay The first three
months about 25 cent of this hne ore was USED IN
ono furnace in addition to the usual quantity OF inc
material contained In other OF the mixture Ater
that we ran another furnace for several weeks on 90
per of the Chateaugay ore in addition to the run
Of fine material. In both cases the fine ore WORKED
well. During the % per cent experiment the furnace
was run fourffhs Laclawanna anthracite and one
fifth coke, but during the so per cent trial twothlrd'
anthracite and oncibird coke we're used our mana
ger is confident that We could Eavo gotten along Win
less coke continual Mr. Clarke great things have
been learned since i went into the business: Twenty
five years ago knew comparatively notmng
about working IRON And there are as great roa'lVo
differences In selling it, too. In 1884. when was
with Thomas Irwin. made ono dag what we consid
cred great sale II of 1900 tons and we thought
what happy mortals would he IL We could sell
$4,000 tons of iron day. Now we SIT here In our
chairs and sell 100000 tons day without effort and
think nothing of H." ,,,,
& Co. of No GO Walst., said that the Russia story
reminded him of who came here thirty years
AGO and said that he had discovered process by which
he could make candles and soap out 81 street Sweepngs
We organized a company" continued MT Robertson
and subscribed the required capital and The inventor
built his factory and put up his machinery and went
al IT, But he didn't make any candies anG soap lle
was merely experimenting with our money When he
had got of MS all he could hc suddenly left for paris
unknown-probaby went to another town and iooied
somebody else 1t isn't necessary to go to Russia Tor
inventions We have Americans here who can boat the
Russians or any other foreigners In making IRON INTO
STEEL What can't be done In New-Iork can't be done
in any city on the globe. And then look at the conn-
uy generally why. In fow years VIC Will have
nopniafion of 100 600 600 people ron't talk to me
about Russia Russia is nowhere alongside OF tho
United Statesn