Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-20
IRON IN DEMAND.
MANY TONS OF STRUCTURAL MATERIAL
NEEDED IN CHICAGO.

Large Buildings Under Way and the Ca.
pncity of Mills Taxed to the Utmost
Plans for Mammoth New Piahfs-Im-
portnnt Patent Process.
ESPECIAL rRLKGRAN TO THE DnPArcH.,
CHICAGO, August 19.-The great in
crease in the demand for structural iron in
Chicago has given rise to manv rumors Of
projects for the manufacture of that article
in this city. There is certainly an immense
and growing demand for it, and for a long
time past the capacity Of the mills, which
supply 1t, has been taxed to the utmost In
many instances shipments have not been
made in time and serious Inconvenience and
loss have resulted. From present appear
ances the demand during the coming year
will be greater than ever before. An un-
usually large number of big steel and terra
Gotta buildings have been projected in this
city and the amount of structural steel
which they will require is very great. The
projected cold storage warehouses on
West Randolph street and the Chicago
river will take 1000 TONS The new SS, ,000,-
600 building for E. j. Lehman's depart
ment store, "The Fair" will require even
more. The Masonic building, in its Is
stories, will use an enormous amount; so
will the ten-story Women's Temple Office
building, on LaSalle street, and numerous
other structures will swell the total to
enormous figures. Beside this, the new
steel shipyard in South Chicago will create
a demand for large quantities, especially
if the experiment recently tried by Alex
ander McDougall, of Duluth, of building
freight towing barges of steel, proves a sue
cess. 1t has been reported for long time
that the Illinois Steel Company was about
to engage in the manufacture of structural
steel on an immense scale, so as to surpass
the great establishment of Carnegie, but up
to this time it has not done so.
The other day Chicago paper stated that
a company had been organized in Chicago
with capital stock of 81, 900, 900 to manu-
facture structural iron in South Chicago in
conjunction with the Illinois Steel Com
pany and the Chicago Ship Building Com
pany, using a new patented process by
which the fanges on the structural iron are
'.side rolled" but Mr.. York, of Chicago,
one of the agents of the Linden Steel Com
pany, Lim., of Pittsburg, and one Of the
Connellsville Coke Company, said to-day
that this announcement was premature. He
said that he was the owner Of this patent,
both in England and this country. That
the object of the process is to make struct-
ursl iron with single passage through the
rolls, instead of from six to twenty, which
are necessary in the methods of manufacture
now in use at Pittsburg and elsewhere. His
process has never yet been tried in any mill
on large scale, but experiments have been
made which demonstrated that by it
structural steel could be made with
about 6 per cent of the rolling now
required, and at q consequent great re-
duction in price. 1t has not yet been
determined to try it in Chicago, he said,
though he was inclined to favor this city.
Here he would have the advantage of cheap
ores from Lake Superior district delivered
cheaply by lake without reshipment; but,
on the other hand, he would be obliged to
pay for the transportation of coke from
Pennsylvania. As far as economy in manu-
facture was concerned, it was about O
"stand-of' between Pittsburg and Chicago,
and Chicago was nearer the Western mar
ket Natural gas did not figure much in the
matter, because he had found that natural
gas in Pittsburg cost nearly as much as coal,
and then the item of fuel in steel manufact-
ure was comparatively small.