Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-23

Il
heard ot as one of the Iron City's industrial
diseases. Did you ever ascend to the top of
Carrie Furnace, of Soho Furnace, or of Isa-
mouth-down, down, down, until you
caught glimpse of its glowing, seething,
Kissing and wrIrhing bowels?
If you have you surely marveled at the
regularity, the never-ceasing, endless flow
with which the iron ore comes up the eleva-
tor shaft to feed the monster who never
sleeps. Night and day this feeding goes oa.
Where is the kitchen so large as to furnish
this enormous and continuous feast for
Vulcan?
A VAST PANTRY.
And there is the cupola and labratory of
the blast furnace you find the kitchen of the
iron industry. But its cupboards are filed
from some other source. You are not salts
fed, and want to go still farther.
Well, one day last week 1 stood in the
pantry of Pittsburg's industrial cuisine. 1t
is unroofed, save by the sky. and yet has
two grand portals one at either end. That
at the north entrance is government light
house, on the blue shore Of Lake Erie, and
shat at the southern door is a mass of rail-
road semaphore signals. In past the one
glides the white sails from Lake Superior,
and out past the other rolls the ponderous,
Gulphurous locomotives OF the Pittsburg and
Western Railroad. 1t Is Fairport. The
sails have foated cargo of iood-iron ore
to the lockers Of the pantry: the railroad has
received from the hands of the steward the
contents of the shelves for transfer to the
caldron houses.
MOUNTAINS OF ORE.
There, in the midst of plenty, stood
appalled, at the extent of Pittsburg's insa-
table appetite In front OF me, back of
me, to my left and on my right. were mount
aims of iron ore-mountains in miniature.
Each pile had the conical shape and sharp
peak, rising to the height of so and 20 feet.
You could count them because, like the
Alps, mountain over mountain appeared.
There were hundreds of them, and in tiers
of three or tour deep they lay in straight
lines one mile and sixth by actual meas
urement.
How much ore is here stored? Guess. 1t
would be as great a puzzle to you as the
number OF beans in Sunday school les-
tival jar. You would miss it ten times to
one.
On Monday at / P. M.-the hour I was
there-there were in all 762, 900 tons, or l,
524, OOO, 900 pounds of ore on these lake
docks at Fairport. Try and grasp thatl
OVER ONE MILLION TONS.
In that hour, too, a vessel was unloading
by machinery which vast adding to this
gigantic pile at the rate of exactly one ton
per minute and ior the reason that some
thousands of tons would thus be added by
the next evening 1 am particular to give
the time of day was there.
But that is not all. Around me stood the
men who have this year unloaded ], 100, 900
tons of ore at these dock s, and most of it for
Pittsburg furnaces. Yes, indeed, that
stupendOus basketiul of iron food would
overload Pitusburg's industrial stomach,
and paralyze the city with a severe fit of
indigestion, if passed through her kitchen
all at once. So far this year the furnace
jaws reached by the Fairport docks nave
therefore been only allowed 10 swallow some
$40, 900 tons, leaving the 100, 600 tons still in
the big pantry.
TRAIN 400 MILES LONG.
Seven hundred and sixty-two thousand
tons mean a great deal. Ii all shipments to
Falrport from the ore mines of Lake Su-
perIor and Lake Michigan were to cease, it
would take the PIttsburg and Western Rail-
road, at It's present rapid rate Of shipments
10 Plttsburg, year and a half to clear of
the docks. Averaging from 10 to Is tons
- @N-@A OS~ SSA as d 4Odus duO Iudl Is d very
liberal estimate, 1t would require from 80, :
OOO to 10000 cars to carry off all this accu-
mutation OF ore simultaneously
suppose these cars were made up into one
tram, how long would the train be? Each
freight or gondola car is 80 feet long. in
cluding the coupling space between cars.
At that rate 1t would only take $50 cars to
cover mile. The train of 6O, 600 to 70. 600
cars would consequently stretch from 400 TO
BOO mlles-the distance between Pittsburp
and New York City. But the ore trains OF
to-day will only average from 20 to 25 cars
each.
AS GOOD AS GOLD.
The ore thus stored at Fairport las an
average value OF So per ton. The immense
bulk is therefore worth S3,S1O.OOO in cold
cash. Pretty costly provender. but the fnr-
paces OF Pittsburg must have it!
The ore and coal docks at Fairport q
are owned largely by Pittsburg capitalists
They are sort OF storage place for the Gre
as it comes In from the lakes, from which
the furnaces can draw much or little at their
pleasure. They were built in 1886. At
that time Fairport was a small lake port re-
ceiviDg perhaps 1000 or 10, 900 tons of ore
per year, an amount which is now only a
fair days business there The firms com
posing the organization which built the
great docks now operated are Carnegie
Phipps & Co., the Oliver Iron and Steel