Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-04
In Respect to Making Alterations in
the Pudding Furnaces, to En-
able Coal to Be Used.
MANY ABOUT DOING so AT ONCE.
Heating Departments Will Run on Gas
Because Coal Will Not Produce
the Proper Heat,
OWING TO THE SIzG OF THE OVEN.
Some Figures on the Cost of Gas in the Different
Furnaces.

Sufficient comment is found on the status
of the natural gas supply to Pittsburg mills
in the action of the iron and steel maker.
on the question. A number of them have
returned to the use of coal for boiling iron
but disposition is found to continue the
use of gas in the heating furnaces. This i.
due principally to the enlargement of the
latter during the last five years to such an
extent as to make the use of coal almost i'm.
practicable. Following are some data col.
lected during the investigation OF DIS.
PATCH reporter:
Lindsay and McCutcheon's Al furnaces
are idle, but a force of bricklayers is al
work remodeling them for coal, at the rate Of
five per day. A force of men is busy max
ing the coal boxes and getting in readiness
the overhead trucks. By next week the
whole mill will be using coal in all depart.
ments, at the rate of i, 500 bushels day. To
this firm the change will be nothing new,
as year ago it found it necessary to fall
back on coal and change the mine heating
furnaces for the purpose. It returned to
gas during the summer. but subsequently
changed back to coal again, and has now
determined not to monkey" with gas
again.
THE WORK OF TWO YEARS.
During the last two years the puddlers in
this mill have averaged about six or eight
heats, when in other mills ten heats
were made from both heats. The last
pudding with gas was done on last Monday
h. -.
the finishing department will be continued
on double turn from a stock of 1000 tons of
m uck, some of which was made two years
ago.
At the Pittsburg Forge and Iron Works
the pudding department is being remodeled
at the rate of two day. 1t has 3s furnaces.
Meanwhile gas Is being used, but only be-
tween the hours of 6 A. NJ. and
P. NJ. By next week coal will again be in
use for boiling. but the finishing depart
ment will be supplied with fuel gas from
the plant erected some years ago and before
natural gas made its advent.
The supply of gas from Moorhead Bros. &
Co.'S Sharpsburg mill was cut off on
Thursday last, and the firm much incon-
venienced. The pudding department is
now being run on steam-slack made gas
and it is reported as being success.
STILL OPERATED WITH GAS.
Howe, Brown & Co. IS furnishing depart
ment is still being operated with gas, but
the pudding department, of 1S furnaces has
been cut off. Puddlers in this MILL a steel
mill, seldom make more than three heats in a
turn as the consumption of muck bar is not
very heavy, SO no prognostication regarding a
return to coal can be made.
There are 70 pudding and heating furnaces
in the Kensington mill of Lloyd Sons d Co.
and these will be changed back to coal as soon
as possible. The mills mentioned give employ
ment to about 2, 500 men: by the use of coal an
other lbs will be required.
The Philadelphia Company cut off gas from
seven of l. Painter Sons & Co.'s pudding fur
naces, the only furnaces the company supplied.
The other 6O and the finishing department are
still we'll supplied and are running on double
turn to their full capacity.
The puddlers in Oliver Brothers & Pnuns'
Eagle Mill were asked to change their working
hours and agreed to do SO for one week, start,
ing at o'clock in the evening and making six
heats up to next morning. This company
however, is not dependent on an extraneous
supply and may continue to use the natural
fuel until it gives out for once and ALL
The Sligo Mill, with the others, has suffered
from scarcity of gas. Mr.. Bailey, of the firm
does not like the idea of returning to coal He
Is hopeful that the supply may become i'm
proved, and is therefore adopting a waiting
policy. From another source it was learned
and it was said il the supply of gas did not
shortly improve that coal would resume its
sway before long. This firm owns its own coal
lands.
THE AVERAGE IN ALL MILLS.
The Keystone Mill, at Soho, has full SUD-
ply of gas, but at Moorhead & McCleane's Mill
the puddlers are only making an average of
three heats per turn. This is about the aver
age in all the mills on both sides the Monon-
gahela.
The Wayne mill of Brown Co., the Sable
of Ting Co.. and the Juniata of Shoenberger
Co. have full supply of gas. The mills are
served by the Equitable Company
At the Thirty-third street works of Carnegie
Bros. g. Co. there has been scarcity of gas for
some time. Gas has been used in the IL pud-
ding furnaces of the Twenty-eighth street mill
SO close together that they cannot be well
operated on coal. The company will probably
keep these furnaces on gas and remodel the
others.
and operated on, coal without any great trouble
or expense, the case is different with heating
furnaces. Since the advent of natural gas
these have been enlarged to twice their orig
inal capacity and it will not be so easy to make
heat in them with coal as formerly. For this
reason gas, even at an additional figure, may
continue to be used in these furnaces:
The amount of gas consumed in pudding
furnace making five heats IN ten hours is
variously estimated at from 40 900 to So 900 feet
The rates heretofore charged have been 81 so
per gross ton, being a little over S3 for a
furnace for "a hours. The rates for heating
were s11 25 per gross ton. The average amount
of iron heated in furnace is about 20 tons in
two turns, at a cost of $40 per furnace reuuir-
ing about twice as much gas as Is used in a
pudding furnace. Natural gas was first intro
duced into Pittsburg mills in May of 1884
t. CIV ho1F
are beginning to think they have received as
many benefits as they can expect from Dame
Natures illuminating medium, and are begin
ming to think of returning to the old order of
things which EARNED for Pitrshury the titla af