Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-25
Pittsburg is a Healthy Child That
Increases Steadily in Growth
Year by Year in the
EXTENT OF ITS IRON INDUSTRY.
Manufacturers Expending Thousands of
Dollars Just Now in Enlarging
Their Plants
WHILE NEW WORKS WILLGO UP INTIME
HOv McKsespOrt VIII Profit From the Erection Of an
Old NIL Rebuilt

1t is always interesting to note the i'm.
provements and changes being effected in
local mills, especially when these are in the
line of enlargement, increased trading facili-
ties and consequent additional employment
OF labor.
The largest extensions to plants in prog
ress in the district are at the works of the
National Tube Company at McKeesport.
The cost OF Improvements there when CON-
pleted will reach a total OF $3.50, 900. To their
four rolling mills, with their ITO pudding
furnaces, will shortly be added fifth, larger
than those in operation. The old Alikanna
Mill, near Steubenville, o., which the COM
pany leased over two years ago, and have
since purchased will be torn down and re-
built at Mckeesport. This will add one
more mill to the Pittsburg district and
make the number in the Mahouing Valley
one less. The mill was built in 1872 with %
furnaces and 2 trains of rolls. but was not
constantly in operation. 1t was idle alto
gether from 1882 to 1888, and since then only
muck bar has been turned out. When re-
built at McKeesport it will have 45 single
and double furnaces, a set of high muck
and 4 trains OF finishing rolls for the manu-
facture of skelp iron only. This will be
great boom for McKeesport, as fully 5000
more men will find employment at the new
plant
TO MAKE ITS OWN PIG.
The company at present buys nearly all the
skelp iron made for the market in mills in the
city and vicinity. 1t buys daily over 400
tons of muck bar and skelp iron, and half a
dozen firms make more or less pig iron for
the company right along. With one ex-
ception 1t buys more pig iron than any other
irm. The two new furnaces, each with
daily capacity o: 200 tons will be blown in
about the end of the year. Forces of la
borers are now employed in unloading ore,
coke and limestone, and there will be a
stock of somewhere about 500, 900 tons of
material on the ground by the time the fur
naces are ready.
The Eesu vius mill of Moorhead Brothers
& Company, which has four trains of rolls
and nine heating furnaces, is to be enlarged
by two new furnaces. One of these is now
in progress and when completed it will have
four furnaces to supply the large train of
plate rolls, something that no other train of
rolls In any of the Pittsburg mills mas got.
The bar rolls will have three
furnaces, something exceptional, and
the 2S-inch trains will have
=. The daily capacity will exceed $50
finished net tons, the output at present being
14O gross tons. The operations of this mill
80 to show the big demand for pipes Since
August OF 1885 the mill has been running
on pipe iron alone, and has produced some
where about 15O, 900 gross TONS The mill
has sold ali this output and has orders for |
another $4,000 tons of the same grade OF |
iron.
ANOTHER FIRM REACHING OUT.
The Pennsylvania Tube Works are also |
expending big sum of money in improve
ments. The company has secured all the /
available property in the neighborhood and |
the works will be extended at cost of $50 |
600. A new furnace mas been erected where !
the offices stood and new offices put up else |
where. Two new furnaces, butt and skelp- |
ing, have just been lighted up and several |
more will be added to the lap weld depart
ment The fuel gas plant is In course of |
erection. Subterranean fues, feet and 3
1eet in diameter, will extend from the pro-
ducers to the furnaces. AS has been already
stated in THE DISPATCH the company is
determined TO make Its own gas to obviate
the stoppage which were so FREQUENT owing
TO the uncertainty in the supply of natural
gas. These works have a capacity of 400
tons OF wrought iron pipes daily, turned out
from five lap and six butt weld furnaces.
Across the street from the Pennsylvania
Tube Works the Pittsburg Tube Works
Company are buying all the saleable prop
erty in its neighborhood, with view OF en-
larging the plant. Several of the old build
ings have been torn down and the vacant
space is at present being used as a storage
yard.
The two new reducing furnaces in Park
Bros. & Co. Black Diamond mill are
nearly completed, at cost of about 81, 900
each. This company has a big demand to
attend to at present. Some 5000 tons of
material are stored in the yards, about one
hall of which are ends from steel rail mills.
The old mill Office has been torn down aud
brick building is in course Of erection.
A NEW FREIGHT YARD.
Nearly a year ago it was stated in these
columns that the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
road Company had purchased the property
on which the old Pennsylvania Forge stands.
As the company was in no hurry to occupv
the ground no change was made in the mill.
This mill was a built as a sheet mill
in 1913, and for a great MANY
years was the leading sheeting iron
mill in Western Pennsylvania. Since 1887.
when the finishing mill was burnt out
muck bar alone has been turned out The
railroad company has at length given notice
OF its intention to use the ground, and the
mill will be moved to Mansfield early in |
the spring, and re-erected on the same scale |
as prior to 1887 The bridge over the mill
will be taken down, and the low lands 10
the rivers edge filed in. At the eastern
end OF the property railroad bridge will
extend from the main line across Second
avenue down into the yards, which will be
laid with siding. These improvements will
give the company about another half mile
of car accommodation.
In addition to these extensions of the !
capacities o. old mills the district will see
the advent of several new plants before
another summer has come and gone. These {
will include plant for the manufacture of
tin plate make OF machinery; another blast
furnace and rolling mill; the location of an
Eastern car wheel works in this vicinity.
and the erection, in all probability of two
or three tin plate works. Pittsburg is a .
pretty good-sized child as she is, but she
has not done growing yet by any means. s