Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-12
A, NEW TIN PROCESS.
Chicago People Say They Can Make
Plate as Cheaply as Europe.
THE PLANS KEPT SECRET so FAR.
Experiment of Eastern Pig Iron Men Man
ufacturing at Chicago.
NO COMPETITION FROM THE SOUTH
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE D1sPATcH.1

CHICAGO, July lin lot surrounded
by high board fence at Maywood,a "a suburb
of this city, Norton Bros, of Chicago,
are constructing a plant for the
manufacture of tin plate by new
process Of their own. Visitors are
not permitted to enter the inclosure
and members of the firm decline to state
what their process is further than to say
that they believe they will be able by it to
make tin plate more cheaply than it is pro-
duced in England, AT present the firm has
a set of timing kettles in operation and is
making the plate by the Welsh process, but
completed, they expect to put large quanti-
ties of the article on the market.
The Iroquois Blast Furnace at South Chi
cago has gone into blast and is doing very
satisfactory work. This enterprise is pecu-
| liarly interesting to Eastern manufacturers
| because it is the only instance, in recent
years at least, of Pittsburg and Eastern pig
iron manufacturers coming West to manu-
| facture this product
Within perhaps five years it has become
impossible, by reason of local and Southern
competition, to sell any Eastern pig
| facturers first drove out the blast furnace
men of Pittsburg, and the Mahoning and
Shenango Valleys, and access to the market
was made still more difficult by the advent
of the cheap product of the Alabama and
Tennessee furnaces.
Fighting the Enemy on the Ground.
The only means left to the manufacturers
of the East was to locate at Chicago and
that is what ,Messrs. S. Francis Eagle, of
Youngstown, and Henry Walker and others,
of Pittsburg, who compose the Iroquols
Furnace Company have done. One of the
gentlemen, who is prominently identified
with this enterprise, was asked the other
day to state for publication their reasons
for coming to Chicago; whether they ex-
pected to turn out their product more
cheaply than in the East, or were attracted
merely by the location.
"We have come here" he replied "be-
cause we see that Chicago is great and
growing market for our product and we
want to be early in the field and catch
good share of the trade. That's all there is
to it. We do not yet know what it is going
to cost us to manufacture pig iron. We
know that we shall get our ores more
cheaply because of the cheap transportation.
on lake vessels and we know that we shall
have to pay more for our coke than Eastern
furnace men. On the whole, per-
haps the cost of production
will be about the same as in the
East. We do not know whether we shall
be able to make iron more cheaply than
other Chicago furnace men. In fact, we do
not know what it costs any other firm here
to make its iron. That is one of the things
that each firm keeps to itself We would
give good deal to find out about it.
Competition From the South.
"Do you anticipate any trouble from
Southern competition?"
"No, because Southern furnaces do not
make as high grade of iron as we expect
to manufacture. They will not compete with
US at all.
Doubtless the same causes which induced
the location of this furnace in Chicago are
responsible for the removal to Chicago of
scores of other large manufacturing estab-
lishments within the past few months.
There seems to be a general move
ment to this city of capital
seeking investment in manufacturing
from all parts of the Union. If the facts
could be tabulated, the aggregate of the
capital thus brought to this city would
be astounding. 1t would reach far
into the millions. The public notes the
large arrival, such as the Grant
N. d.,
and the extensive barbed wire plant which
has Just been located at Waukegan, a few
miles to the north, and the Rathbone, Sard
& Co. Stove Works, which transferred its
plant from Albany, n. Y, but the great
mass of smaller concerns which have come
in chosen locations and quietly gone to
work has escaped attention, and the signif-
canoe of their coming is appreciated by only
q few.
The Railroad Facilities.
If the movement continues during the
next few years as it has in the past, Chicago
is certain to become as distinctiyely manu-
featuring as it now is commercial center.
One thing that is largely contributing
to produce this result is the con-
struction of belt lines by which
located on any road is given
equally cheap and easy facilities for ship
ping over any of the lines centering in Chi |
cago. The first belt line intersects each of |
the roads leading to Chicago at point about |
eight miles distant from the business center |
and the second or ''outer" belt line inter |
sects each at point about % or 80 miles |
from the business center. The construction |
of each of these has brought into the
market scores of acre tracts which are thus
made available for manufacturing, and |
which can still be bought at comparatively
low figures notwithstanding the tendency
in Chicago to initiate values without
much cause. With one of these
sites and with an Office in the heart of the
business center manufacturer finds him
self in point of location at least more favor
ably situated than he could be in any other
city, and the large and constant increase in
keeps the labor market so well
supplied, that workmen can be had as