The Big Stone post. (Big Stone Gap, Va.) 1890-1892, 1891-09-11

Total shipments from Counesyille for weckondiEg
November %, 1890, G977 cars, distributed as ollew
TO Pittsburgh, $50 cars; to the West, 4l00 cars TO
the East, l,3l7 cars.
Bcssemer ore is costing at Pittsburg $1.36
per ton, and n0n-Bcssemer ore costs at Fits
burg from $500 to $500 per ton.
Non Besscmer ore will cost at Big Stone Gap
from 81 % to $3.50 per ton, and the Bessemer
ore from $500 to $3.50 per ton.
Limestone will cost at least twice as much
at PittSburg as at Big Stone Gap.
Ii is said that 200 tons of POcahontaS coke
passes west through Bristol daily for furnaces
in the Alabama and Chattanooga districts.
This coke will cost from 3d. rs to $3.50 per ton
at those furnaces.
These facts show the smaller cost OF coke
and iron ore at Big Stone Gap and require 10
comment. Coke can be delivered at the ovens
here much cheaper than these figures indicate,
and still afford large profit to the maker.
OPINION OF TWO ENGLISH gxPERTs,
Mr. John W. Darby, of Wexham, Eng, and
Mr.. +. Monks, of Warrington, Eng, members
of the British Iron & Steel Institute, recently
visited Big Stone Gap. MIR. Darby is young
man, but has already reached prominent pc.
sition among the iron and steel producers OF
England. He inherits his aptness for these in
dustries from ancestors who have been prom
incnt in them for Il century. His grandfather
was the first to make iron from knocked COAL
and his own plant, located near Chester, was
the first to use successfully the basic process
for making steel. Mr. Monks is one of the
oldest and best known of the practical iron and
coke men of England.
"The very things | wanted to see are here.
did not care to see the manufactures III 0per-
alton, for we have those at home as numerous
and as nearly perfect as one could wish TO see,
although must say that have been greatly
y ,,f Il
saw in the North. Their equipments are not
SO complete nor their methods so economical as
ours in England, but they are rapidly APP
preaching il. What those o. us who mean
business wiSlc,, to sec in AnlcricI is just what
f! have seen To-day at Big Stone Gap; as iiuc
cake As have ever seen i'll En2land with IRON
ores only two miles away, aud limestone To- :
tw cen, together with water power ana railroads.
This is u combination that Is bound to make
vol, great here. have Hcr,;*c"" - cI"6fc"
elsewhere. Your coke is the best have seen
in America. The brown ores VIC inspected to-
day arc admirably adapted TO the basic process.
OF course, your proximity to tho magnetic ores
at Cranberry is a great card in your favor, but
YOU will not need that to make the possibilities
of this point simply incacuablc. We have
been over a large portion of the Southern MIN
cral belt, and regard this as the best point
we have seen for the manufacturing of basic
steel, owing to the quality and quantity, OF
your brown ores and their proximity to this
coke. have enjoyed my day here greatly,
aud hope can return soon"
Mr.. Monks spoke in the same strain, saying
he had been practical producer of coke and
iron for forty years, and that he had never seen
better coke; and the iron ore, both brown and
red were fine. lie thought the best card for
the future of Big Stone Gap in the iron indus
try was the advantage it had over any other
place he had seen for the production of steel by
the basic process.
TIMBER
Prof. Proctor in his report SAYS of the tim,
Der: "About 80 per cent of the area included
in the Appalachian coal-field in Southwest Vir-
ginia, West Virginia, and Southeast Kentucky,
IS covered with forest of valuable hardwoods-
oak, yellow poplar, hickory, etc. The Black Black
Mountains, immediately north OF Big Stone
Gap, are heavily timbered from base to SUM-
init with as magnificent forests as ! have ever
seen.