Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-01
PITTSBURG SECOND.
Fort Worth as an Iron Working
Center.
A MINING EXPERTS VIEWS.
The Deposits OF Iron and Coal Convent
emily Located-How Pittsburg Was
Built Up-Adyantages Pos
sessed by Fort Worth.
MING EXPERTS VIEWS.

interesting chat with well-known mining
expert, on Texas minerals. Asked about
| Fort Worth's advantages he said:
First, let Us see what product Texas
| can furnish. The wants of Fort Worth,
and in fact, the entire grand area lying be-
tween the Mississippi on the east and the
Rio Grande on the west and the Missouri
on the north, including Louisiana, Texas,
| Kansas, a apart of Nebraska, Colo
| RADIO, New Mexico and Arizona, and
| the Indian and Oklahoma territories.
I'VE find Texas has a population of 2, $50, :
| 600; area in square miles, ga, 1856, in acres,
! 40, 500, 29fEover eighty-one acres to each
JaSE In and child within her borders !;
nds+ Ten thousand miles of railroads I;
I 1900 square miles of mineral lands (iron
and coal), or 4, 122 900 acres; acres of tim
Der Cypress and pine), &c, 100000; cotton
about four million acres; corn and other
! grains in same proportion. All these in
! dustries are being worked beyond their de-
| mands except the one containing the great
est value, the greatest need for all other
| ends and for principles of economy-the
commodities coal and iron"
| How is Fort Worth located as to these?'
| ''F'Ort Worth, fortunately, is situated in
| about an equi-distant position between the
| iron interests in Marion Anderson, Chero-
| kee, Eacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine
! and Llano counties, south and east, and the
| extensive coal fields in Montague, Jack
4
| of Fort Worth. The surface rock around
| and near Fort Worth is of a
1 good quality of lime, suitable for
! huXing iron ores. These minerals are our
| future treasure, and mean more to the
| future wealth of Texas than all other inter
| ests. Does Fort Worth want this or any
| part of the product! Let US see what the
| possession of iron and coal has
| done fer other cities less favored.
| Within the memory of many of the citi-
zens of Fort Worth Pittsburg, Pa, was
no larger than Fort Worth of to-day, her
| assessed values were less, her business
| was the distribution and manufacture of
| pine lumber from the mountain lands
along the waterways of the Monongahela
| and Allegheny rivers. At Pittsburg
The lumber was manufactured, RATED
| again, aud was disposed of to supply the de-
mand along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
! There were in 1853 only three railroads
into Pittsburg, and two of them ran into
the city from Wellsville, forty miles on one
track At Connellsyille, and up the Ale
| ghenY river, and east of Pittsburg to Johns
! town, were extensive beds OF bitumnouS
coal, and lime was found in abundance. Iron
foundries had been established along in
| the forties, but the native iron was of in
| ferlOr quality, and no progress was made in
this industry until 1858 or 1859. Some en-
! terprising citizens conceived the idea of
| uniting the high-grade magnetic ores of the
! Lake Superior regions with the low-grade
| limonite ores, which have large deposits in
9s&@ foothills of the Allegheny range of
97Pennsylvauia and Virginia. To this COM
| bination OF high grade and low grade
! ores we owe the bessemer steel industries
! of America, and produce not only a superior
! quality over besSemer steel manufactured
| in Europe, but iron as well'
Cant you tell me something about this
\ bessemer discOveryR''
e.HS - &c auto IfrFAh
of q new industry reads more like arOmance
| than truth, but its lesson is one OF the few
| science and the will of man have taught
US, vide the telegraph, vide steamships,
! etc.
ITO understand the difficulties this new
enterprise had to encounter, it is necessary
TO understand the distances and mode OF
transportation then in use to bring the
magnetic irons from Lake Superior to
PittSburg. First, transportation from the
mines to the upper lake required railroads,
ore dumps, shifting ways, docks and many
! esessl' large OUTLAWS before the tests could
Bg made, and as the iron mines were stu
ated in a region unknown, uninhabited
and untrodden save by few hunters and
trappers, the first cargo from the Lake
Superior mines reached Cleveland, Ohio,
-distant 500 miles by lake, in the
fall Of 1850, five cars of which,
or 100 tons, were transferred to Pitts
railroad, distance 200 miles, making total
distance of transit from the mines 1000
miles or over. Iron of good quality made
in Eastern Pennsylvania was then
.asijng for S2.75 per hundred. The
ff6sght on the ore that came from the
upper lakes was more than the price ofiron
contained in the ore after 1t was manufact-
ured, but this fact did not dishearten the
men at the wheel The iron was new
standard. had a new value, produced new
oala8siasFetofore unknown qualities and it
Was possible to roll from this metal when !
cold very superior iron. A patent was
applied for and issued for cold rolled iron
and thousands OF tons was thus rolled with
out q scale into finished shaft
siggs, that saved the trouble of any lathe
Work for pulleys or fittings, its market
value was three times increased, its uses
infinite In fact, this union of two ores
was a union of strength, and bessemer
steel was being made, unknown, under an
other process. Thus started the iron age
I1ftts burg the outgrowth was iron of all
ssstddes all sizes, for all known purposes.
Nail factories were started wire works
built, steel UNDERSTANDING out thousands
of tons. Guns of the heaviest caliber
and modern invention, some of which
weigh 100 tons or $780, 600 pounds. Machines
of ponderous size-bridge iron, agricultural
implements, steel for boilers, vessels, tools,
cutlery from axes to raZors, nails, from rail
ssfzaad spikes to tacks requiring forty to the
ouuce-and from 5000 tons manufactured
BY this process in 1869, in the
United States the output has increased to
the enormous amount of 1854, $40 tons
in 1891, fully one-third of the entire output
of iron in the United States was mined
from the Lake Superior districts. 1t re-
ouires the tonnage of eight railroads TO
move this stupendous amount of freight.
The ron cars carry about ten tons, and ia
brochures S5S, 464 cars per year, or 1850 per
day for 365 days the year, TO move the ore
10 market. Its values, compared with the
output in minerals of the richest silver
state. Colorado are from the last status
tical reports of the United States: Lake
Szfperior region, four districts, 1854. $40
sssy3s. valued at 500, 600, 900; silver and gold.
and all other mining output Of Colorado,
same year, SIS, OOO.OOO.
THE uses of this vast amount of iron can
not be estimated nor understood. 1t enters
INTO every human want. Look in any d.
lsesssisl. one sees some of its uses. The
amount of wages of the workers in the iron
industries, from the mines TO its final USE
is four times that of any known industry,
and nearly every mechanical art is depend
ent upon iron for its existence. Thus we
leave Pittsburg. When we realize
.xSlznf in 1870 she was struggling to
i've, we see her now the first in CONNER
cial standing. according to her population,
on this continent. and all her original capt.
g.