Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-07-18
TO RE CONTINUED. |
MOLTEN METAL AS CARGO.
Ladies' Holding Tons of Liquid Iron
Drawn by "A Locomotive

The cleveland Rolling Mill Company
has just completed "A successful expert
ment in connection with the manufacture
of steel which will save the company one
dollar ON every ton of steel, or about
$2Oo,0o) every year. and will, besides, i'm
prove the quality of the finished product
very materially.
The experiment was novel one, and
TO the uninitiatcd mind it must seem auda
cious. 1t is in brief, the transportation
of immense ladies filledSTith molten metal
over a railroad used by passenger and
1 freight trains for a distance of five miles.
Within an hour after the molten mass
has streamed through the tapping hole Of
the Central blast furnace. it may, if
necessary, he in the converter from which
it comes out molten steel.
The object of the experiment, which
was begun less than a month ago and
which, it has just been decided, is an un-
qualified success, was a triple one to save
money, to save labor and to improve the
quality of the steel. All these objects
/ have been attained, ana the new method
will be used TenCeforth.
The old method of transporting iron
from the Central blast furnace on the
/ flats near the Central Niaduct to the roll
/ ing mills in the South End was a tedious
and expensive one. Formerly when the
furnace was tapped and the metal in
molten condition poured out, it was con-
Quoted in the runners or grooves i'm the
sand below TO the pig bed" The pig
bed" consists of main central groove or
trough in the sand through which the
metal runs and hundreds or thousands
according to the magnitude Of the works
of smaller grooves in the SAN IN below the
furnace. into which f., is conducted and
whore it becomes cold and hard, main
tanning the shape of the groove, becoming
what is known as a pig of iron that is a
about 200 pounds. In the old way. which
is that usually followed. when they be-
came hard these pigs were broken M.
loaded into cars. and TRANSPORTED i'm that
way to the mills where they were re-
melted so that they might he ready for
the converter. This nccessitated the en-
pIoymcnt OF IA number of mon to break up
the pigs. a number to load them. num-
her TO unload them and take them in
barrows to the clipola for remclting, and
il was besides a slow process
By the new process the handling of the
pigs of iron at the blast furnace is saved
and also their second handlingat the mills;
the coke used formerly in rom"ltiug is
saved: the waste of metal in the second
melting i'm the cuuola is saved. and the
metal is prevented from acquiring the
SULPHUR from the coke i'm romclting as
we'll as other impurities which would de
crease the amount of the fcrromauganesc.
total
Manager Craig of the mills is 81 Der ton
of steel saved or 100000 every wear,
which is no small item.
\ reportor acromuauiod by an artist
Witnessed the new process Yesterday. and
cuiovcd the privilege of riding five miles
on an engine which pulled A train of four
ladIc cars. each ladle car containing Il
tons of molten metal. Tho four cars
each bearing a gigantic ladle not unlike =
huge soup turecn i'm shape. but with a
nozzle or spout on one side. are first car
ricd into an UNDERGROUND tunnel and
placed in position directly under the
mouths of four runners or grooves in the
sand. through which the molten metal
from the furnace flows. Then the blast
furnace is tapped and the fiery. burning
molten mass of metal PUSHES i'm four
streams through the runners. When it
reaches their mouths it drops into the
ladies' below. sending out showers of
SHARKS. As soon as the ladies' are fun
the runners are damned. with the eXccp-
ton of the main channel which then con
ducts the surplus metal directly across
the tunnel over a cast iron bridge into Il
mir bed Here the old nrocess is used for