Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-08

that southern furnaces are able to push their trade into the heart of the greatest iron producing region in the world. For more than five years past the larger DOT tion of the pig Iron produced in the south has been sold north of the Ohio and Po- tomac rivers in competition with Iron made in Philadelphia Ohio and other northern states. In the west particular ly, the southern iron producers have found large market and all points near the Atlantic seaboard have been easily within their reach. So the sale of so large quantity of Alabama iron in the north is not an unusual event nor one to cause surprise. Particular interest at- taches to this transaction. however, be- cause this is the first large sale of south ern pig iron of a grade suitable for the manufacture of steel and because the iron was sold for that particular purpose.
 Pig iron that is made in the south is chiefly of the grades suitable for the man. ufacture of wrought iron by the processes of pudding and rolling, or for making castings of various kinds. Practically none of the southern pig iron hithertq made has been suitable for the manufac- ture of steel, either by the Bessemer or the open hearth processes, which con- sume nearly two thirds of all the pig iron produced In this country Although pos- sessing unlimited supplies of iron ore that can be mined at nominal cost, the south has not yet developed any deposits of ore from which could be made pig iron of Bessemer grade. For the manufacture of Bessemer steel by the methods now ini use in this country 1t is necessary to have pig iron that Is free from phosphorus an element that is fatal to the quality of tho steel, although within certain limits it is not objectionable in wrought iron or in castings. As most of the southern ores contain phosphorus the pig iron made from them is unfit for steel making. What are known as the basic or Thomas-Gil- christ notifications of the Bessemer and open hearth processes of steel making re- quire pig iron containing so high a per centage of phosphorus as to render tho material valueless for other purposes; but the basic methods entirely eliminate the objectionable element and produce as good quality of steel as can be made by the ordinary means. The basic processes have been utilized to great extent in Eng land and in Germany, but owing to the control of the American patents by small combination of steel manufacturers and also because of the existence of abundant supplies of low phosphorus ores in the Lake Superior region, the develop ment of the Thomas-Gilchrist processes in this country has progressed slowly.
 In addition to the phosphorus which renders it worthless for ordinary meth- ods of making steel, southern pig iron usually contains such percentage or silicon as to render 1t unfit for the basic processss for which 1t would otherwise
  manufacturers have made diligent ef- forts to produce pig iron low enough in silicon and high enough in phosphorus to meet the requirements of the basic open hearth process for which the mate- rial has been most needed. In an ex- perimental way they have succeeded in reachngsthe desired results and the re- cent large purchase by the Carnegie Steel company seems to indicate that Alabama can now furnish pig iron for steel making as well as for the rolling mill and foundry trade, which has long been enjoyed by the manufacturers in that state.
 The ability of Alabama iron masters to make pig iron of grades suitable for the manufacture of steel means great enlargement of the industrial possbili ties of that state, through larger trade in raw material with northern consumers and in the establishment of steel works in the south. Hitherto the main ob- stacle to a symmetrical development of of the iron resources of the south has been. the practical impossibility of mak- ing steel from southern material; but re- cent progress in the production of pig iron in Alabama demonstrates the prac- ticability of creating a steel industry in that section of the country that shall be as important as the great pig iron interests which have grown up in the south in the past fifteen years.