Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-25
SOLD LIKE HOT CAKES,
THE AGE-HERALD WITH ITS BIG SCOOP
Another Important Deal-The Success of Steel Is Beyond Peradventure Interest,"
 ing Interview-The Budget.
Age-Hera1d Bureau.

day was read with advidity is to draw it very mild. In thirty-eight minutes after its arrival in the city every copy had been purchased from every news boy and stand and more were eagerly sought for and many copies were re- sold.
 The unusual demand was caused by the glowing account which was given exclusively in its columns of the grea test piece of industrial news which has taken place in years The best part is that ev- cry word printed is fact, as few days time will fully verify.
 As each one read the article he would tell his neighbor and such a discussion of the affair would. then take place has not been seen or heard here since the boom days of 1SS7-SS. The silver question was entirely forgotten and the good of the city and the future pros poets only were discussed.
 But the happiest man, If that superla- tive adjective can be used where all were happy, was and Is Captain Crook, the mayor of the city.
 From present indications the city Will have to grow, and grow at once, to make room for the captains exuberance and pride Why" said he to the Age Her aid reporter. q told you so. have said all along that the steel plant would De built and I feel proud of the fact that I have never lost faith in Bessemer and her people. We will have the best city in the south and the Age-Herald is de- serving of much praise for the enterprise shown in giving such complete au- thentic, exclusive report of this immense enterprise. l tell you, am proud or II.
 Another transaction will take place within the next sixty days which will involve the sum of S25, ,OOO. It IS the sale of the water works by the Bessemer Land and Improvement company to the -s4.. 1Rn a To ct legislature authorized the city of Besse- mer to purchase from the water company this valuable plant, for which the city was allowed to issue SIPS, 900 thirty year per cent gold bonds This has now been consummated and the company will turn the water works over to the city as soon as the bonds can be printed and signed, the water company having already ar ranged to convert the bonds into cash with which to improve the properties of the city.
 There has been some doubt expressed whether steel can be successfully made from the low grades of pig iron. The Age-Herald reporter meeting Mr. George w. West, who is known as an expert and authority of high standing. and who has been practically and intimately acquaint- ed with the manufacture of iron and steel in this immediate section for over six teen years, asked him whether there was any doubt of the success of making basic
  Said he: Most emphatically, mo- There is no doubt whatever of its complete suc- cess, as 1t has been manufactured here successfully at the Henderson furnace at North Birmingham for months, and as the boiler makers and rolling mills of this city can testify it's the best soft steel in the world.
 T was one of the committee of awards at the Worlds fair in the mines and the mining department, as was also 1ornfa o a6 of the most scientific experts in mineral ogy of Germany-men whose works rank as text books and whose fame as min eralogists is worldwide.
 T was in conversation with promi- nent gentleman from Pittsburg, and l was expatiating on the wonderful min eral resources of this state, and especial ly this section, and remarked that our iron would make the finest soft steel in the world. The gentleman disputed this fact with me, and said that we could not possibly make steel from our ore unless we used large quantity of scrap. This l disputed, and just then Professors Wedding and Klufaul came into the room I asked them whether they knew anything of our ore, and if so whether it were possible to convert it into steel. Said they:
 Yes, we know the ore and it's chem ical analysis, as we visited Birmingham with the American Mining association and made exhaustive tests of the Bir- mlngham iron. It is exactly the same iron that is used in Germany, and which we have been converting into, steel
 'TThe gentlemen seemed astonished at the question, as if the idea of using scrap was absurd; and" continued MT. West sixteen years ago, when I first came to this city from it's namesake across the water, 1 predicted that iron would be manufactured in Birmingham for SS a ton; was laughed at, but time has yer ified my statement, and we make it for much less.
 Several years ago." continued MT West, T began telling the people of Bir- mngham that the age of iron was pass ing away and that we were entering an age of steel. was again laughed at The open hearth or basic process was not then discovered and the art of ex- tracing the sulphur from the iron was an expensive one, but the basic process has now passed the experimental era and is demonstrated and practical everyday fact. While I may appear to some visionary. I predict that before many years the Birmingham district will be the center of the steei market of the world-not of the state or the United States. but of the whole world We in this section will dictate the prices and the world will have to meet them or get out of the, race for nowhere in the worldj can iron and steel be manufactured as cheap1y and as easily as here. where hotuit SCCiAo NO HoNC POdiCu dii ihS clG- ments necessary for it's complete man. ufacture bountifully and in close proX- imity.
 q was a director of the Henderson steel plant at North Birmingham and know whereof I speak"
 Ingots,
 Mrs. T. H. Hopkins of Montgomery is visiting friends in the city.
 The infant son of J. H. Houppert is very low with pneumonia.
 Mrs G. w. Thomson of Delhi, La, has