Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-09-16
charleston News and Courier. }


The rapidly increasing shipments OF
iron from the South. II "a noted. promise
an early realization OF the prediction
that the great centre OF iron production
in this country Is TO be In Alabama and
Tennessee. in June last according to a
correspondent OF the New York Evening
Post. the shipments from the southern
iron fields aggregated loo.962 tons, and
for the first seven months OF the year
over 10000 tons. The total for the year
1t Is expected will be over 1900 900 tons. and
may reach 100000 tons. This, II IL ex-
planned Is the probable shipment for the
year, but not the whole production IN
1896 the production was f.S35.S25 tons OF
pig. against 1000 tons twenty-five years
ago. SO promising Is the outlook that
the southern iron makers are increasing
their plants, with view to larger out
put. The fact that Alabama and
Tennessee can sell long ton OF pig iron
at the furnace with profit at s.. and In
England at $3.50, Is the ruling fact OF
the iron situation. 1t explains the wide
area of southern iron sales, which now
includes not only great part OF the
Union. but also all countries accessible
by sea.
The product of the district in question
iron. According to the Baltimore Sun.
the production of steel on large scale
has been begun at Birmingham. BY the
Martin process, it says. basic ingots are
now made there at a cost OF 50 ton,
billets at sl1 to S12 per ton, steel rails
si3 per ton, and steel rods at SIG per ton.
I'm view of the much higher cost OF pro-
duction everywhere else. the demand for
Alabama pig and steel must be practl-
cally unlimited" say the Sun, which ADDS
that low as the cost OF pig iron in Ala
bama and Tennessee was In 1886, prorpi-
nent iron men say it will be lower by
AZ cents this year. owing TO the improved
methods constantly being introduced. III
is claimed in some quarters that the
southern ores and coal are inferior TO
the northern, and the excess or phos-
phorus i'm most southern ores units them
for making steel by the Bessemer
process. "but the Martin process makes
them available, and new methods or
managing the coal correct It's alleged de-
fects.'
most gratifying feature of the i'm
proyed situation, as reported, Is that,
now that steel is made largely at Birm-
ingham. mills to put it into commercial
shane are also being brought into ope-
ration" These mills, it Is noted, Ike the
furnaces, are of the most approved de-
sign, and OF large capacity, so that good
economic results are insured. The new
steel mill at Birmingham Is provided
with ten revolving steel furnaces. each
with n capacity OF seventy or eighty tons.
These are filed by machinery, operated
by a new method, with very heavy
charges of crude iron. and are able 10
turn out daily 1900 tons Of ingots, when
are at once turned into billets. sheets,
steel rails. or bar steel. The mill turns
out 100 tons OF finished steel rails daily
About ten or twelve years ago there were
only three iron furnaces within sight Oh
Birmingham, and one OF them was idie.
Now. 1t is noted. there are twenty-six.
This certainly ''looks like business, as
the Sun says, and cannot but be most
gratifying to all who are interested In
any movement looking to the establish
ment, of the Industrial independence OF
the South. Twenty years ago we
were confidently assured by experts
that iron and Gotten could not be man
ufactured i'm the South. The humming
factories in the Carolinas and the
smoking furnaces In Alabama ana
Tennessee are the best possible answers
10 such predictions.