The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-10-17
ARMOR PLATE COMMITTEE
WILL ARRIVE TONIGHT
continue from tenth rags.l

Continued from tenth page.)
ores that are found there VIII produce
pig iron adapted for steel-making, and
adds:
ION my last visit to birmingham
learned from the shipping books of fur
race companies and other authentic
sources that large quantities of low sill
con pig ore are being continuously
shipped to the steel works of Carnegie
and the Illinois Steel company. / ar
rived at one furnace just as the last
carloads of shipment of $50 tons of
such iron for another steel works in
Philadelphia Were being loaded. On
each of the. stocks of pig iron from
which they were loading were some
pigs marked with the contents of the
iron in the stack and thousands Of tons
were marked as follows: ST. 0.5, S. 0.03,
P. 0.67; 81. 0.6, S. 036, 2. 0.07; ST. O.79, s.
OOS6. p. 0.75. and so on. All the stacks
marked in this manner were destined
to be shipped to steel works. and only
short time previously lots of 500 tons
each had been sent to Genoa, Rotterdam
and Calcutta, respectively. Whenever
the contents of silicon is less than per
cent. the pig iron is gladly accepted, and
as matter iofrfact the contents of the
iron sent to the seel works varies from
Ol2 per cent. to 0.85 per cent. in silicon;
from 0.030 to 0.039 in sulphur, and from
0.65 to 0.f5 in PHOSPHORUS. 1t would not
be difficult for the furnaces that are
engaged in the production Of iron
adapted for steel-making to see that it's
contents In silicon should not exceed
from 0.10 per cent. OH per cent, but
still they have more profitable run and
are easier to regulate when maintain
ing the percentage at betwe en- 0.50 to
per cent. which also Is fully satisfac-
tory for the open-hearth process.
while at Birmingham I took a look
at the working of a furnace in blast.
With ninety charges day it produces
1870 tons of pig iron, and on the average
the charges are composed as follows:
Red hematite ore, without lime 2,150 lbs.
Red hematite ore, contlng lime .6,400 lbs.
Brown iron ORE. ........2,15O lbs
Limestone. ....2,l0O lbs.
Coke..... ....... $500 lbs.
1890 lbs.
'fIhe coke here used has been some
what insuf1iciently washed, as it sti1
contains from to II per cent. ash; also
quartz ore very low in iron has been
used dhe total result in iron only
amounts to 81 per cent? and yet the
total cost of producing this iron is only
a little over Sc per gross ton.
In conversation the gentleman in
charge of the furnace making the pig
iron adapted for steel-making explained
that he could produce the same iron
also from red hematite ore alone, but
cradle, which can understand, and I
only wonder that all the furnaces do
not use in addition also the fine brown
ore.
There are many who do not regard
the colored laborers as desirable ele-
ment of the furnace and mining in
dustry. Those who hold this opinion,
however, do not know the negro of the
SOUTH The colored laborer of
the south is obedient, pliable, easily
satisfied, loyal and faithful; he works
at from rs cents to 81 a day, and per-
forms almost as much as a white man
would at from $3.50 to So, and he rarely
joins union" l speak from my own
experience when 1 say that for much
mining and factory work l wish for no
better faborer than the southern negro,
and my visit to the Birmingham district
only confirmed this view. The large ma
jority of the workmen in the mines,
furnaces and foundries there are celored
men, who work either separately or
together with whites, and the only place
where they are not employed are at
the rolling mills. And they are en-
ployed not only at subordinate work re-
curing no particular ability, quickness
of mind, but also at work which pre-
supposes-a high degree of all these
qualities. Tn and about Birmingham I
found negroes as weighmastsrs, station
airy engineers, furnace overseers of coal
washing and other similar responsible
positions, and 1 have never heard that
the poor engroes should be poorer work.
men than the whites. The fact that
the south is able to produce pig iron
and products thereof cheaper Is due not
only to the close proximity in which
its rich iron ore, coal and limestone de-
posits are occurring, but also to a great
extent to its cheap and quiet laboring
population.