Evening star., 1897-01-02

before the Alabama mining boom began.
great deal OF this was on paper. but the
foundation is there and the iron mines are
as valuable today as they were ten years
ago. They are now all owned by big cor
porations and they are being developed
after the best business principles. The
mine which we entered was worked with
compressed air drills. The cars were
hauled up and down an inclined railway
by steam, and hundreds of sooty laborers.
with candles in their hats, were at work.
The vein of ore that 1 saw ranged in width
from eight to twenty-four feet 1t is a
great sandwich of iron ore between walls
of slate and rock. 1t dips down into the
ground at an angle of about IS degrees.
Some of the Dangers Of Mining.
I could hear the boom! boom! boom! Of
the blasting powder as 1 went through the
mine. At times the air shook AMI quivered
with the conclusion. and our candles were
blown out. Dynamite is used almost alto
gether in iron mining, ard the danger is
very great if it is not carefully handled
Every now and then terrible accidents cc-
cur in our mines Men are torn to pieces
the walls fall in, and there is great loss of
lfe The miners l saw in Alabama were
negroes. They are not as careful. as the
whites and their wages are less than the
men at work in the mines of the Lake
superior region.
Making Pig Iron.
Leaving the mine, 1 next went to one of
the great furnaces at the foot of Red noun
tain. where tile ore is turned into pig iron
Iron, you know, never occurs pure in a
state of nature. The ore of the Red noun
tain, which is used at the Bessemer fur
haces, contains only about IS per cent of
iron, and the superintendent told me that
the purest iron stone found anywhere con-
tains only 20 per cent. The rest is made I'D
OF rock and other minerals and it Is neces-
Sary 10 separate the iron before it can be
used Tor manufactures. TniS process is
known as making pig iron. The iron Is
mixed with limestone and coke in great
furnaces, which are, l judge. as high as
six,story house. The furnaces are filed
with alternate layers of coke limestone
ana iron. 1t takes an enormous blast to
furnish enough heat for such a furnace.
ana the blast is created by immense en-
glhes' Whlch force the air first through
what are perhaps the biggest stoves of the
world They are immense tubes many feet
nlgn, and as big around as the city gas
tank. They are lined with friedrich and are
aedteo Oy the gas which comes from the
furnaces. The air is made to pass through
!nese enormous stoves before it goes to the
blast and 1t produces heat SO intense that
the iron and steel machinery of the furnace
would not last minute were not every bit
Of 1t enveloped in water. All of the pipes
are incased in other pipes which are kept
1hll OF cold flowing water and this water
Is forced about the outside of the furnace
is so great that the iron is melted in very
short time. 1t is drawn off from each fur
race twice day.
River of Gold,
1t flows out at the foot in a little river
OF gold The stream looks like molten gold
alioyed with copper until it gets distance
OF perhaps twenty feet away from the
furnace. Here it is divided into two
streams. The iron flows one way and the
Stag or refuse. which has formed a. scum
ana iioats on the top. is carried off in an
otner Ihe iron is now of a yellow gold
color. 1t seems to have lost its reddish
tlnt. 1t runs off in golden stream into a
bed OF sand, in which little holes have been
cut or nodded, SO that it looks for all the
world like garden patch ready for plant
ng These holes are of just the size and
shape OF what Is known as an iron pig
lhey are about as big around as the upper
arm OF good-siZed man and about three
feet long. The yellow stream finds its wav
In through them and soon the garden is full
OF these bright yellow pigs, which turn to
copper uht as they cool and then change
10 the gray of cold pig iron. AS the metal
Is cooling the heat waves dance over the
garden patch of hot iron, and you have to
mold your hat before your face to keep
rom, rom oeing scorched After the pigs are
cooled they are piled up ready to be shipped
to different parts of the United States for
use IN manufacturing. The Stag goes to
waste. 1t runs off into great iron pot
railroad track some distance away and
emptied out upon the Stag heap. There are
FOUNTAINS OF such Stag near every great
furnace, ana the Invention has yet to be
. made which will turn it to any other use
than that of ballasting railroads.
We Lead the World.
We lead the world not only in the produc-
ton of iron, but also in the making of pig
iron We made 100000 tons in 1892.
which incre9 of bop I
per cent over the product of 1S;5 since
that time we have increased our steel pro-
duct 500 times, and We are now making
enough steel every year to give every man,
woman and child in the United States 14O
pounds, and have some to spare Some of
our pig iron which was lately sent to Eng
land, l am told, was sold for less than s.
ton We made pig iron at the time of
the revolution, which was worth $50 ton,
and we are making steel now, it is said,
almost as cheaply as a good class of iron.
Millions in 1t.
1t is wonderful how iron increases in
value after it is turned into machinery or
articles of use by the people. You get some
idea of what labor is worth when you think
of it. 1t Is estimated by Carroll D. Wright
of the labor bureau, for instance, that sew
enty-five cents worth of common iron ore
you make 1t into horse shoes it is worth
$40, or, if into table knives, $3.50. Seventy
five cents worth of ore manufactured into
needles is worth 81, 500 and when made in
to buttons more than $4,000. If the
iron is converted into watch springs its
value is almost ten times as great and
when turned. into hair springs your sew
enty-five cents worth of rock and stone
will sell for the enormous sum of $400 900.
The difference between 70 cents and
100000 is the value paid for labor alone.
So you see that. after all, the real wealth
of country lies in the muscles and brains
of its people. If we could turn all Of our
iron ore into hair springs. and could find
customers for them, we would be so rich
that we could buy the whole world and
take flyers in all the speculative property
on the sun, moon and stars and still have
money to burn.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.
IN THE CHI URCHES