The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-10-17
SOUTHERN IRON AND
STEEL MAKING


Much has been said and written about
Alabama as the future centre of the iron
and steel industry of this country.
American and European experts have
studied the field carefully with a view
to possibilities, and much of the general
opinion may be summa rzed in the words
of Mr.. William Colquhoun, of Cardiff,
who in report to the British Iron and
Steel institute says:
''To fully appreciate the position and
future of the South we have to imagine
coalfield yielding ten times as much
coal as the whole of the United King
donb unmeasured deposits of iron ores,
that the cost of long distance
railway carriage is one. farthing per
ton per mile, and that the bulk of the
produce of pig iron is already delivered
to the northern district
Having those things in our minds,
we can arrive at no other conclusion
than that in the future the Southern
district will develop an export trade
which will hit the United Kingdom more
severely than any other competition has
DONE Our 100000 tons of coal exported
to South America, the East and West
Indies and China will fall away to MOTH
ing. We cannot hope to compete in the
future railroad development of those
cOuHtIieS, anu the clOSe Trdue cOnHec-
tons between the states and Australia
WITH slowly strengthen.
THE Southern States, therefore, induce
an interest not entirely due to the we It'll
of their mineral resources but to he fact
that they will be in the future our keen
est competitors. They will compete, too,
with the Northern states, where the
growing cost off production. the failure
OF the natural gas and the hopelessness
of ever conceivng an export trade ccrn-
bine to render that district less aggrss-
sive"
More recently the Birming CHAM region
has been carefully sttuied by DR.. F.
W. Time, q distinguished mining and
metallurgical engineer of Chicago. ana
president of the Chicago Polytechnic in
stitute, on behalf of foreign capitalists
as announced a few weeks ago in the
Manufacturers Record. The Manufact-
urers' Record has been fortunate to So
cure an exclusive translation of his re-
port, and as to the coming visit to Bir-
mingham of the arnfor plate MA t boa q
makes every authoritative opinion about
steel-maling in the south of particular
interest. some extracts from the report
are published. For years DR.. Time has
held the opinion that the South is the
most favorable portion of the JTnited
States for the loeation of a great steel
plant, having its own coal and ircri ore
to transform into pig iron suitable Tor
steel-making, and which wouli also fur
tHcl lUdHlndCiuIt "a EdtV III Hp- OF pIL
into finished products. He says in his
report:
Mature has side by side with eo-1
colSng Goals deposited an Amos; mex
haustlble treasure of good iron ore,
which, though not seiviceafble for The
Bessener process ewing to 3 corier ts
df phosphorus. still will produce an ex-
cellent cast iron and good pig iron FOR
pudding purposes. and also ma teralfor
basic cpen-hearth proc So. as it also
proved by The large shipments OF pig
iron from the Birmingham furnaces 10
the steel works at Carnegie and the IL
lnofs Steel company.
1.-THE birmingham district also con-
tains excellent limestone. fre-clay pure
quartz, n1o'ding sol nj, nd also t ,nos-
crate distance from The furnaces excel
lent brown iron orss IN eXtans've dspo= g
which are extremely valus for mlvlng
purposes, as will also he excellent man
gdnese ores OF grea ter or less rich e%s
OF iron. and Binninellsm further enjoys
good and cheap labor in abunTarca''
DIR. Time touches rnon all The condi-
tons and reasons which make It posi-
bic for this district 10 produce a Mig
iron which is also we'll adapted for steel
making a. lower cost than any other re-
gion in America. and after a nli1pte de-
Scrintion of the particular territory
which he was requested to study he
states, that the red heinz tite ores of
Alabama. both alone. or better still to-
gether with the brown and manganese
Concluded on eleventh page.)