Birmingham state herald., 1897-06-25
BIRMINGHAM STEEL.

If Birmingham is really going to make steel we are sorry that we did not arrange to be in the celebrating procession. All Alabama will rejoice in successful effort to make steel at Birmingham but we must have good evidence of steel before we begin to cetebra te.--Gadsden Times.
 We are disturbed about that steel run. We take it that if they were sure of the run the people would clamor for a gre at celebra tion of the occa asiCn. The success full making of steel at Birmingham would mark gr-sat epoch in the south and why the city should hesitate about shooting off few rockets, bursting few bombs and diScharging some voices. we can't quite make out. Is the city afraid of the run?-Eufaula Times.
 Birmingham is getting so use to new industries that it Is hard to get the peo- ignorant people even in Alabama who actually question that steel can be made here. During the past two years the scientific and mining journals of Amer fca and Europe have devoted columns after columns to the practical tests of steel making, and the iron makers of the Birmingham district have spent thou sands of dollars experimenting with the iron ore of this section, and the best ex- perts of this country and Europe have ptSH CiilplbStu III til1 lliNCSlis5 FIJI awhile. even after it become known that MT Carnegia was using the Birmingham iron in the making of armor plate. and had really pronounced 1t superior to any he had ever used. his process of convert ing the iron into steel was not known and the secret would not be given out. Something over year ago the Tennes- see Coal, Iron and Railway company sent one of their best men to the Carnegie works, who spent several weeks trying to get admission into the works and after he succeeded spent several weeks more investiga ting the process of handling the Birmingham iron. This gentleman wrote an article to this paper on his return. giving the results of his investigations.
 The real and only drawback to steel making in Birmingham of any conse- quence has been the reduction of the ex- panse in getting rid of the high per cent. of phosphorous carried by the Birmine- ham iron in converting it into steel, and thls has been overcome by a. combina- ton of methods long. used In steel making and an introduction of new features now attached to the larger rumber of the older steel plants.
 That Birmingham should cl b ate the occasion of her production of steel upon a practical business basis. the State Her ald has suggested on several occasions would be good idea, as 1t would educate even some newspaper writers on this subject who have been too indolent to read or too dull to comprehend that the money to establish the plant has been our only drawback In steel making for many months past That it will mark a new epoch in the south is true. and while the subject is an old one with our people who have no more fear of failure than the making of car wheels, yet they do not seem to appreciate that there are many doubling Thomases among intel ligent people who have not kept up with this line of progress. and it would prove a big advertisement to celebrate the occa- sion of the first run of the new plant.