The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-10-17

because the people would not have any
thing built south of the Ohio river
At the present time in our city we
have several large foundrtes as well as
the rolling mills and machine shops
whcfh use Birmingham iron and make
castings for cot lon gin machinery; rail-
road work, Corliss and stationary slide
valves engines, boiler fronts and CRATE
bars, stoves and furnace castings, sugar
mills, mine cars and equipments and
pumps. A limited quantity of our iron
Is worked up in the pudding plants
into wrought iron sheets and bars, and
since the starting up of the steel plant
the consumption has been increased by
the quantity of iron used in that plant
Among the firms who operate the most
modernly equipped and extensive foun-
dries and machine shops in Birmingham
are = The Birmingham Machina and
Foundry company. Hardy Tynes Foun-
dry and Machine company, Warrior Ma
chine works, Globe Iron foundry, Hood
Machine company. Northington-M Munger
Pratt company, Smith Sons Gin and Ma
chine company, Decatur Car Wheel and
Manufacturing company and Linn Iron
works.
Iron works arr prepared to build and
repair locomotives and make such heavy
castings as are required in railroad, min
ing and furnace plants.
Corliss and stationary slide valve en-
gines are built by the Birmingham Ma
chins and Foundry company and the
Hardy Tynes Foundry and Machine COM
pany, who also are prepared to furnish
all classes of heavy castings. The Globe
Iron foundry makes speciality of stoves
manufacturing chiefly cooking stoves.
The Northingto Munger Pratt COM
pany,and the Smith Sons Gin and Ma
chine company are exclusively engaged
in the manufacture of cotton gins and
machinery associated Herewith. At the
Warrior Machin- works, there being no
foundry attached, the chief work done Is
turning, fitting and building general ma
chinery.
The Decatur Car Wheel and Manufac-
turing company is consumer of char
coal iron made in other districts, as we'll
as of Birmingham coke iron.
Because of local conditions, very
large proportion of the work done in
these foundries and machine shops would
be classed as heavy castings, but there Is
also very fair percentage of light
cashing work done, although no novel
ties or light hardware ara yet manufac-
tured in the district.
The amount of capital already invested
in the plants in Birmingham proper In
which iron is manufactured into finished
products will probably reach nearly a
million and a half dollars
The last of the questions propounded
is certainly the easiest to answer, be-
cause the needs of the city in this direc-
offered for thu establishment OF these
needed plants are infinite. The first
and most important are additional works
for manufacturing our iron into steel,
and in this connection kindred plants to
manufacture the steel into such finished
products as fence wire (barbed and
plain, nails, edged tools, pillow points,
and the thousand other useful articles in
daily demand throughout the entire
country.
We have no agricultural Implement
works in this district where at glance
1t would appear to be their natural home.
Thu success of the plow works of At
lanta, where their iron, steel, coke and
coal all cost more than they would in
Birmingham should certainly be con-
elusive argument in favor of the estab-
lishmsnt of such works in this district.
The manufacture of heating radiators,
which is being so successfully carried on
in the far north, could be done here at a
greater profit and under mora favorable
conditions, because a very large proper
ton of the iron used in these radiators is
shipped from Birmingham as pig.
Shelf hardware, nails, railroad spikes,
fish plates, horse and mule shoes, chains,
wrought iron and steel hinges, road
scrapers, wheeIbarrows, hollowware. tin
plate, novelties and electrical apparatus
are among the articles which the casual
observer would include in a list of the
uses to which our iron could be put to
increase the home consumption.
OF course, to establish factories for
the manufacture of any of these articles
requires capital. But what point in the
United States can offer greater induce
ments to capital to embark in the man
ufacture of finished products from crude
iron?
The story of cheap fuel, cheap labor,
COMMENDED WOfhlIfei dLu : iOIlouS cllHidtC
have been repeated frequently. The
signs of the times would appear to ia
vor the theory that these stories have
not been repeated in vain, because with
in the past week the district has been
visited by the general manager of one of
the large iron and steel plants in Ger
many. His investigations made quietly
but with that thoroughness SO charac-
teristic of the German scientict, pro-
duced a favorable impression. This Wis.,
1t will undoubtedly be followed by visits
from other representatives of foreign cor
porations which will in time result in tbs
investment of foreign capital in manu-
featuring plants to produce finished pro-
ducts. VIM. M. BREWER.
: Regular $3.50 Fur Rugs, in
white and grey, at ell SO for
Monday.
O.