Birmingham state herald., 1897-02-07
VALUE OF BY-PRODUCTS
A Notable New Departure Tn the Pro-
 duction of Pig Iron-False l Economy.

The Baltimore Sun speaks thus of a new industry, growing out of the utiliza- tion of the products of blast furnaces:
 "A notable new departure in the pro- auction of pig iron is the utilization of the bi-products of the blast furnaces. This new industry was started by Baird & Co, at their Gartsherrie works, in Scot land, where the slag, inflammable gas, tar and ammonia produced in the ordin- ary operation of the furnaces are now saved. For each ton of coal consumed in the furnace there are obtained twenty pounds of tar, six and a quarter pounds of ammonia and 120,000 feet of gas-car- bon monoxide. The gas is used as fuel in the furnace. About twelve times as much gas is made from ton of coal in a blast furnace as Is made in gas works. A furnace using eighty tons of coal a day yields 9,000,0 900 cubic feet ot gas daily or over half the amount produced by the gas works of Glasgow. Much trouble is taken to scrub the gas. The slag is used for paving blocks, a use to which it has been put elsewhere. The value of the bi-products is about one sixth of the pig iron products
 Dr. William B. Phillips, chemist for the Tennessee company, shows conclu- sively the value of bi-products in an artl- cle in the Chattanooga Tradesman. He says:
 'It has long been a dictum of the iron IrdQe IflaL IL cOulQ dIIOfu tO tDfOW away all the possible by-products in the manu- fracture of coke, the gas, tar and ammo niacal compounds, and that the limit of improvement in beehive ovens had been reached in so far as concerns the quality of the coke. There never was a greater mistake. One might search through the entire history of industry without finding a more plausible, but at the same time more unfortunate error. Here we are every day of the year, and for long years, pouring into the air the more valuable products of the distillation of coal for the purpose of securing the less valuable. Wasting millions of cubic feet of com bustible gas, excellent for all heating purposes, thousands of barrels of tar, most valua ble for roofing and paving and for the recovery of dyes, parafi1n, etc., and thousands of tons of ammonia, eager ly purchased by the makers of fertilizers, by the farmers themselves, and by ice factories, and yet saying all the time that we are doing this for the sake of economy in the making of iron! Could anything be more fatuous? Allow that the coke made in recovery ovens is 10 per cent less useful to the blast furnace than beehive coke, and no one has shown or claimed that the ratio is greater. while many have shown that 1t does not exist at all, we have the fact remaining that to save this 10 per cent. We annually throw away what is more valuable than the coke itself. It is much as if one built huge coal fires in his house during cold weather and then threw all the doors and windows open, saying that he wanted the ashes! There were two small boys once. one of them was eating an apple. Quoth John: Bill, gimme dat core when you finishes wid de apple" But Bill was, as the Scotch say, near" and he replied, "When gets troo wid dis apple dey ain't a gwine to be no core" Verb. sap. suff.. When we get through with ton of coal there should be no core, gas. tar. ammo- nia coke, all recovered and all used.'