The age-herald., 1897-12-25

mlngham Foundry and Machine company; Hardie-Tynes company; Linn Iron Works; Hood Machine Works and others. In 1888 the home consumption was only per cent. of the productions; this has been steadily in- creasing and keeping pace with the won- derful increase in production of pig iron, so that in 1895 1t had reached 15 per cent. of the total make. and during the past year had gained another per cent.
 Furnaces Can Produce More
 As the furnace practice has been im- proved by greater care being exercised in the selection of raw materials making up the burdens, the capacity of the furnaces has increased until today furnace, which five years ago made 125 tons of pig iron per diem, will turn out 25o tons and even a greater quantity in the same time Owing to this fact there have been requir- ed less number of furnaces in blast to produce the large quantities of iron made during the latter portion of the year, than would have been requisite to make small CT production five or six years since. In fact the Birmingham district has only averaged thirteen furnaces in Hast dur ing the entire year, including the Wood stock at Annston.
 Certainly it would seem as though the making of charcoal iron would soon be counted among the things of the past, be- cause during 1897 there has been only the Rock Run furnace in blast, the Shelby, Round Mountain and Clifton having all been idle until nearly the end of the year. when Shelby was blown in. The Clifton company will probably never make any more than charcoal pig, because in lSso one 1 of that company's furnaces was rebuilt TOT coke, but has not yet been blown in. It is l expected that such action will be taken in i the near future. provided the trade eohdl- i tions continue favorable.
 l The Woodstock company at Anniston has | satisfactorily solved the problem as to whether coke iron could be profitably made i in the brown iron ore district, situated re-
 motely from the coal mines, and during
 past years occupied only by charcoal fur | naces.
 Apparently there is little doubt but that
 the days have passed when small furnaces with capacity of from 50 to D tons of pig
 iron per day can be successfully operated
 except under such favorable conditions as
 surround the Rock Run company. This
 is a portion of the Bass corporation at l tOFl NdJ uG, 1liui anu l4NiioAi' ASi'iA''
 where they have immense car wheel works
 in which the charcoal iron made at Rock l Run is consumed
 Of course the industry of mining iron
 ore in Alabama is almost completely de- | pendent on the conditions surrounding the
 pie iron industry in this state, but not en- tirely so, because large proportion of the
 brown iron ore mined in Cherokee county n 1rn A
 portion of the brown iron mined in Polk county, Georgia, which produces the
 largest yearly tonnage of this ore in the
 south, is consumed in Alabama, but be-
 cause of high freight rates its consumption ! is confined to the furnaces at Anniston
 and Rock Run.
 l At Raymond, on Red Mountain, near
 Bessemer, the Pioneer Mining and Manu-
 featuring company during the past year
 installed a mining plant, consisting Of
 boilers. air compressor and reversible hoist
 with a capacity of running forty drills and | hoisting 800 tons of iron ore per day. Coal Mining on Good Basis l The coal mining industry in this state mas | on the whole during the past year been | on very satisfactory basis. The produc- | ton would probably have been increased | about 900 tons had it not have been | for the disturbance occasioned by smallpox
 yellow fever and consequent quarantine
 regulations, which have been the main l factors during the past year to lnterlere | with the running of the mines on larger | scale These causes were responsible lor
 the short supply of labor during the lat
 ter portion of 1897, and also for the lnsuh-
 cient supply of cars during September ana | October There have been comparallVeiy
 no labor troubles in the state Ill cohhectioh | with coal mining, because the stoppaee ol
 work during June owing to the disagree l ment as to the wage scale was not general
 throughout the state, and was only or such
 short duration, and during the very dull 1 est period that neither operators nor
 miners were seriously affected
 1 Tn connection with this industry II IS
 gratifying to note that Alabama is surely
 forging to the lead as far as adopting the most modern improvements in plhihS 1 plants. coal washers and colSing ovens. l During 1S797 the Semet-So.vey company l have been engaged in constructing plant
 of bi-protluct coke ovens at Ensey which
 when completed, will be the first of its kino
 in the south and the sixth in the United 1 States. The value of the bi-products which
 have been lost in the past in this state, has 1 been enormous, but apparently we are | entering upon q new era, especially in the
 coal a:,d coke industrie.
 | Coke Manufacture to the Front l Heretofore the manufacture of coke has 1 been merely incidental to the manufacture 1 of iron in this sta.e, and as long as the coke made was of sufficiently good quality i for furnace consumption, but little atten- l ton has been paid to those economies of l practically recent discovery which, when practiced, result in reducing the cost of l making coke and consequently also decrease
 the cost not only in every branch of iron manufacture, even to the finished products, but also in the manufacture of fertilizers and Illuminating gas.
 Thee'fore it does appear that the install lation of the retort coke oven in Alabama i will not orly result in benefting the opera tors in iron making, but will be so far reaching and genral in it's results that the ,lt,, rietu ha afr 1a6