The age-herald., 1898-09-09
FURNACE NO. 3 BLOWN IN
Machine Shops and Foundry of Steel
 Plant Located Yesterday.
THREE FREIGHT DEPoTS AT ENsLEY
Foundations for 32 Gas Producers Begun ,-Semet-Solvay Go. Producing Coke From Second Battery-5OOTon
 Coal Washer in Operation.

Ensley is now the busiest place in the Birmingham district so far as the work of industrial building is concerned. Work was begun yesterday on the foun- dations of the big pig iron casting machine which the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail- road company is to put in at its Ensley furnaces. There are only a comparatively few of these machines in operation in the United States, but they of greatest value in the making of basic pig iron. This one was purchased from Jones & Laughlin, Of Pittsburg.
 The molten iron is taken direct from the furnaces in big ladies, just as the sag is now removed, instead of casting it in sand molds, was the old custom. The ladies are then taken to the casting ma- chine, where the iron Is poured into a se- TICS Of moulds attached to an endless chain. The chain runs through the machine and on to the freight cars some distance away
 By the time the pigs arrive there, they are cooled sufficiently to be dumped on the cars. The whole operation is done auto matically and at a great saving over the present plan of loading by hand. These pigs will take the place of the "chills" now cast by the basic process at the Alice and Ensley furnaces.
 Furnace No. 3, of the Tennessee com pany, at Ensley, was blown in today. This leaves only furnace No. still out of blast. Several hundred more men are given em- ployment by this action.
 Work on Steel Plant
 Work on the steel plant of the Alabama Steel and Shipbuilding company is pro- gressing most satisfactorily. As has been stated, the foundations of the main build ing are now about half through.
 Yesterday the machine shop and foundry which the company is to erect was located between the steel plant and the Tennessee companys furnaces. The machine shop will be 220 by 53 feet in size, and the foun- dry 240 by S7 feet. Both will be equipped with the very latest machinery, and they will be large enough to do all the machine and foundry work of the Tennessee com pany, as well as the steel plant. It is thought that they will eventually do all the work now done by the Linn Iron Works in this city.
 The foundations for thirty-two gas pro-. ducers, which will furnish gas to the steel plant, have been located, and work has al- ready begun on them.
 The Semet- -Solyay bi-product coke oven plant has just begun to turn out coke from it's second battery of ovens, and in a short time the whole plant will be in operation.
 Three New Freight Depots
 The Louisville and Nashville, the South ern and the Alabama Great Southern rail- roads have all announced their intention of erecting freight depots at Ensley at an early date There is so much freight han dled out there that depot is absolutely necessary for each road.
 And last, but not least, 50O-ton coal washer has just been completed and put in operation at slope of the Tennessee company. The entire output of this washer will be used in the bi-product plant at Ensley and in other of the industries there.