The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-17
THE IRON INDUSTRY.
The Astonishing Advancement In
Iron and steel Production.
Philadelphia Record.

In 1892 there were $50 blast furnaces on
the "active list" in the United States and
the production of pig iron in that year
amounted to 9,157, 900 gross tons. The forth
coming fourteenth edition of the Directory
of the Iron and Steel Works of the United
States, issued by the American Iron and
Steel Association, will show that large
number of these furnaces have been dis
mantled, and that many others have been
practically abandoned and will in all PROB
ability never again go into blast These
latter include some plants which, when
erected at large cost only few years ago,
were considered of the finest and most mod
ern construction. The production or pig
iron during the first six months of the pres
ent year has exceeded all former records,
having been at the rate of a million tons
month"; and the astonishing revelation is
made that less than two hundred furnaces
contributed to this great output. -When the
new furnaces now under construction shall
go into blast the annual capacity will be
increased to over 100000 tons of pig iron,
and each one of bank of new furnaces
now building in Ohio will nave capaclty
list. to- ~ -
In the early days blast furnace which
doing we'll; in later years ten tons DAY
became q common capacity. Ten years ago
complished fact. More than year ago the
new furnaces at Duquesne, Pa, astonlshed
the world by an average output Tor the nfSt
month in blast of 565 tons Per day rms
record is no longer regarded as amazing
and it now requires but little stretch OF the
in agination to believe that the time is near
at hand when a single blast furnace Will
have a capacity of 1000 tons per diem
over $50 900 tons per annum, or more tnan
the entire production OF all or the plast
furnaces in the United States In any year
prior to 1850. Another surprising feature OF
the development of modern steel making IS
the fact that tae number or pessemeT steer
plants in the United States is now declining.
In 1890 there were fifty plants, with one
hundred converters; to-day there are forty
five bessemer plants, with one hundred con-
verters. No new bessemer steel plants have
been constructed within the past two years,
or since January, 1896. The number OF open
hearth steel plants Is. on the other na d,cs
open-hearth plants, with 245 furnaces, hav-
ing a capacity of 249O,450 gross tons OF
open-hearth steel per annum. Ten years
ago the total annual production or open
hearth steel in the United States was
trihe over 100000 tons; five years ago 1t was
a little over 100000 tons; three years ago a
little over 100000 tons, ana last year near
ly 100000 tons.
These facts are important pointers when
thus separated from the vast mass or ng-
ures in which they lie concealed, ana tney
show how the steel industry will probably
develop in the future in this country. Ihey
indicate, moreover, that the scepter mas
already been wreSts& from the sole control
of the bessemer producer, and that the
younger rival is fast attaining the strength
of luSty, full-grOwn competitor. 1t is by
no means beyond the bounds of possibility
nor perhaps even of proba bility, that ten
years hence the name of "bessemer steel
will no longer appear in the tables OF pro-
duction of metals in the United States, be-
cause it will perhaps have been superseded
by open-hearth steel for all Industrial pur-
poses. Ten years ago such fanciful state
ment as this would have been regarded as
supremacy ridiculous; to-day it may excite
a little interest, but it will not arouse in
credulity in the minds of those who are cog
infant of the facts.
The late Sir Henry Bessemer lived to
see his invention grow to the proportions
of a might giant and he died before the
younger power could attain it's full growth;
but it is not unlikely that the great discov-
erer Of the modern pneumatic method of
cheap steel making foresaw the coming con-
fiict for supremacy between bessemer and
open-hearth Steel for he intimated in one
of his last letters that although progress
in the art of steel making had been great
in his day, it was not to be believed that
the end had yet been reached.