The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-02
WONDERS ABOUT plo IRON.
What Became of the Million Tons a
Month OF 1898

| United States and the changes therein. J,
| said a retired iron agent, "I we'll re-
member when we were getting $75 a ton
for pig iron, and sales agents cham
payne bills were marked o. K prompt
~ at the furnace office and no questions
asked. At that time hard coal was 81
ton. Twenty-Five years ago was
| sales agent of pig iron and nails. We
did not go about drumming up trade.
| went to the Astor house in New York,
having sent out advance notices to iron
buyers, and they came to see me. 1t
was social affair primarily, on tie
surface. One case or dozen cases of
champagne; it didn't matter. The trade
had ITO be looked after and cared fer.
when the social feature Of the meet
ing was ending, orders were taken for
iron and nails and thus pleasure was
combined with business. When the ex-
pense account was audited at the home
office there might be some scratching
of the head IL the more sedate and
conservative man of the house was
looking over the hotel bills, but 1t all
went
YES, those were great days. have
just had q run through the iron coun-
try of the East and l noted a great
many more changes in the trade with
pig iron at $40 and $11 ton. Twenty
five years ago a blast furnace product
of 500 tons of pig iron a week was huge.
Now a big furnace turns out 500 tons
a day, and the improved machinery en-
ables them to extract every pound CT
metal from the ore, which was not the
case quarter of a century ago. After
the big blast furnaces get through with
ore nowadays it is of no Use to try to
work the cinder over again in the nope
Of making the reworking of 1t pay.
Some old cinder banks can be worked
at profit. but such cinder is from old
charcoal furnaces. These old affairs
are all being abandoned. I could name
dozens of them that have been dis
mantled in the East, especially in the
iron country Of Pennsylvania. They
could not compete with the giant struc-
lures turning out 5000 tons of iron a
week and selling it at So and $40 a ton.
Charcoal as q fuel is nearly a thing of
the past in this age of Steel Coke is
the fuel. The great steel furnaces own
big blast furnaces located near i'm
mense deposits of iron ore. Among the
places 1 visited was the Cornwall ore
hills in Lebanon county, Pa. For a
century and a half they have been TAX
ing out thousands of tons Of ore a week,
and the deposit Is practically within
limit to-day. Probably a dozen big
blast furnaces near these ore hills ere
going day and night, turning out pig
iron. There is railroad car famine
just now at all Eastern shipping points.
Empty cars are scarce. Shipping men
say they have stacks of orders for emp
ty cars which they cannot supply.
There is a saying just now in the iron
country that they are shipping pig SO
| fast and so hot that it is wonder the
metal does not burn the cars. "a,
| Il came across furnaces that 10 years
| ago had capacity of 300 tons a week.
Now they turn out 1900 tons week. So
! prodigiously have things been improved
| and enlarged that there are new fur
| naces with capacity of 500 tons day,
and two are building with double that
| capacity, or 1000 or 1900 tons a day.
| One furnace was in the employ of a
particular ore franchise. An ancient
| legal right was that as long as water
flows and grass grows that furnace was
to have as much ore. free OF charge, as
| it could smelt. 1t was then making,
say, 200 tons a week. BY modern ap-
planes and new inventions the com
pany SO improved that ore furnace as
to be able to turn cut 1900 tons a week.
The courts were appealed to by the
owners of the ore banks, who said that
to supply enough ore for this furnace
was out of all reason, and that the orig
inal grant never contemplated such a
tremendous consumption of ore. After
| long legal fight the court decided that
free ore was to be furnished to that one
furnace, no matter how much it con-
| sumed, and that decision stands to-
day.
II have heard 1t stated that some of
these immense furnaces having cheap
ore, limestone. and coke can produce a
pig metal at, say, Sc a ton first cost.
Some have figured it little closer, but
you can rest assured that the old time
way of selling the production, with
champagne for the agent thrown in,
has passed awy, pro badly forever. OF
course, sales agents are still sociable and
entertaining, bNt the feature / have
: above referred to is not now in vogue.
Commission houses now handle iron
Big rail or structural mills take all the
product of several furnaces. Large pipe
mills like the rail mills, consume the
output Of their own furnaces.
| eff we take note of the production
of nearly a million tons of pipe metal
in the United States for every month in
1898, or, say, II, SOC. 900 tons for the year
we naturally wonder who uses all this
iron. The recent order for 100000 tons
encouraging, but that is hardly one
fifth of the metal that is being produced
in month in this country. When We
think of a million tons of iron a month
that means something. Six years agt
the United States produced 1920, 00t
tons of iron ore year. The produc'
ton now must be nearer 25,000,000 tons
I'm 1893 our production of pig iron was
at high-water mark. The furnaces ou
of blast have supposed capacity OF
about 100000 tons more year, bu
they are mostly small old style, anG
cannot be worked at a profit unless iror
is away up In price. OF course the gian
furnaces now going up in Ohio and a.
Chicago, Reading and other points will
increase materially the output of 1899
If the demand warrants. The furnac,
men had to wait five long years, dull
years until 1898 brought them bushes.
boom. 1t may and likely will continu,
in 1899. Our exports in plates, shapes
water pipe, barbed wire and othe
manufactured iron and steel help to an
swer the question what becomes of tn
vast heaps of iron turned out in tn
United States. And the year 1899 vii
show such increased figures in the out
put that the inquiry will be still NOR
emphatic, what becomes of all our iron
| The eyna sim the area of orr cOun