The age-herald., 1899-11-05

rolling mill has gone to the Basic Open Hearth Steel works In different parts of this country or exported to foreign coun- tries I think I am correct in stating that up to this time not one single carload of this iron has been rejected, and the verdict of all who have used it. including practi- eafly every one of the Basic Open Hearth plants in the United States and many of other countries, is that itiis an ideal metal for basic work The Carnegie Steel com pany, limited and the Illinois Steel com pany have used the Alice basic and also that now made quite as successfully at EnsIey furnaces, in large quantities, with eminentiy satisfactory results, the two con- cerns having taken much as two years make of one furnace. As before stated, the silicon In basic iron must not exceed one per cent. and the sulphur five hun dredths of one per cent The Alice and Ensley irons run uniformly about one-half of one per cent. silicon and in sulphur about two or three hundredths of one per cent. Another important step in the accomplish ment of this result was the beginning of the use of dolomite, of which the district has inexhaustible deposits of most execel- lent quality as flux instead of limestone. More care in the preparation of the raw materials made less of impurities to be dealt with and the use of dolomite as Aux made them more readily removed, and thus we have the causes which made possible the manufacture of an iron direct from the blast furnace suitable, without any further or intermediate treatment, for conversion into steel. The dolomte owing to the pres ence of magnesia makes a thinner and more fluid slag than limestone, <the result being that more can be carried on the fur mace burned than when limestone is used, thus laffording large slag receptacle, so to speak, for holding the silica, and in ad- dition the magnesia slag carries off more of the sulphur than does lime.
 This paved the way for the large steel works in the Birmingham district. The proposition was greatly simplifed. The iron was in constant and daily use at all the Basic Open Hearth Steel works of in- portanee in the country. This fact togeth- CT with the growing urgency for the largest producer in this district to prepare to mar ket some of its enormous tonnage in other form than crude pig iron, the markets for which were becoming more and more re- strieted induced the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company to provide the ways and means for the erection of the great En- sley plant, somewhat detailed description of which follows:
 No mistake was made in contracting with the Wellman Seaver Engineering company as consulting and constructing engineers. They are located in Cleveland O., and are now recognized to be the leading engineer Ing firm in this country, and perhaps in the world
 OAHceS tOlDpFlSe pfdcllcallg all Ol the Fourteenth floor of the New England building, the largest,a most modern and complete office building in Cleveland. In the drafting room extending the entire length of one side of this building, may be seen from forty to fifty expert draftsmen, each with an individual drawing desk en- gagged on work for all parts of the civilized world The organization is an unusually strong one At the head of this great firm IS MT $. T. Wellman, recognized as the lead1ng mechanical and metallurgical en- gineer of this country. Mr. c. H. Wellman, who also stands at the top of his profess sion, has been the active representative of the company during the construction of the Ensley works. Others in the firm are MT. John Seaver, recognized authority on bridges and buildings, strains, etc.; MT. T. R Morgan, pioneer in the designing and construction of electric travelling cranes; MT. C. W. Comstock, purchasing agent. and MT. A. D. Hatfield treasurer. With the two Wellmans on metallurgical work, steel works and blast furnace construc- ton, Seaver on bridges and buildings and Morgan on cranes, each of the principal lines of engineering are admirably repre- sented, and the wonderful strength of the combination becomes apparent. The rep reSentative on the ground of this firm, as well as the general superintendent of the entire works is Mir. W. N. Sawyer, also a very skillful engineer and of large experi-
 
 steel works and rolling mills
 Not only has the best talent in the coun- try been employed, but wherever work of construction has been let to contractors the best people in each particular line in the United States have been called into service and the best materials used.
 The location is an ideal one, being about midway between Slope No. 4, one of the large mines of the Platt group, and the Ensley furnaces, five in number, on a high elevation. The fuel for the plant will come in at one end, the metal at the other end and the finished product out at the south side to the rod mill of the Alabama Steel and Wire company, or for shipment, as the case may be. The ten Seton open hearth furnaces are now nearing completion, is also the 44-inch blooming mill, and about half of the melting department will prob ably go in operation within forty-five days. The furnaces are of fifty tons capacity each, per heat, and turning out two heats each every twentyfour hours will give a total output of about one thousand tons of finished steel per day. The Ensley furnaces will furnish all the pig metal required for this plant. With an equipment of five fur naces. four can be kept in blast continuous ly. These four furnaces will make approx ina tely eight hundred tons of pig iron per day, or fifty-six hundred tons in seven days, which, by the utilization of the scrap turned back from our own operations and those of the rod mill adjacent to the plant, will leave a small surplus of pig iron. The plant. as it stands today consists of ten Basic Open Hearth furnaces and a forty four inch blooming mill, with all necessary accessories, in the way of machine shop, foundry. heating furnaces, electric power plant hydraulic system with powerful pressure pumps accumulator, boiler feed pumps, boilers, heaters, filters. air com pressors. etc. With one exception, the Homestead works of the Carnegie Steel company, 1t is the largest Basic Open Hearth plant in the world, and from the standpoint of modern appliances. and all the latest Improvements in design and con- struction. there Is no plant in existence that will compare with it.
 The Open Hearth building is TAO feet long by so feet wide and immediately in the rear and parallel with 1t is the gas house, con- sisting of 32 gas producers, surmounted by steel coal bins, from which the coal is fed by gravity into the producers below. From the mines near by the coal will be delivered into the hins from drop bottom cars handled over trestle running from a point just below No. slope to the gas house. Beneath the producers is track for conveying the ashes away which will