The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1899-06-15
Science In Steel Making.

2
1t was est imated fifteen years ago that
the annual world average Of the consump-
ton Of iron aud steel was - 70 pounds per
head. AZ that time the people of Great
Britain were consuming se1 SO pounds per
head every year, those Of the United
States 210 90 pounds, the inhabitants of
South America only 1875 mounds, while in
Egypt the amount fell TO - pounds, "a
British India to - pounds, and in the re-
mairdcr OF Asia to less than half pound.
The lowest average for any European
country was % pounds per head. II was
said at the annual meeting of the British
that the consumption per capita in Great
Britain had somewhat increased and was
probably about 800 pounds. Satisfactory
statistics as TO the present consumption
per capita in the United States are not
available, as nine years has elapsed since
our census WAS taken; but with the large
increase ia our use of iron in shipbuild-
ing, water aud gas pipes, telegraph wires,
wire fences or ropes or cables, and the
development Of our great machinery and
tin plate industries, it is probable that we
have at least kept pace with Great Britain
in the utilization of iron and its products,
even if we have made little advance upon
our earlier consumption for railroads and
their equipments. In total consumption
We surpass all other countries. The Unit
ed States and Great Britain are far in the
lead, chiefly because they use so much
iron and steel in railroads and their appli-
ances, machinery and shipbuilding,
The glcatest fact relating to the devel-
oplncnt of iron and steel making is that
science has guided every step and has
been the basis of every phase OF improve
ment and growth. The knowledge of fifty
wears ago in respect TO metaIlurgy seems
primitive in comparison with the enlight-
eminent OF to-day. Only forty years ago
the British Board of Trade refused to per-
nit the use of s.ecl in the building OF the
bridge across the Thames at Charing
Cross. Eerlier than thirty years ogo
those who had applied science to the iron
and steel industries received scant cOur-
tcsy from the capitalists who owned the
plants. As Sir William
Roberts Austen showed in his presidetial
addres, the other day, many inventors
were mcanly treated and "Bessemer's !
early statements were received with con-
tempt as well as incredulity.' But it has
been the discovery and chcapening of ev-
cry scientific process that now enters into !
the mining of ore, its convention into iron.
and the convertien of iron into steel and |
steel into thousands of articles in every |
day use, that make the prominence of
this age of steel and enabie this country |
to compete with any other in its iron and |
steel products.
We hear now Of blast furnaces that pro-
luce 100 tons of iron a day, of open hearth |
furnaces fed with ton OF material a min
ute, of enormous mixers that holds 300 |
tons of pig iron, of rolled steel plate two
inches thick and over 600 squire feet in |
area, of steel plate that buckled up in a
collision but remained watertight, and of
Orders iustifying the belief that bridges
may vet be built, in half mile spans. All
these wonders are the achievements that
scientific workers have made possible 10y
years of research and experiment in the
quiet of the labratory. The
study of alloys, of the Elasticity aud other
properties OF steel Of the use of electricity
in riveting hardened ship plates that 9TH
erwise could not be drilled, and many 9th
er complex problems, have resulted in
triumphs for the chemist and
PHYSICIST. Germany did not take high
place among steel producers until the in
yention, in the seventies, of a process by
which PHOSPHORUS pig iron might sue
cessfully he used in steel making.
These things are referred to here be-
cause there never was time when the
problems OF metallurgy were receiving
more close and earnest study than at pres
ent. The past results of such research
give ample ground for belief that further
discovery will result in other changes in
the treatment and comparison of steel,
it for the production of new won
ders that will enhance its usefulness and
increase IFS ~ Y Nuu