The age-herald., 1899-11-05
ENSLEYS GREAT STEEL WORKS
>BY PAsCHAL O. SHOOK

From the Manufacturers Review.
 Six years ago when the question of build- inga large steel works in this district was being agitated one of the most serious ob- stacles that confronted the promoters of the enterprise, aside from securing the. necessary capital, was that of getting an iron low enough in silicon and sulphur for such purpose. Up to that time it was not considered possible to get product direct from the blast furnace that would meet the requirements of the case. Several plans for accomplishing this much desired end were under censfderation It was. as matter of course, a well known fact that white iron would be sufficiently low in sili- con for the basic furnace, but that grade, being only made when the furnace is work ing badly, or cold, and low temperature in the furnace bringing about condition when the sulphur more readily combines with the iron, was found to contain too high percentage of sulphur for steel mak- ing purposes. This, it will be seen, render ed it unfit, to say nothing of the many and unsurmountable difficulties that would be encountered in undertaking to run furnace continuously on cold, or white iron. The same difficulties, to a somewhat less extent, are met with in trying to make or use mottled iron, which contains ordinarily slightly more silicon and less sulphur than white iron. Furnacemen were convinced that under the then existing conditions, 1t was matter of impossibifty to make the higher grades with silicon content within the limits prescribed by the steel manufacturer. Realizing that no process, except the basic open hearth could be used in this district, both the Acid Bessemer and the Acid Open Hearth being barred owing to the high percentage of phospho- rus in our ores, and while high not suf- fcAently high for the Basic Bessemer, and that this element could never be apprecia- bly, reduced in the blast furnace (nor was 1t deemed practicable to increase it to the required point for Basic Bessemer prac- tice), the attention of those interested in the development of the steel industry in the south was naturally turned to solving the problem of high silicon and sulphur in the irons. The presence of certain of the metalloids is necessary for the operati tons of one steel making process and quite unde- sirable in fact prohi1bftive, in another
 In 1891 a series of experiments looking to the purifeation of pig iron by passing the same through a bath of molten basic slag, the metal also being in molten condition, thereby slightly reducing the phosphorus and carbon, and practically eliminating all the silicon, was conducted at Chattanooga, Tenn, the resulting product being a wash metal admirably suited for the basic open hearth process.
 This desllconzing process was known as the "Talbot' process, and so entirely sat fsfactory were the results of the eXperi- ments that three years later the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company was in- duced to experiment along the same lines with the irons of the Birmingham district. The Henderson plant was leased for the purpose, and a series of experiments ex- tending over three of four months was car ried on there It was ascertaned that any of the various higher grades of iron after treatment were rendered entirely suitable for steel manufacture by the basic open hearth process. Numbers one and two foun- dry iron running high as two to three per cent. silicon, dn fact the silvery irons with four or five per cent. silicon, were re duced to white or wash metal containing not more than quarter of one per cent. silicon and frequently less, in some cases as low as one-tenth per cent, depending upon the length of time left in bath, rich ness of Slag in iron oxide and amount of silicon to be removed. The operation was simple The slag contained sufficient oxide of iron to bring about a chemical change in the metalloids which resulted in their leaving the iron and combining with the lime In the slag. the effect upon the silicon being more pronounced than on any of the other elements.
 So much encouraged were the parties in- terested that efforts were at once put forth to raise the necessary money to erect a large steel works in this district. The un- satisfactory conditions, however, prevail ing at that time and the extreme stringen- cY in the money markets forced them to abandon the project The matter rested for two or three years interest only awak- ening occasionally when this scheme or that was suggested for raising the neces- sary capital each successive attempt meet ing with failure. In the meantime the Ten nessee Coal, Iron and. Railroad company was sowing the seed, by erecting at a num- her of it's coal mines washers for cleaning the coal before coking, and inaugurating more rigid and effective rules relating to the mining and loading of cleaner coal and ore, from which the magnificent plant at EnSley, now nearing completion, sprung A large chemical labora tory was established and daily samples of all raw materials slag and the various grades of iron taken for analysis. Materials heretofore used at the furna ces irrespective of quality were reieceted and a system of paying for ores and limestone by analysis was adopted In other words the furnace men departed from the ''rllle of thumb in the manufa cture of pig iron and adopted systematic and seien- tfic methods. It was the building of these coai washers and the exercise of more care in the mining and manipula tfon of the raw, materials that made 1t possible to manu- faeture Basic Open Hearth steel in this district successfully and commercially. And why? Not until this important step was taken was it within the power of the fur nacemen to make an iron suitable for the process. The Alice furnace in Brming- ham was the first to make the attempt to produce what is termed by the trade "Basie Iron" that Is an iron adapted for the Basic Open Hearth process Steel makers pre- scribed certain limitations on the amount of silicon and sulphur this iron shall carry namely. not over one per cent. Silicon and not exceeding five hundredths of one per cent. sulphur This furnace has been run ming on basic iron almost continuously for q~o<o>o~o ~o<o>