The evening times., 1900-01-15
cARNEGIE's PILE OF COKE.
A Mountain of Fuel Accumulated for
Reserve.

]
! PITTSBURG, Pa. Jan. 15.-At Bessemer
; a station along the Pennsylvania Railroad.
east of Braddock, is piled a hill OF coke
which has been the wonder of this COM
mercial age. The pile has increased and
decreased by thousands of tons but not
perceptbly. II was placed there as a guard
against strikes in the Connellsville coke
region, so that the furnaces OF the Carnegie
Steel Company would not have to be
banked at loss of millions OF dollars
when coke could not be had
Prosperity is undermining it, however,
instead of strife The scarcity of cars and
the fact that the II. c. Frick Coke Compa-
ny has been unable to supply its patrons
with fuel are the direct causes of it's re-
moval; also, the land on which the pile
stands is to be used for the erection of an
extension to the Edgar Thomson Steel
Works
The coke pile was ordered about month
ago to be used up. and from 500 to 500 tons
OF coke were taken from it daily This
proved too slow, however, and a contract
was let several days ago for the removal
of the whole pile, and steam shovels will
have TO be used. A switch has been run
around the base of the coke pile from the
Union Railroad, which is the connecting
link between the Pittsburg and Bessemer
and the Carnegie yards The coke is TO be
distributed through the various plants and
hundreds of cars and number of locomo-
tives will be kept busy for a month or
more.
1t is estimated that the pile contains
about 100000 gross tons. 1t was placed
there early in the eos when coke was
selling at 80 cents ton. Today the same
..nl-1 &c all s,hs
rate TO the Connellsville region has also
been advanced The Carnegie Company has
cleared more than half million dollars
by the investment.
The enormous amount of fuel in this
hill cannot be realized unless one walks
around 1t and then chambers up one side
to the top and crawls down the other.
The pile is from 900 TO 1000 feet long,
paralleling the Pennsylvania main line,
and only about thirty feet from the tracks.
1t is from $50 to 200 feet at the base, and
tspers to 100 feet in height. 1t looks very
much like the loose stone formation seen
on the hills of the Juniata and Conemaugh
Valleys, through which the Pennsylvania
road travels. On one side Of the Pennsyl-
vania tracks the hill is cut away, showing
the clay, shale. slate. and coal outcrop-
pings. and the coke pile, with its dark
broken mass, forms gorge through which
trains pass.
1t is told of a learned professor in an
Eastern college that in passing the mound
he dilated on the peculiar formation of
the earth that would permit the exposure
of clay vein In such close proximity to
a mound of broken stones apparently of
lava formation. 1t doesn't look as though
human hands placed it there.
This is not the only reserve supply of
ma terial the Carnegie Steel Company main
tains to ward off famine. Acres and acres
of land are covered with ore from Lake
Superior mines, Of various grades, for mix
ing purposes, that would keep the concern
running almost three months if the supply
was shut off entirely. So it is with the
coal and limestone supplies. Great stacks
of each are stored away from time to time.
when prices are low and are consumed
during scarcity.
1t is said that besides putting his mon
ey into libraries. Andrew Carnegie believes
in putting as much more into materials
when prices are low; hence the enormous
advantages his concern enjoys when they
become scarce and high-priced
The coke pile at Bessemer would il the
whole coke supply was shut off, last the
Carnegie Steel Company six weeks.