The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-23

O. Sc race for the lead with Aabama's
wonderful city-the -Pittsburg of the
South"
DIFFERENT ORES.
Brown. red and magnetic iron ores ramify
the ridges and hills which corrugate the
entire East Tennessee Valley and the bases
Of the mountains are filed with the metal
The red fossiferous ore lies along the base
Of the Cumberland Mountains and the
magnetic ores along the base Of the Big
Smokes. Much of these ores runs so per
cent. metallic iron and some as high as 20 per
cent, while the average il abou, 81 per
| cent Thirty years ago then well-known
iron manufacturer who had just visited this
region in n published communication said
within eight miles Of Knoxville are
abundant beds Of iron. and within twenty
miles there is body Of iron said TO be
nearly equal in quantity to the iron noun
tain Of Missouri and Of precisely the same
| quality, No country Of the world
furnishes mineral wealth more convenient
in locality, superior in quality, greater in
| variety or easier Of access than are these
vast deposits Almost every county pos
sesses a wealth of iron sufficient TO enrich
State or pay the debt Of a nation. and the
facilities for manufacturing are as great
es the mineral is abundant. Convenient
water power, an unlimited supply of tim
Der, cheap food and cheap labor furnish
all the facilities for producing iron cheaply
and in unlimited quantity.
A distinguished iron manufacturer
from New York gave il "a his opinion that
iron could be made by charcoal at one Of
the mines of East Tennessee and hauled
ten miles To the railroad at one-half the
cost of producing similar article in the
North. II that can be done with charcoal
iron ten miles from a railroad, what shall
be said of mines equally rich and eXha,stless
lying where the railroad track cuts the
ore bed and where coal banks are as
abundant as the iron?
Along the line of the Knoxville and
Ohio Railroad, not fifty miles from Knox
vile, are numerous properties now offered
for sale at moderate prices where iron
and coal lie side by side in limitless guam
titles and surrounded by beautiful forests
of choice timber, with lime and sandstone
fire clay and water power close at hand, all
waiting, as they have been for ages, for the
magic touch of industry to convert them
to use. In some localities these iron beds
are pierced for the first time by the cuts
on the railroads, and yet, such is the blind
ness Of our present policy, we bring
from beyond the Atlantic the iron rails to
construct a railroad upon our own iron
, beds"
, PROGRESS.
Things have materially changed during
the thirty years that have elapsed since
, the foregoing was written and we are
doing little iron rail shipping and iron
bridge shipping abroad ourselves now
There have been great changes, too, in the
, industrial conditions of Knoxville and
!. East Tennessee in the interim, revolu-
, tionary. bewildering changes il 1t comes
. TO that.
Yet the limitless possibilities Of East
Tennessee iron production have not been
more than touched on the mere outer
= husk--are just beginning to be so touched
b to be perhaps little more accurate.
= Continuing his doleful picture OF inanitior
( the writer says.
I More than g. 900 900 have been sen,
I | out from East Tennessee since the war fol
iron and iron wares that should have beer
e produced at home. With such fact
q before us there can be no question of a
i home market for all we can produce. The
% foundrymen of Knoxville have until the
present time been compelled to purchase
y iron brought from Scotland to produce
z single mixture Of soft, light and thir
II castings There are numerous places II
= East Tennessee where similar iron coulc
: be produced profitably at less than the
It cost Of this freight alone, saying nothing
l. OF the price OF the iron.
j. ~The iron Of Carter county has borne q
d reputation. for nearly seven years un
s surpassed by any in the United States fol
IS toughness and adaptabllity to any use
The castings Of this iron will bend befor,
It breaking and car wheels made Of it have
II worn more than twelve years on our rail
v roads. And yet there il not blast fur
- mace in operation in that county at this
e time and we import from abroad at vas
o expense the iron that might be obtainec
e from these mines at one third the price
q we are now paying. The Iellico Aror