The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1902-12-31
MODERN PROCESSES in
IRON AND STELL MAKING

per, and thus not one employee is required
to work on the dangerous aerial plat
form, where formerly from four to a
dozen were constantly employed. Per-
haps still more wonderful is the stock
distributing hopper, which has been in
vented for use in conjunction with the
hoist just described, and which. by means
of the constant revolution of a cone
shaped structure, distributes the material
evenly to the various portions of the
furnace. In conjunction with these new
appliances are automatic registers, which
indicate at all times just how much ma
terial has been fed to the furnace as
well as the exact depth of the seeth-
ing mass in the furnace.
Another branch of the work wherein
old methods have been discarded is found
in the disposition of the molten iron after
the furnace has been tapped" Under
the old plan the lava like substance was
run in channels cut Mn the sand Mt the
base of the furnace and the pieces thus
nodded were known as pigs" In this
hurrying age. however, pig iron in the
old form has almost entirely disappeared
from the iron and steel world. The pigs
that are made ere turned out virtually
without human aid, by a casting ma
chine, the metal molds of which are
arranged in an endless chain. This ma
chine receives its measure of metal under
the fiery front of the blast furnace makes
It's way through a water-cooled atmos-
phere and tunIbles the quickly-molded
pig" without ceremony and without de-
10 int fla t.
it to it's destination More often, how
ever, the pig iron is not allowed to solidi-
fy at all, but when drawn from the blast
furnace is whisked away in molten
state, in curiously designed 'ladle cars
direct to the steelmaking plants. By this
plan all the time formerly required for
cooling and relocating is saved.
In California experiments have recently
been inaugurated to determine the value
of oil fuel for blast furnaces. The air
is heated to a degree equivalent to 400
degrees Fahrenheit before reaching the
furnace, and much is claimed for the new
process, especially upon the basis of a
saving in cost. 1t is claimed that a saving
of from one-lfth to one-quarter can be
made upon coke alone. Equally as i'm
portant as the Introduction of the new
economical adjuncts for blast furnaces
are the marvellous advances lately made
in the utilization of wastes. Furnace
Stag, which was formerly regarded as
useless and the mere removal of which
cost iron manufacturers thousands of dol
lars a year, Is now being employed for
the manufacture of bricks, paving stones
and high grade of cement. Likewise the
waste gases of blast furnaces are being
employed successfully to operate gas en-
gines. This use alone means a clear profit
of SIPS per ton of pig iron production,
and inasmuch as some of the new fur
naces in the United States have capac-
ity of from 600 to 800 tons a day, it will
be readily appreciated that there will be
tremendous increase in earnings.
Finally has this new era of the blast
furnaces introduced surprising methods or
conveying the iron ore from the stock
yards where the surplus supply is stored
to the furnace, as it is needed for use.
Instead of the old plan, which necessi-
tated the employment of a large force of
laborers with shovels, there are now in
use powerful grab-buckets, which descend
with Jaws extended upon the ore pile,
| grasp from one to five tons each, and by
means of automatic hosting and convey
ing machinery are carried at a speed of
several hundred feet a minute to the
, point of discharge, where the ore IS quick
| ly emptied into the cars which are to
carry it to the top of the furnace. Every
where the mechanical is dominant In
the operating form of the moGern blast
furnace there is one employee where for
merly there were a dozen.