The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1903-05-02
"a SATISFAC TEST.
Cook County Ore Makes Excel
-. lent Steel. :. ~

Cook County Ore Makes Excel
.s. lent Steel.
M. G. Littleworth, who escorted the
party of Duluth business men to- st.
Paul to see the test in the johnson
steel-making, returned this morning
with the rest Of the party.
He exhibited bar of steel, fourteen
inches long and an inch and quarter
wide and high, which was run off yester-
day at the tests, which proved successful
and satisfactory to the $50 people who
watched the operation in the Sanity
City. The bar weighs six pounds.
"The test" said Mr.. Littleworth,
(which was made under the most ad-
verse circumstances and conditions,
proved more than satisfactory to the
owners of the process, the johnson
Nickel company, ard those who wit
messed 1t. The steel was made in a
plain foundry cupola, and the Stag and
the metal had to be drawn off through
the same hole. There was only cold
air blast and a 40-horse power engine.
with a first class furnace we will
have no trouble about making the best
kind OF steel, steel which will beat the
Swedish process.
''The tests were made under the su.
pervision of DR.. Lehnen, a chemist of
standing in the Twin Cities, and he
ayerred afterwards that the steel could
be made by this process of the black
titanic ore better and cheaper than by
the Bessemer process from other ore.
"One of the tests made was drilling
into this bar of steel. An American
steel drill was secured, tempered by
practical mechanic, and a hole was
started into the steel bar. At half q
inch the drill crumbled, the substance
beiog too hard for it.
"Tbe bar have here has deem pol
ished with rough emory wheel. With
fine wheel it would be polished to
degree that would cause it to shine like
piece of silver.
"Thls piece OF steel I hold is of such
quality now that it could be made into
edged tools at once, and would be O
superior quality than most on the mar
ket now.
SOUR first run was successful, but the
second run was failure. This failure
was caused by the attempt to run out
two furnaces, one after the other, con-
tinuously, and not giving the cupola
time to cool, It burned the fire brick
and spoiled the run.
"The last one yesterday, however,
was entirely successful, even though
the equipment at the Valley Iron works,
where one Of the regulation foundry
cupolas was used, was not what it
should be. It took forty minutes after
filing the furnace, from the time the
blast was thrown on, until this steel
was run off and in the shape it is now.
This Is what DR.. Lehnen said: 4 can
produce with this process the best
quality of steel from black titanic ore,
| cheaper or as cheap as steel from hem
attic ore.' That was pretty strong, but
he is ready to make good his claim.
There were seven tons of the black
titanic ore taken to st. Paul from the
Cook county iron deposits, and it was
found, upon this test, to be better than
it was thought before, on account of the
| venadium and chrome contained in it.,
which natural1ezd the gass.
Everyone who attended was satisfied
with the exhibition, and 1t will terminate
with the erection at once of a 50-ton
smelter and converter somewhere in
Duluth. There have been offers of
sites from Superior and Ashland, hut
we have three in view here and will
| probably locate it here. The money is
up now and the capital in our hands.
We will put up the works and then we
will be in position to show the way
the steel can be made with one smelling,
without any failures, from the black
titanic"
| Frank johnson, the inventor of the
process, will not be in Duluth for eight
or ten days yet.-Duluth Herald.