The indicator., 1904-10-15
PUEBLO, COLORADO, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15 1904

ly being received from the East via
last freight, which indicates that there
Will soon be something doing" in
that line about L furnace. c and d
furnaces are still keeping up their
record breaking output of iron every
"a hours.
Watchman William Bradley made
a clever catch of sneak thief on
Monday morning. Bradley was on
duty at the north end gate, opposite
the Jap hotel. He noticed work
man going out who handled his din
ner pail as though it was heavy, and
stopping the man searched the same.
He found it filled with wire nails
which the fellow had stolen at the
wire mill, and he had no doubt car
ried out several pounds of nails,
brass or copper in the same manner
every day The man gave his name
as Wyandotte and claimed to work
at the open hearth furnaces, He was
turned over to the city police and sent
to jail.
The fear of yellow peril" at the
Minnequa plant has proven to be a
myth. Instead of the Japs running
out the old reliable Austrian, Italian,
Greek, Servian and other foreign la
Dor at the big mill, the little yellow
men are an exception instead OF the
rule. and are rarely seen inside the
fence. There are none in the yard
gangs and less than dozen are EN-
ployed about the pipe foundry and
merchant mill. Somehow the Japs
do not take kindly to the work at
the mill, although they get the same
pay as other foreign labor.
Bridge Foreman Wilcox has been
doing some necessary repair work on
the high line bridges south of the
furnaces during the past week. The
barces on the truss bridge across the
Rio Grande tracks on the line to
No. 3 reservoir need tightening, and
will next receive the attention of Mr.
Wilcox.
D furnace has attracted great
deal of attention during the past week
from residents of the southern por-
tion of the city by periodical pyro-
technical display, accompanied by a
subdued explosion. To the uniniti-
ated it would seem that the big iron
producer was blowing up, but to the
old, experienced furnacemen it meant
nothing out of the ordinary, as the
furnace was only slipping" The in
terror of blast furnace is like the
inside of the crater of an active vol
cano. Its sides are lined with masses
of corrugated matter that stand out
like the pinnacles and the prongs of
an antler, beneath which is the seeth-
ing mass of molten metal and Stag.
When the charges of ore, coke and
limestone are dropped from the
bell" which receives the matter from
the skip buggy" it is often caught
by these projections and held instead
OF being allowed gradually to go to
the bottom of the furnace AS re-
suit, many tons of cold matter are
thus held suspended until the weight
finally causes the mass to give way
and it falls into the molten matter be-
low.
This causes spontaneous combus-
ton of gas accumulated and as a re-
suit there is an outburst of flames
and smoke, accompanied by a sullen
roar through the receiving bell and
"bleeders," or escape pipes at the top
of the furnace, which attracts wide
spread attention from the outside and
leaves the impression that something
strenuous is doing, whereas
nothing unusual is happening and no
damage is being done Were it not
for the bleeders and bell, which acts
as escape valves when these slips oc-
cur, there would be something siren
uous doing for fact, and there would
not only be dense volume of dust
colored smoke, and pyrotechnic
display as well, but shattered fur
mace and probable loss of life when
the gas that has accumulated ex-
plodes.
Consequently, when readers of the
Indicator hereafter see miniature
repetition of Vesuvius of Mount Pc
lee at the Minnequa works, they will
know that it is nothing but a slip"
in one of the big furnaces and no
damage whatever is being done.
The new pumping station building
at the east end of the vioduct en-
trance is nearing completion. The
valve connections to all the 3o-inch
mains have been made and as soon
as the big compound pumps are in
stalled water will be pumped into res
efvoir No. 3 from the Bessemer
ditch, the supply coming from Twin
Lakes, near Leadville, via the Ar
kansas river.
The heavy rain during one day last
week proved the necessity of having
at least portion of the stock yard
at the wire mill covered by roof in
order to allow the large force of men
under General Foreman Charles ].
Oterbloom to handle the product from
the rod mill, which reaches the wire
mill over the cable conveyor, during
inclement weather. That conveyor,
when the rod mill is running, like the
brook, goes "on and on forever"
and the bundles of rods, when they
arrive, must be handled, and handled
quickly. 1t splanned to cover the
main tracks leading from the con-
veyor to the cleaning room of the
wire mill, so that during stormy
weather the wire drawers will be sup
piled with rods without interruption.
Foreman Oterbloom had great diff