The indicator., 1904-12-31
BEGINNING new YEAR RIGHT
More Blast Furnace Capacity Means the
Permanent Operation of All
the Departments.
General Information Concerning the Steel
Works Today and the Near Future.

emergency in the most satisfac-
tory manner.
The large amount of ashes and
cinders are being unloaded from
cars east of the open hearth fur
mace building for the purpose OF
raising the east main line lead
tracks of the c. & W., and bring
ing the yards up to grade.
The wire mill resumed active
operations on Monday after the
brief Christmas shutdown. The
drawing room is now on four
day shift of ID hours, the remain
ing two days of the week being
on ten hour turn. The anneal-
ing and galvanizing rooms are on
a double turn of IL hours each, as
well as the bale wire rooms. The
barb wire and nail departments
are on full day shifts. Daily ship
ments OF finished product from the
wire mill department continues
heavy, many car loads being billed
out daily.
Every department of the mer-
chant iron mill is in operation, on
double turn. The demand for
mine rails continues heavy and
the shipments go to every mining
in the inter-mountain re-
gion as we'll as to New and Old
Mexico and the northwest. Or
ders for merchant iron and steel
to come in, and day and
night crews are busy at the ware
house filling billing orders.
Superintendent of Water Sal
ter reports the supply fully ade-
quate for all demands Of the plant
with no prospect of shortage
during 1905. Lake Minnequa is
full to the banks. Reservoir No.
2 is carrying about ID feet of wat
er, while reservoir No. 8 has
volume touching the II foot
mark. Mr.. Salter has under con-
sideration several plans for fur
her minimizing the loss of water
1t the plant, some of which will
probably be put into effect during
The coming year.
When "a" furnace is put into
the old Stag dump
north of the Philadelphia smelter,
md overlooking Salt Creek, will
again be utilized. This will be
necessary because the train now
taking blast furnace Stag to No. 8
reservoir where it is used to
strengthen the banks, will not be
able to handle the work. There
are a number of pot skulls" on
the Salt Creek dump that will be
raised by the railroad cranes in
the near future, as they contain
a large per cent Of iron. Foreman
E. Borum of the cranes, was look
ing over the situation during the
week and this work may COM
mence early in the new year.
The supply of scrap iron is in
creasing rapidly and Juan Rayner,
who has charge of that depart
ment, is very busy man. There
are now four gangs under Fore
men Hoyes, Selleck, Case and
Porter handling this scrap iron
in the east yards. An average of
from rs to 80 car loads per day
is being received. This scrap has
to be unloaded, sorted, cut up,
and reloaded for the
different departments, and neces-
states a vast amount of work, all
of which comes under the general
supervision of Yard Superintend-
ent Harmon Cozzens.
The work of refining "E" fur
mace continues steadily, and if the
producer is needed for business
she will be ready to turn out iron
by February Ist at the latest.
Comparatively nothing is being
done on the new "F" furnace, the
last of the big ones to be erected.
"B" furnace is nearly cleaned out,
and the refining work on that
iron producer will probably be
commenced when the bricklayers