The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-20

big steel plant of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company The Tennessee ! Coal and Iron Company as all Alabama
 knows. Is the biggest corporation do- ing a mining and iron making business l in the entire South. It has. perhaps, more money invested and turns out more products of one sort or another | than any other corporation doing bus mess in the Birmingham district. The | company has iron furnaces at Oxmoor, at Bessemer, at South Pittsburg, Tenn, the steel works, furnaces, a rolling mill at Ensley and ore and coal mines in the various mineral districts of Ten l nessee, Alabama and Georgia. It has 1 an immense property-this Tennessee l Coal and Iron Company. Don H. Ba- con Is its President. The present man
 ager of the big steel works Is Joseph A. Durfee who came to Ensley from 1 the Colorado Coal and Fuel Company
 of Pueblo. Col.
 More Than 2,5oe Men EmRioyed. | An adequate idea of the immense
 size of the steel works may not be
 easily conveyed. It may be approxi-
 mated when one understands that the
 various buildings cover ten acres of | ground and that every day between l 2.50o and 5000 men find employment | at the steel mills whose furnaces never grow cold and whose noisy chatter Is
 never silenced day or night. It's sight knight be understood if one would ! realize what was required to turn out
 each day between 800 or 1000 tons of | steel rails. 1 The works might be said to turn out
 nothing but steel rails, although steel "blooms" are sent over to the com pany's mill and made into boiler plates
 and put to other uses. And billets for
 car axles and other trade needs are
 made here to be turned into shape else- | kt.. ax&gu taI
 turned out here. Is the steel rail of the finest merit. 1 The process used here Is the "open thearth furnace method as opposed to | the Bessemer process. It is the ''open I hearth furnace" which will be here des- | cribed in an imperfect and untechnical way.
 and pig iron in big quantities is the
 basis of the manufacture of steel in large quantities.
 To supply the needs of the steel plant l the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company
 has here in Ensley the largest furnace
 in the South and the second largest in | the United States. In size it Is only
 exceeded by the Duquesne furnace in | Pennsylvania. It has six blasts and | the newest of the blast furnaces No. 6,
 has made the amazing record of 450
 tons in one day.
 l Now for the steel process untechni- | calIy described from the time the ore
 is dug from the earth until it is turned into steel rail ready for the track gang. And by the way everything need
 ed for the manufacture of steel is found
 right here within Jones Valley. With
 the exception of magnesite. small DOT
 ton of which is needed for the sue cessful mixing of the molten clements
 which go into the making of steel.
 This magnesite Is an Austrian mineral and is brought over by ship loads for use in the American steel making in- dustry
 The iron ore, it may be brown or red
 is brought from the hillsides in cars
 and dumped into the furnice with a
 proper mixture of coke and limestone
 The mixture or burden" depends upon
 the quality of the ore. When the
 mixture is reduced to it's proper molten
 state it is poured into & huge pot, which Is run on a flat car arrangement ; and pushed by a punfing engine. Open Hearth Basic Steel. } In this molten state the metal on it's way to the steel mills 200 yards off is called basic iron. because 1t Is used to : make open heart basic steel. At the steel works 1t Is put into a
 storage tank called the mixer" and left there until the open hearth fur.
 
 ! This molten metal still basic iron. 1: ! picked up in huge ladies and poured : into the huge furnaces with their fierce white heat When it has been properly
 heated 1t is again ladled into big pot.
 and carried by one of the big hydraulic ! machines to the converter" where { ] ] blast of coal air is driven through tho . molten mass. This drives out and car , ries away with all impurities such al !, silicon, sulphur and other undesirab bl, , chemicals which are found in the iror and are not wanted in the steel. Th, n cold air process having been completed = the metal Is poured into another bii iadle and carried to the immense opef hearth steel furnaces. There are tel : such furnaces. each having a dail! 2 capacity of fifty tons. In these fur . ma .es the metal is poured in upon bed of magnesite previously prepared
 Into the furnace. too, are put som Q burt lime and into it are thrown som' scrap iron and scrap steel. The scral v steel and scrap iron are not thrown ii l, as a necessity, but as an economica a measure.
 < The heat for the steel furnaces is fur i nished by an immense gas producin. . plant. The ga sprpducing plant use . up many car loads of coal each day l It's demands are such that coal is fe, -s Ito it from immense coal chutes ant e Puppies that ho1 da score of car Ioad Q of. coal.
 , From this as-producing plant al
 enormous sheet of flame Is sent undel I and behind the furnaces. An exper e chemist is in constant attendance upor l the big furnaces. He must see tha l the molten metal has just its proper s proportion of carbon. He has the ma. . | terial at hand to raise or lower thi. : carbon. A finely equipped laboratory i. f near by The chemist is called upon tC s make laboratory tests of all the steel The degree of fineness of all steel made is known with accuracy. The labora. 1 tory Is q vital feature of the operation Y of the steel plant.
 Pouring the IngOts. = After heating the metal for iron t five to eight hours, it Is ready foi : pouring. It Is again lifted into bis
 Ipots and then poured into ingot molds
 These molds are open at both ends, hu F rest upon bases which close one enc r of the molds. They are very like tn, l. | copper sheathed boxes in which Ice i. s made. And in truth, when the steel hai a grown cold and the ingot molds hay,
 been removed. the ingot itself in forn Q is like big cake of Ice.
 e Before these ingots are carried int . the rolling department an additiona
 chemical analysis Is made and tn, n quality of each ingot is marked upor i 1t.
 r Al this stage the ingots are agair e relocated. until they are soft and red . hot They are then lifted into tn, |, "blooming" mill where they are rolled