The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-20
ENSLEY STEEL MILL
 AND ITS IMMENSITY
MT. Sheehan Describes a Visit to the Huge Plant--The Dreams of Dante Are
 Rivaled by Reality.
Hy WILL T. SIBERIAN.

ence )-It was a nightmare of huge CO., iossal things, of blackness of unusual shapes and sudden. flashing flames. |l A huge cone swung out of the gloom | like the pointed head of a dragon. It II poised itself in the air for moment and one all but fancied he could see II the snaky neck in the darkness. and then this thing poised In the air uttered a screaming roar and an immense spurt of flame four feet through shot out in to the evening air for twenty yards. H The very clouds were lit up and rain ! of sparks fell like meteors in the ash covered yard. And back again in, its | throes the strange dragon shaped head turned for another Hash. No dragon | story of song or history could have stood before this beast. St. George, his shining srmor and his sword would have crumbled up and perished before |l 1t. We walked through chasm, long and deep chasm that might have been F peopled with invisible shapes. To our sight the abysmal walls were broken by brilliant, burning eyes of flame and for them their side of the chasm was light and glittering. They even fought
 back the darkness on the other side
 until one could see the strange huge pillars that rose from the ground and cast themselves into the black A wierd monstrous thing came clatterinE down the causeway. It was broad and leaTIuny WlQe anu IL CiAtteTeu dfoHS sideways like a crab. Where its head should be was a mysterious contrivance cone shaped, and giittering with white and red heat.
 The air was blistering hot. Through
 the soles of our feet we felt the heated tmctaf of the floor. In time we came to
 look at the shining eyes m the left and
 see that beyond them were glittering molten lakes of metal. Dark and grimy figures. with goggle eyes ran about the
 eyelets or sat in the gloomy recesses between the pillars.
 Fishing in Lake of Fire.
 We passed on until we came to a faust of black pillars. A grimy figure with a long, keen pole was fishing In a
 lake of fire Overhead there was sud- denly Tapping chatter and like some huge black bird an immense thing sail
 ed through the air and poised above Ithe burning lake. A man peered out from the glowing shadows of this CO., llossal thing and one fancied he was lheld captive and prisoner. A long Idangling claw shot down and reappear- ed lifting high into the air glowing burning cake of red hot steel. It Iswung through the air as one would swing an apple at the end of string
 And as 1t swung through the air the
 wave of heat against our faces was as
 hot as the breath of a furnace.
 We saw this black bird like thing
 deliver the burning piece of steel to
 another piece of machinery and we saw
 this great heavy piece of steel pushed,
 shaped and moulded by rollers like a
 school boy pushes chewing Hum through his front teeth with his tongue We saw big pieces of that block of steel sliced off by machinery pushed knives
 as easily and as cleanly as you could
 slice off a piece of Jersey butter for iyour breakfast toast.
 | We saw other pieces of that steel
 still at red heat, pushed through
 holes and pulled out into long ribbon
 as easily as school girl pulls" home-
 made candy. And we saw this long
 piece of red-hot steel suddenly assume
 the shape of a railroad iron--a steel
 rail for railroad strack. Three saws
 flashed down and the big red ribbon
 of a steel rail was cut in three lengths
 and each length was a 33-foot rail all "a but ready for the track laying gang. The whole evening was like a walk ,f through Nightmareland, But its Is weirdness was only the wariness of al appearance, of fancy. It's reality was h, the reality of the colossal steel plant IS of the Tennessee Coal and Iron Com of pany. It was huge. immense and won- se derful, but neither mysterious nor nt dangerous.
 k- The dragon shaped head that circled ie In the air was nothing more terrible e. than a pot of molten metal fresh from ly the furnace, The huge tongue oi . name that leape0 rom IL was only
 blast of cool air, driven through the
 metal to clear 1t of all impurities,
 Pot of Molten Steel. In The vast crab-like shape that came
 down the chasm was nothing but 6
 huge charger" car of great frame in carrying a big pot of molten steel to LII pour into the ingot frame. The grimy as shapes, with goggle eyes were only es smoked stained workmen who had tc r. wear green goggles when they looked lj into the open apertures where the ty molten steel was missing and splashine g r. at white and boiling heat.
 e, The bird-shaped affair overhead was 70 an immense travelling crane running n- back and forth over tracks laid just a, beneath the roof and charged with the to duty of carrying the hot steel ingots e, to the heavy rollers.
 Real or mysterious, fanciful real, the e. scene was wonderful and fascinating le Darkness and light, picturesquely D. mingled wall after wall Of furnaces ee with their brilliance showing through b, holes and cracks, avenues of tall black is pillars, catering cars. clanking metal pr and metal here, there and everywhere Id heat and smoke and bursts of flames CT it was vivid picturesque scene. Even IS the men were unreal; and; the huge up- d right boilers, painted white, were
 9hostly shapes in the darkness. Blue IS and white flashes of light shot through
 
 T. There was something reminiscent in T. this vivid scene What was 1t? The d jagged shapes of light that escaped 10 from the electric machinery supplied re the cue It was the "Brocken scene Is from Faust magnihed thousand times Is the "Brocken scene" that Lewis Nor
 rison brought up to a high state oi Ia effectiveness in his perennial revivals
 of Faust. It was all there but thou
 sand times bigger. Needed only were
 a few moans and shrieks mingled with III III the lights, the elatter and the gloomy ~ figures
 le In immensity the scene is more com, pr parable with the terrible things thai IS Dante saw when he dreamed his In ' ferno.
 " Colossal Size of Plant. The colossal size of the whole tnlns \, is what most impresses the visitor ," when he goes through the steel plant
 It Is nearly ten acres of big buildings - and big sights. Everything is on
 huge scale. buildings. works and aiI
 And why should it not be? Is not th'
 business of making steel one or tn'
 very biggest. If not the biggest pus
 nesses in the country.
 The biggest corporation known U
 America's history was the United S.ee
 Company, the so-called billion dolia'
 steel trust It has won to It's serVIS'
 the ablest. the wealthiest ana s~nnewu ~