The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-29
BIG IMPROVEMENTS ARE MADE AT ENSLEY Money Being Spent on an Ex-
 tensive Scale REAL ESTATE MAN TALKS Continuous Mills Are to Replace Those Now In Use at Steel and Wire
 Plant-Permanent Pros
 perlty Assured.
REAL ESTATE MAN TALKS

Ensley August 2s.-(Special 1.-The inn provements now under way and to be begun within few days in the manufae- turing plants already established at Ems ley are worth more to this city from a substantial point of view than the estab- lishment of a new plant of ordinary pro portions" said a real estate man today.
 T mean that more money is being spent In a permanent direction than would be required in the building and establish ment of new plant of the ordinary size and importance.
 'The present expenditures for improve ments are not appreciated as they should be. and in fact the people generally do not know what is being done. The com- panies operating here are very reticent about giving out information of any kind relating to their operations, but one has only to keep his eyes open to see that they are making wonderful progress and stupendous Improvements.
 VIII Cost $1oo,ooo.
 "The work already begun on rebuilding Furnace No. will call for the expendi- ture of more than s100000. The distribut- ing of this money in the district is not the only feature of the improvement that should be taken into consideration. It means that the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railway company Is prospering and that their enterprises located in the dis trict are permanent. So long as these manufacturing plants prosper the country will prosper and every business man in the district will feel the good effects.
 'I understand that this company had the material for this furnace ordered months in advance of the announcement that the work would be done, and 1t Is now being laid on the ground. It Is very evident that there will be no delay what ever in the construction of the furnace.
 "The installation of new machinery and equipment in the local plant of the Ala bama Steel and Wire mill, which work will begin September i, is another large undertaking that will call for the outlay of a large sum of money and should in- spire increased confidence in the perma- nency of Ensley's prosperity
 Plant Will Remain.
 "It was feared, and, I believe unof- ficially announced, at one time that this plant would be moved from Ensley. There has never been an official denial of this rumor and the situation has been unoer- tain, but the work to be done at once is a material assurance that the plant will remain where it is.
 '"rhe semi-consinuous rod mills In this plant are to be replaced with continuous machines in which the raw billet of iron or steel will be completed before leaving the one machine. The machines now in use are semi-continuous, or machines that only partly complete the product being manufactured. The new machines will be q great saving of labor and will increase the capacity of the plant about 50 per cent, I am told.
 Another thing that fmpresses me very much Is the permanency of the work that is being done in the local plants. For instance the foundation for an im- mense engine that is being installed at the steel mill is being built of solid con crete for which an excavation was sunk ss feet in the ground"