Bisbee daily review., 1906-06-03
CRUDE ORE SMELTlNG
LOS ANGELES MAN lNvENTs SO LUTON OF AN IMPORTANT
 SIMPLIFYING PROBLEM.

| A blast furnace using California 1 crude oil for fuel. and dispensing alto gether with coke, is now in successful | operation on a commercial scale al ! Chloride, Arizona, where, since Mon dany night last, il has been eontinu' 1 ously fed with copper ore and as con 1 tinuously discharged the smelted met al at the lower vent.
 This invention, wI.ca marks the ! solution of a problem perhaps the most important industrially to the southwest, is by a Los Angeles man, | who owns the patents and will manu. facture oil burning blast furnaces in that city.
 The blast furnace. as heretofore in use for smelting iron and copper ores, has been developed in regions where coking coal is the plentiful and natur- al fuel. It has been entirely satisfac- tory until the enormous new copper industry of the southwest made neces- sary the transportation of coke in i'm mense quantities and for long distan- ces to region where crude oil is the natural fuel, besides being the cheap est in the world. The need for an oil burning blast furnace became at once apparent. and to the solving of this problem thel attention of engin- eers has been earnestly turned for sev- eral years.
 Briefly, an ordinary blast furnace is stack into which coke, ore and uxing materials are fed from near the top. Through this charge, from the bottom, is forced constant blast of air, which, by supplying oxygen plen- tifully, causes rapid combustion and intense heat. The coke burns to ash and the molten ore gathers in the crucible at the bottom, whence it is drawn of. Non-metallic substances are discarded as slag, and the liquid metal is cast into pigs. This process Is constant. and. barring accidents, should go on for months in the same furnace without interruption.
 Vertical Stacks Failure.
 All stacks have heretofore been yer. tical, for no particular reason save that they have always been so. Tried with oil fuel in place of coke, they have invariably failed. because the charge, lacking the strong support of intermiXed coke. when heated to the fusipg point. drops into the crucible nd freezes, as it is called, ruining the
 'lrnace. There have been many ef- LCA No IS OfSASOt4V thio AhSNhehA4ANSAl ficulty, and several have succeeded on q iaUUra,Ory scaIe, but always failed on a commercial scale.
 The invention whereby oil fuel may be used for this purpose is simple Not to be too technical, the stack is inclined at such an angle that while if may be fed and kept full from the top by gravity, the ore. partially sup ported by the lower inclined surface of the furnace, does not run, though as it fuses it freely flows down the in- cline to the crucible, whence it is drawn off in the usual manner. The heaviest obtainable Bakersfield oil is used, and is introduced into the charge through burners Of special design. The blast is produced Gs in ordinary yer tical furnaces. Combustion is found to he very complete and the heat is as intense as that generated by the best coke. The furnace has now been in constant operation without a hitch of any sort for six days. and is treat ing fifty tons of ore per twenty-fOur hours, with an average oil consum1- ton of thirteen barrels, which means a saving of fifty per cent in fuel cost and fifteen per cent in labor, as com pared to reduction of the same ore with coke fuel.
 Result of Years of Study
 This furnace, which promises to e:- feet a most important economy in the production of copper in the southwest. to greatly extend the market for Cal ifornia crude oil, and possibly to bring about almost revolutionary changes in even more important direction, is the result of five years of study and experiment, during which as many partially successful furnaces have been built and discarded. This sixth of the series was built at the Fulton Engine Works in Los Angeles, after designs by Messrs. Greenleaf and Riveroll mechanical engineers. also of Los An. geles, and who propose to manufac ture it in that city for general intro duction. The capacity of the next fur mace will be greatly enlarged, but by widening rather than thickeping the charge. It is believed by the inventor that capacities of 500 tons a day may be reached without altering The bulk of ore to be fused from each burner
 The instant need for an oIl-burning blast furnace is for the smelting of copper ores Coke is not only expen- sive, but the supply is always a great source of anxiety, and snutdowns have occurred because of scarcity from va rious causes. In the great copper reg ions of Arizona and Mexico, Oil is the plentiful, cheap, easily handled fuel. It is said that its use for smelting in blast furnaces would effect an economy sufficient to cause a very material in. crease in net earnings and to render profitable copper ores that are now considered of too low grade.
 Keen cool and stand under the re-