New-York tribune., 1907-07-01
BIG ENGINES TO GO.
U. S. Steel to Replace Some Worth
Millions to Cheaper Production.

Pittsburg. June $3.50 that the cost of the
production of steel may be reduced a few cents
a ton, millions of dollars are to be spent in new
machinery for the plants of the United States
Steel Corporation. and almost hundred engines
practically TO be relegated to the scrapheap.
The change will probably take two or three
years to complete but it is assured by the ex
periments that have been carried on at the
Edgar Thomson plant of the corporation
Braddock. The experiments have been along
the lines of abolishing coal as fuel and driving
the engines with the gas that blows from the
blast furnaces.
In one of the great sheet steel sheds which
answer engine houses of the corporations
great rail making plant stand two vertical en-
glnes which, with two others like them, in 1908
supplied the power needed at the Worlds Fair
In st. Louis. They were built in East Pitts
burg. and at that time represented the perfec-
tion in engine building After the exposition
they were purchased by the Steel Corporation
for the Edgar Thomson plant, and have since
supplied most of the electric power there. 1t
Will he only three or four years at most in all
probability, before these monsters have been
discarded.
Throughout the various works of the corpora
ton plants there are many engines that viii
meet similar fate. Fifty-two engines older
and smaller than the great machines that we're
the pride of the st. Louis exposition are now
plant. and in a few years all will have been
displaced. and third of the number, or less, If
the monster gas engines will be doing their
work.
Inc experiments at the Edgar Thomson plant
II is said. have determined the policy of the
steel corporation for all its works, and gas en-
gines will be installed a all the plants as fast
as they can he built. At Gary, where a new
plant is being built, twenty or more of the new
engines viii be put in to furnish power and to
blow" the furnaces. These engines are said
to cost about $4,000, and the cost for engines
alone at this plant will be about $3 O0OO 900
Besides this outlay there will be a great ex-
penditure for the vast system of monster pipes
for carrying The gas from the blast furnaces and
for its publication before ii can be used in the
engines.
The two engines used in the experiments at
the Edgar Thomson plant, which represent an
investment of 100000. are employed in the
blowing of single 5OO-ton furnace A rveted
steel pipe one hundred inches in diameter which
is part of the system, is a large factor in the
expense. complicated arrangement for clean
ing the gas also ADDS to the great outlay neces-
sarY for these improvements.
With the new engines gas Will he the only
fuel used. This viii do away with the ten thou
sand to twelve thousand tons of coal that is
now used each month for this purpose, in ad-
diton TO what gas is now used No coal will
be needed, the gas from the furnaces. refined
in the washers. which part of the huge
pipage system. and exploded in the cylinders OF
enormous engines. win blow the furnaces and
produce the electric power used in the rail mills
The few cents on the cost Of each ton Of steel
produced viii he saved, and an advantage in
the market gained.