The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-30
GATES AND PARTY
4 AT STEEL PLANT.
Interesting Gossip of Improve
mentS Under Way
TWO TEACHERS ELECTED
Real Estate Men Greatly Interested In
Announcement That A., B. & A.
Camp Has Been Moved
to Wylam.

Ensley, January 29.-(Special John
". Gates and party were in the city to-
day looking over the properties of the
Tennessee Republic companies. They
left Birmingham in their private car over
the Birmingham Street railway which
road is now controlled by them, and
after stopping at Thomas to inspect the
blast furnaces located there, they ar
rived here about noon.
While in Ensley most of their time
was spent in the steel works where the
most extensive improvements are being
made, and seemed vii pleased with the
progress of the new work, and the great
improvement in the general appearance
o. the entire mill.
The new addition to the open hearth
will be equipped with four modern fur
naces of the fitting device and two 20
ton converters. 1t is understood that
they will have three vessels in the new
converting mill department, so that they
can keep both converters in operation,
and when one of the vessels becomes
sculled' up 1t will be taken from the hous-
ings and another will be ready TO replace
it, so that no time will be lost
1t is interesting to know how much of
tho raw material that is used In the
manufacture of steel can be obtained in
the immediate vicinitl. In fact, there
are only about two things that have to be
brought any distance and they are mag
nestle and manganese. At one time the
company made their own manganese at
7 f,,r In
using the Cuban manganese ore, but they
found 1t more advantageous to purchase
it in pig form and the manufacture was
discontinued a year or so ago.
Material for Lining Vessels.
When the converting mill was added
the question arose as to where they
would obtain material suitable for lining
the vessels, as the heat during the blow
ing of the metal reaches above 1900 Far
enheit. and as this was the first CONVEX
ter ever built In the south 1t was very inn
portant that something that would with
stand the very high temperature be
found near at hand. In this they played
| in far better luck than they had hoped,
as they discovered that there was a
hill within $50 yards of the mill that would
furnish an abundance of silica rock,
which when analysed showed 81 per cent
silica and stood all the tests that were
| necessary.
This hill is a part Of the ridge that
runs for miles through the county, there
being an inexhaustible supply of this
| rock at Lewisburg.
When the new furnaces and converting
mill are completed the tonnage Of the
open hearth department will be so great
| ly increased that 1t is highly probable
that extensive improvements will have
to be made in the rolling mill depart
| ments, so as to take care of the out
| put
| Men who are interested in the manu-
ufacture of steel are very optimistic In
| their views regarding Ensleys future
| believing that 1t will only be a short
| time when there will be a large universal
mill erected here. and that the eyebeams
and channels that are now being used in
the many large buildings. etc, that are
going up all over the south, will be rolled
| in Ensley
In the party that accompanied Mr.
| Gates today were Grant B. Schley r
w. Oglebay. l.. C. Hanna, J.. I. Beech.
er and f. II. Crockard.