The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-04-10
Entire Site Bristles With
Structural Shapes and
Steel of all Kinds.
ACTIVITY IS INCREASING
Five Large Cranes Busy Daily In
Hands Of as Many Gangs on
Open Hearth Work.
Especial to Lake County Times.)

Gary, April 1o.-Five large cranes
are busy daily in the hands of as many
different gang of workmen swinging
into place on the open hearth work
the material and structural work that
is rapidly being used in the erection Of
these furnaces. The entire territory
for a large distance on either side of
the site which is half a mile long and
some three hundred feet wide is COW
cred thickly with structural shapes
and steel of all kinds. The actual
work Of erection of the steel structures
on the open hearth site is but barely
begun, the gangs having just com
pleted the putting up of the two large
portable construction cranes which rise
from their respective towers some
eighty feet. With these the workmen
swing up lightly the gigantic pieces
weighing in many instances fifteen and
twenty tons and they are slowly
bolted and braced into position
Work continues steadily on the canal
where the Great Lakes Dredge & Dock
company have their large outfits Sew
eral hundred feet of the concrete on the
west side of the intended channel have
been completed and the pile drivers
continue day after day in their seem
| ingly endless task of driving piIing in
the ever extending wooden piers which
precede all other construction work
The work on the two blasting furnaces
on which it has been pushed most rap
idly has proceeded so far as to give a
very good idea of the permanent ap-
pearance of these important parts of
the plant
lnnumerable spurs of standard guage
tracks run in at every vantage point in
and around the structures enabling the
ready use of the material and pieces
with minimum amount of labor and
time. Here and there about the plant
site wherever a building or part of a
building is to be erected are scattered
some fifteen or twenty excavating out
fits consisting of sand suckers, steam
shovels, orange peelers and divers
other arrangements for moving dirt
rapidly. all busy making room for the
coming structures. Where the excava-
! tions are done are gigantic concrete
mixers of different kinds grinding
steadily out their mixture of sand,
gravel and cement or other ingredients
as the case may be for the foundations.
From an area of over a square mile
with two or three busy points last fall,
\ the entire tract has become a verita Bile
/ beehive with two or three thousand
men busy all over this modern cruicble.
Mile upon mile Of the heaviest of steel
rails in standard guage switch and sid
ing tracks have been laid all over the
plant site, making the more complex
the appearance Of the place but aiding
materially in the handling of the train
loads Of material which arrive daily
Indeed nothing has been spared that
Will assist in the speeding Of the work
and the entire project is a gigantic
lesson in up-to-date commercial eco
nomics, lesson that has been thor
| oughly learned in the school of prac-
tice and is being demonstrated here al
the foot of Lake Michigan in the heart
of the worlds industrial center by mer
than whom there are none better
/ equipped