The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-09-23
NEW PROCESS
FOR SMELLING
P. L. KimberIy's Old Expert
Has Built a Furnace to Rev.
olutionize Things.

John T. Jones of Iron Mountain, Michi-
gan, well known in Utah as the chief ex-
pert for Peter l.. Kimberly, when the lat
ter was negotiating the purchase of more
than sl.0000o0 worth of iron properties
in Iron county. this state. is in the lime
light. He has been working for five years
on a new process of reducing iron ore to
pig iron and, according to Horace j. Stew
ems. the author of the Copper Hand Book,
that resembles the old style blast fur
mace about as much as a piece OF sewer
pipe resembles a coffee grinder" The
experimental plant has produced pig iron
and apparently, Mr. Stevens says. the
commercial plant should work as well.
The significance of this news TO west
erners rests in the knowledge that. while
Mr.. Jones has not been parading the fact,
he is also depending on his new furnace
to work revolution in the business OF
reducing copper ores to matte.
More than year ago Jones came west
and secured ores from the Weimer cop
per property in Idaho with which to make
experiments. Later he took a lease on
some of the ground and, but for the pre-
cipitation of financial panic. he would
now be working the ground to open up ore
for his furnace. Last spring a leasing
company was organized to take over
about fifty of the Weimer copper CON-
panys claims under a fifty-year agree
ment and, while that company has not
got DOWN TO business YET, IL is u1lQef-
stood here that it will soon be ready to
commence operations and it may be said,
at the same time. that John L. Jones is
deeply concerned in the proposition be-
cause he is now figuring on eQuipping that
property with one of his furnaces. If il
will work there, il will work anywhere.
almost. So that copper mine owners and
smeltermen may get an idea OF what the
Jones process is the following paragraphs
from Mr.. Stevens account of the new
method and its application in iron ores is
given:
The new Jones furnace az Iron Noun
tain is mainly an immense tube nine feet
in diameter and 40 feet long, elevated at
one end and rotated by spur gearing. Ii
has corrugations and Is lined with fire
brick. giving a gradual feed from the
upper end to the lower. The raw ore,
crushed IS fed in at the upper end, where
there is a temperature of 400 degrees
Fahrenheit, and in a few hours reaches
the lower end. where the heat is 400 de-
srees Fahrenheit. just short of the melt
ing temperature of IRON The fuel is n.y.
dro-carbon in gaseous forn-presumably
producer gas. The PHOSPHORUS contents
are volatiliZed to the extent of 90 per
cent to IS per cent of the original con-
tents. The product is SpOngy pig iron
OF superior bessemer grade. made from
low grade silicious hematite. assaying
about 81 per cent iron, as compared with
iron contents of 81 per cent to IS per cent
in the standard Lake Superior bessemer
hematite ores.
THE cost of the new Jones furnace was
S54. 900 and its rated capacity is 500 tons of
pig iron daily. A furnace of equal ca
pacity would cost about 81 100000 if built
along the regular lines. Furthermore, the
Jones furnace can be loaded on three flat
cars by cutting the rivets. removed to
any desired location and set up for WORK
in a few days
THE Jones process of iron smelling. If
successful. as il promises to be. will work
the greatest revolution in the iron and
steel trade of the world that has been
made since the steel-making process in
vented some fifty years ago by Sir Henry
Bessemer. The standing of Mr.. Jones is
such that the blowing in of the new fur
by all concerned in the iron and steel
trade"