The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-01-18
OPERATION OF SHELTER
DESCRIBED BY INVENTOR
BY EDWARD FINK.

During the last two months or more
much has been written about the cxperi-
mental smelling plant which was then
being erected near Garfield by Mr. New
house A great many Of the statements
published were far from accurate. some
absolutely ridiculous Although often re-
quested to make a statement, ] did not
feel JUSTIFIED in doing so at the time, and
even now hesitate about giving any def
rite information for publication.
The Fink furnace is not a cure-all for
every metallurgicat difficulty; nor can it
smelt every ore known TO scientists" rs
was reported in one paper. The prm-
cipies underlying the present DAY smell
ing operations are the same as were EN-
ployed hIadrsd years azC. the improve
HleHts being largely in the different man
ner OF applying those fundamental prin-
ciDles- The Improvements made from
time to time have been made, first bv
altering the construction OF furnaces. see
ond, by changes IN the manipulation cf
the charge to be smelted. To read some
OF the statements made by leading metal
lurglstS only few years ago. relating to
the smelling processes as conducted at
the time. one can hardly realize that I'm
the present day smelling methods opera
tons are performed which were regarded
as absolutely impossible. For example
DR.. Peters. in the earlier editions Of his
most valuable book lu copper smeItiuz
states emDhaticaly that it is impossible
TO enrich matte to any extent by putting
same through the furnace two or more
and this fact has done much 10 make
the pyritic smelling process a success.
Not many years ago q revsrberatOTy
furnace smelling p tons per day was
considered large furnace. Today re-
YeTheTatOry furnaces arc built having a
capacity Of go tons per day. and blast
furnaces are by no means uncommon
smelling go tons Der day.
The epocb-uakug discovery Of Bessc-
nler-converting pig iron into steel by
forcing compressed air through column
Of molten irUn-wniCn. while used in t1s
iron industry for many years. did not
find appliCa ton I'm copper smelling until
quite recently. The difficulties eucoun-
tered were wholly mechanical ones. and
once these were overcome. the practice of
Disseminating Occdmc quite as common
in copper smelling practice as ia the pro-
duction Of steel.
the furnace which has been erectc1
near Garfield as well IS the process OF
smelling conducted therein. we're designed
to meet certain conditions.
Problem of Fine Concentrates.
The bugsboo Of the blast furnace oper-
ator has been fine ore for the tremendous
blast forced in at the t0yeres blows a con-
siders bic amount Of this product out Of
the furnace before it can reach far enough
down to enter the zone Of fusion To over
come this difficulty great many expert
ments have been conducted and much
money expended in preparing the fine ore
OF concentrate for blast furnace smelt-
ing. Most Of the tests were along the
lines of briquetting or sinteri1g the prod
uct. the idea being to render It sufh-
GENTLY dense before introducing same
into the furnace to prevent disintegration.
While these experiments helped in a meas
ure. the results up TO the present time
leave much to be desired. moreover they
entail q separate operation, which is not
only expensive but wasteful- Il does NOS
require d scientific mind to discover that a
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