The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-28

nary clerk. and has risen to be the vice manager, while MT. Wang, the commer- cial director, who comes from Hong kong, has had similar experience.
 These three Chinese will rank as busi- ness men with the managers of the steel works of the United States. Each speaks English as fiuently as any reader of this newspaper and understands our books on steel making.
 I had letters of introduction to the managers from MT. William Martin, our consul at Hankow and In the absence of MT. Lee my card was taken in to MT. Tsang. Dressed in black cap long silk gown and heavy cloth boots, I found him dictating directions to a stenogra- pher. He looked like classical Chinese professor, and I was greeted In English After a chat of few moments. he took me over to the technical director, MT. Eugene Ruppert, and asked him to show me through the establishment. As he did a Chinese brought In an important letter in French. and Mir Tsang and MT Ruppert discussed this in the French lan- guage. as though both were born French men. I doubt not Tsans can speak Ger man as well, and that, although he has never been outside the empire.
 Making Steel Equal to Sweden.
 Leaving the offices, went through the various departments of the steel plant with the technical director. MT Ruppert has been here for seventeen years. He started in at the beginning with Chang Chi Tung. and Is still one of the chief ad- vissrs and directors of the establish ment.
 I shall not attempt to describe the blast furnaces, the rolling mills and the foun- dries. They are just like those of Pitts burg. Cleveland, Chicago and other steel making cities. They have the finest ma chinery, and they throw their old ma- chimes on the scrap heap when they be- come worn out or antedated. For in stance, at the start costly Bessemer plant was put in, and most of the smelt- ing was done by that process. Then 1t was discovered that there was too much sulphur In the coal to get good results and Siemens- Martin furnaces have been 1 installed.
 The steel now produced is said to be among the best of the world. I saw many tests which proved its excellence. These tests were performed with cold steel. One was on the little iron fish-plates which fasten the steel rails together as they lie on the ties. These plates are half inch thick, three inches wide, and a foot or more long. They were put in ma- chine by which they were doubled up as though they were India rubber, and that without the sign of a crack. This was done with the cold iron. I saw cold rail- road spikes twisted around and around until they looked like ropes, and sections of cold steel rails weighing ninety pounds to the yard twisted into gigantic cork screws, without a crack or break any where showing. I stood up a piece of one of these rails about five feet long beside myself and a Chinese workman and had MT. Ruppert snap my camera to show ! how it looks. A rail which can stand that kind of a test could not possibly break with the cold. It is as tough as wrought iron and can be bent up like rope without cracking
 Iron Rails for Chinese Trunk Lines.
 As we went through the works I saw great piles of steel rails. weighing eighty five pounds to the yard, which are now making for the -Hankow road. They are being turned out at the rate of several hundred per day. MT. Ruppert tells me that the most of the rails for tho Chinese roads of the future will be made at Hanyang. The government Is granting all its new concessions, with the proviso that the rails must be purchased of this Chinese factory, unless the bids of for eign firms are at least per cent cheaper, the quality being the same. The Han Yang steel works has furnished all the iron for the Honkow-Pekin trunk line, which Is over seven hundred and fifty miles long. It supplied the rails for the railway from Ranking to Shanghai, and 1t is under contract to furnish those for the road now building from Kowloon. the port opposite Hongkong, to Canton. There is no doubt but that the Chinese can make their own railroad materials, and MT. Ruppert tells me that they are now making steel rails and all sorts of struc- tura1 steel at a profit.
 Chinese Iron for the United States.
 During my walk through the rolling min asked MT. Rupert whether he ever expected to export steel to the American market. He replied:
 Most certainly not. At least not dur ing the present generation We have al- ready shipped considerable pig iron to San Francisco and to Japan. and we have sent one shipment to New York by the Suez Canal and sold it just to show that we could do and make money. As for the present and for years to come. we can do better by supplying the Chi nese demand. We have now in hand enough orders to keep us busy until the end of 1910. and we are receiving more every day Indeed, it will be a long time before China can keep pace with her own needs in such materials We are build ing new furnaces as rapidly as we can. and are already increasing our capacity. We have scheme or extension which will keep us busy for five years to como. and when that Is done we shall be turn ing out 1000 tons of steel per day Even then we shall have more than we can do to supply our own wants"
 What kind of steel are you makfng?"
 We make sheets, plates. angles. beams and bar steel, as we'll as all sorts of structural steel and steel rails. We make frogs, spikes, nuts and bolts. and our rails run from fifty to g hundred pounds to the yard. All this fs by tho Siemens- Martin process. and that 50 well made that it will stand the tests of the British Lloyds, the German Lloyds, and the Brit ish board of trade. Indeed. we are manu- faoturing as good steel as can be made anywhere"
 Little American Machinery Used.
 As we walked through the plant and saw new machines being installed I ask ed as to whether much of the imports came from America.
 Mot a great deal "said the technical director "we use your locomotives in our yards, and we have some American machines in our steel works, but we find that we can buy better and cheaper in England and Govermany. and that the terms they offer are easier than those of the United States. As 1t is now we have three siemens- Martin furnaces in opera tion two under construction. and five un- der projection. Our daily output of steel Is 250 tons, and we shah soon be making 300 tons more"
 As we walked about I was surprised at how the new and old methods of work