The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-30

later at Commbiana. the plant being burned in Wilson's raid of 1885. Gun' were manufactured 10 to IS feet in lengff and from two to three feet in diameter through the breeeh, cast and strengthened with wrought. iron bands. Armor pro duced here for Confederate gunboats wat in the shape of narrow, thick strips, us usally 6x2 or 6x3, and as much as 10 feet in length. Admiral Farragut said after the fight in Mobile bay concerning the Con- federate steamer Tennessee that he poured the whole broadside (of the Hart ford) or nine-inch solid shot within 1t | feet, and not shot entered the yes sel.' This certainly speaks well for the quality of the iron manufactured. With the, destruction of the older plants came the dawn of new things. In 1864 the first Bessemer steel was blown in this country. and in 1867 5000 tons l of Bessemer ingots were produced; 1872. | 10000 tons: 1877, 560,000 tons, and in 1882, l l.6960oo. As coming events cast their shadows before, 1t was increasingly eyi- dent that steel was about to displace charcoal iron, and the doom of many a small decadent southern furnace. bloom ary and rolling mill was already appar- ent. About this time new factor was introduced, mineral fuel in the shape of coke, and a new era commenced. Becoming convinced that the red DOW der on Montevallo road was iron ore, Mir. Grace, later. sheriff of Jefferson county, owner of farm at Graces Gap, sent a wagon load of the ore to forge in Bibb county. where 1t was made into wrought iron. He made the first iron from Red mountain ore in 1862, from what is now the Ishkooda property of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company. The purchasers were F. Gilmer and John T. Miner, who with aid from the Confed- crate government established Oxmor fur mace. and in later years purchased hun dreds of acres for MT. Thomas of Cata- sauqua. This formed the nucleus for the holdings of the Republic Iron and Steel company in Alabama.
 Tn 1863 Daniel Iillman, who had made a handsome fortune from his Kentucky operations visited the spot and invested in lands These were afterward opened by his son, T. T. I1llman, for account of the Alice Furnace company of Birrning- ham. in 1S79 which began with an output Of 53 tons per day: but this Is anticipat- ing. Towards 1870 plans were laid to re- build the furnace at Oxmoor. accom- plished in 1872. and at this point the finan- cial assistance was obtained of Daniel Pratt, the cotton gin magnate, and his son-in-law H. F. DeBardeleben, who was
 
 development. The furnace went into blast in the winter of 1873.
 Panic of 1873
 "At that time the South and North rail- road now the Louisville and Nashville Railroad company, had not succeeded in completing the railway a. smile gap re : mainfng unfinished between Decatur and Birmingham. There seemed great 6oubt as to whether money could be raised to complete this, and whether the road final ly completed with the assistance of s2- 20O.000 from the state of Alabama would become only feeder to the Alabama and Chattanooga railway but after much ne- gotiation the enterprise was completed and opened just as the panic of 1873 broke upon the country. The Oxmoor furnace could not get out more than 10 tons per day. The price of iron fell from $40 to s. The plant was shut down and cholera swept over the district Again 1t might seem as though the iron industry In the south was doomed
 "On February 2S, 1s76 the first coke pig iron was made in Alabama As a result Louisville and Cincinnati interests in- cluding the well known names of Guthrie. Sloss and Sinton, became associated with the property. In 1876 and 1877 the fur naces were rebuilt 50 feet in height. n,ak-
 
 general era of development of coke using. hot blast furnaces
 The first furnace actually built on n commercial scale for coke fuel In Ten nessee, or in the south at large, was that at Redwood Tenn. in 1867. of which Capt. H. S. Chamberlain of Chattanooea was the leading spirit. This plant has al ways been successful and active, and is so today.
 ftt1 e.. with coke at Oxmoor naturally led to de- velopments on a constantly broadoninp . scale. The next few years witnessed the construction of the Sloss furnace in Rir mlngham, and the Birmingham Rolling NH company. Louisville enterprise. taking root in 1879 for the manufacture or bars, sheets and plates. These were fol- lower by the location of the Woodward tion company furnaces. established by Nheenns. w. Va, capital In 1881, which commenced operation in 1888 Beginning of Steel Making During the late seventies and carly eighties experiments had been carried on Tn Chattanooga by Mir. Leighton. inaking small amounts of open hearth steel in an experimental way.
 Tn April, 1881. $. G. Thomas. one of the joint inventors of the basic pro- cess, had been the gueH of the writer at nis home in South Pittsburg, Tenn. and negotiation was then started ,, for the English company acquiring the sole right to manufacture steel under that process in the south This nero tiation lapsed owing to the lamented death at an early age of the dis tinguished inventor At a later date 1 the Tennessee Coal. Iron and Railroad company became the owner of Jacob heese's patent for the duplex process put the information obtained seemed 10 indicate so great a loss by oxida- ton and slagging In the double pro- cess as to make it undesirable
 No one in the south had the neces- sary money to go into such a plant It was necessary to enlist easteren cap- ital At dinner in Birmingham, MT Andrew Carnegie had said to President Baxter that the Tennessee Coal Iron