The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-30
.|AE IRON ANDSTEEL
 INDUSTRY IN SOUTH
Jas. Bowr0n Gives History
 of Pioneer Iron Men
BESSEMER PROCESS
First Bessemer Steel Blown in 1864. Beginning of Operations on Large Scale-Indorses Purchase of
 Tennessee Company


 tive study of the history of the iron and steel business in the south. compared with the necessary limitations of the article. has ever been presented than the paper read by James Bowron, president of The Gulf States Steel company, at the banquet of the members of the steel institute last night.
 Colonel Bowron's address was received with close attention by the diners. Be- fore he had spoken a dozen sentences 1t was realized that he was master of the subject he was handling. He. was fre- quently interrupted by applause. The pa- per will probably become 8 valuable rec ord in the future of the development of the industry that has more than any other one thing been responsible for the present growth and standing of the city of Birmingham and made the Birming- ham district a familiar name wherever men toil in the ruddy- light of the blast furnace
 His paper in part was as follows:
 ''This subject has been treated by many writers. J. M. Swank. w. B. Phillips, E. A. Smith. E. F. Burchard and others. can only present an outline gathered from these authorities. to whom the in- euirsr is hereby respectfully referred. To some slight extent, perchance. I may en- rich the outline thus presented with some eoloring of personal "reminiscences.
 ~At the outset. my difficulty is to define rthe south Politically and historically. 1t should embrace the states south of khs Mason and Dixon's line and east of '1he Mississippi, but metallurgically. we may dismiss from that category the states of Florida. Mississippi and Louisiana.
 'Again, the definition of the south may wary chronologically, for the metallurgical eouth of the ante-bellum period was much more extensive than the metallurgical south of today.
 Before the war there was no iron and steel industry in the south based upon the manufacture of iron with mineral fuel. The records point to the location throughout the southern states of small charcoal furnaces to which bloomaries were frequently attached. (Swank,i p. 297 ct seq). Thes echarcoa1 furnaces were sometimes blown from one tuyere with wooden blowing tubs operated by water wheels. Some of these furnaces produced only one or two tons per day and the iron was largely worked up by local blacksmiths into horseshoes, wagon tires and harrow teeth. In east Tennessee. bar iron became a local currency and was considered as valuable medium of exchange at the local stores as eggs and ginseng are today. It is even chron- icled that preachers were once paid in bar iron.s but this statement may be from ical These water-blown and water tA6 trto flxrN nal Tod 'thundergust. forges. In those days there were no railroads and no macadamized roads, and the early settlers had to be self-dependent and work out their own salvation in peace and war against som Ter forests, rugged mountains. and stealthy. unrelenting Indians, with the iron of their own production. A commun- also to spin and weave it's own cloth ing.
 Beginning of Industry
 For such crude methods only the rich end easily smelted limonites were avail able These prevail in a broad belt par elleling the Allegheny mountains and their subsidiary ridges through Virginia, east and middle Tennessee, northwest Georgia and northern Alabama. In Vir- ginia and western North Carolina this belt of ores appears in a more massive form as Assure veins, and maintains the familiar condition of scattered, gravelly deposits through the remaining states. Enlinently treacherous as to continuity. they are more so as to analysis, and we have personally drawn samples over one field varying from i to 6 in phosphorus. The ease with which these brown ores could be smelted made them, however. attractive for the purpose. and the den sity of forests afforded a ready supply of charcoal fuel.
 'sThe industry appears to have crept southwestwardly with the gradual spread of population. In 1722 a furnace was started in Maryland, near Chesapeake bay, to utilize the ore on the property of George Washington's father; but we read that the English manager on ar- rival investigated the ore available, and could not find more "than will serve for <cne blast, if that" Many of the laborers seem to have been English convicts. In 1725 they appeared to be making. progress, for they planned to put the forge on double shift so that 1t might work up tc eight tons per week! part of this furnace was still standing in 1S40. In Vir- glnia we learn that about 171e some Ger mans came over under the auspices of Queen Anne to make wine and help in the iron business Some superintendents of iron and steel works in this day and generation will be interested to learn how and when began the apparent affinity be- tween iron workers and potable bever- ages The first blast furnace located at Fredericksburg went out of blast be- cause of the failure of sufficient corn to support the oxen who hauled away the. product. The furnace made 20 tons
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