The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-30
IF FURNACE INDUSTRY Short History of Furnaces
 at Ensley
FOUR BUILT IN 1888
Work Inaugurated Under Great Diff ficulties-Laborator Built in 1891. First Basic Pig Iron Made at
 Ensley in 1898

EnSley m lS9S
 The paper prepared by NJ F. Gentry Hillman in discussion of Thomas K. Glenn's address on 'The Modern Develop-
 ment of the Iron and Steel Industry in the South" was read at the afternoon ses- sion of the institute yesterday and in part
 was as follows:
 The admirable history you have had the pleasure of hearing precludes any idea of adding much that will be of interest. However, Q short history of the modern
 development of the blast furnace practice
 of the Birmingham district may be an
 appropriate supplement; and with this
 idea in mind have written the following
 epitome of the subject:
 'The scope of such paper being neces-
 sarily limited. 1t seemed that short his
 tory of the Ensley plant of the Tennessee
 Coal, Iron & Railroad company from the
 beginning of its operation to the present
 time would give the clearest view of the | modern development of the blast fur
 naces practice of the Birmingham district That no mention Is made of the progress | oa thc 'ohtfSu0 pidiitG Ot tilt ulStIltl
 is not to be understood as meaning they
 were not also improving their plants. The Initiative Of a large amount of progress
 belongs to them. and no plant in the dis
 trict can be said to have been first with
 all the Improvements.
 '"rhe question of skilled labor and trained heads of departments were of
 the greatest importance when the de-
 velopment of the operation of the Ensley furnaces was undertaken, and it is not
 surprising that several years elapsed be- fore the organization had been perfected
 into a compact and smooth running machine. New mines for the production of fiuxing stone, ore and coal for this plant had to be opened and equipped,
 and from the beginning it was apparent l that there was not enough money to pur- chase the proper equipment This lack of 1 funds became acute two years prior to 1 the panic of 1893 and lasted until 1S9S The
 stock of the company being known dur l ing this period as the football of Wall | street. there were several changes of l ownership, prejudicial to the good that would have developed had these changes
 not been made. The lack of money to purchanse the proper equipment. the l panlC Ol 1SJo, ana the several cnanReS Tn ownership will present to you the main
 reasons why a district so gifted by nature I for the manufacture of cheap iron pro- duced for so many years such poor finan- 1 cial results.
 Original Ensley Furnaces
 | The four Ensley furnaces as originally constructed In 1888 were all alike. each furnaces being 80 feet high 30 feet from , hearth to stock line, diameter of hearth , Il feet, diameter of 20 feet diameter stock l line 15 feet 8 inches, number of tuyeres Is. Each had three Weimer blowing en- 1 zines, 42 feet steam cylinders. S4 feet
 blowing cylinders and 54 feet stroke four s-pass Gordon stoves with 23,90O square | feet heating surface and vertical hoists.
 the filling being done by hand. Nearly, if l not all, of the ore and limestone was l broken in tEe stock house by hand. There were no bins, the coke was forked from l the cars to the coke buggies. There was
 no laboratory and the chemical handling of the burden was superficial. The quail
 ity of the coke, all beehive. was poor. due to high ash and improper preparation in the oven. It also possessed the marked disqualification of being very irregular in quality. Large Jumps of fuxing stone and
 ore were charged into the furnace and | ''limesets" were common. The extreme height of the boshes. no chemical super
 vision of tho burden. the large ore and nuxing stone, and the quality of coke
 added together, made furnacemans life,
 to say the least, anything but pleasant. The output per furnace ranged from 100 | to 190 tons of foundry iron. The blast, | piston displa acement. varied between 2S 900
 and 5000 cubit feet per minute.
 'In 1891 a laboratory was constructed
 and chemical supervision of the raw material inaugurated. Better beehive l o1,t nd he
 quality of the coke improved, though the
 ash was still high and the quality irregu- | lar. These improvements increased the output per furnace to about 150 tons. In l 1892 the first coal washer was installed and this marked the beginning of the
 radical increase in furnace output. A coke of unifirm analysis and of good quality was furnished and the results were highly satisfactory. Concident with the introduction of the coke from washed | coal came a change in furnace. lines.
 The hearth diameter was increased, the | bosh was lowered several feet and the diameter of the stock line decreased.
 Production of Basic Pig Iron
 with the exception of an increase in boiler power and improvements in furnace lines, the plant made no further progress until 1898, which year marked the advent
 of basic iron at Ensley, Increase in num- Der of tuyeres and by-prod,sct coke. | As the best of the soft ore, the outcrop of Red Mountain, was getting scarce, brown ore was introduced in It's place and the maximum quantity of this ore l vas used in the furnace burdens from l 1894 to 1900 On account of the increasing l cost of brown ore and the deterioration in quality the amount used gradually became | less, and as very satisfactory results were obtained by judicious mixtures of the hard ores of Red mountain. brown ore ceased to be an important factor of the furnace burden. And today the very best results being achieved are obtained from the use of all hard red ore It Is highly probable that very little, if any, brown ore will in the future be used in the immediate Birmingham district. The ration of bases to acids of the slags when on foundry | was about to 1, and when on basic iron about to 1. The large slag volume, about | a ton of slag to the ton of iron, made the problem of control of sulphur in the iron an easy one as the point of saturation | of the slag by this metalloid was rarely. | if ever, reached. It may be of interest to relate here that No. 2 furnace was equipped with 24 tuyeres. The attempt l to use them, however, was disastrous and | 12 were blanked; the furnace making q very satisfactory blast with the remain | ing 12 tuyeres.. The use of 12 and 16 tuy- I eres was of great value. as the reduction | in blast pressure was favorable to the weak colb-blast mains and stoves. as well as the antiquated blowing engines. The l company having no money to build ovens, | made trade with the Semet-Solvay com pany in the same year. and 30 ovens. to