The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-29
FIRST DETAILS OF FERTILIZER PLANT OF TENNESSEE CO. Descriptive Statement Is- sued From Executive Offices of Corporation ONLY PLANT OF ITS
 KIND IN COUNTRY Is Making By-Product Discovered by Tennessee Company Engineers
 After Years of
 Research


 ressee Coal, Iron and Railroad com pany at Ensley for the manufacture of new kind of fertilizer out of slag began operations aJnd since that time has been steadily grinding out what for Birmingham is an entirely new product
 Slag fertilizers have been used in Europe for sometime and are highly satisfactory as plant foods. The plant at Ensley, however, is the only one of It's kind in the United States, the duplex basic phosphate to be manufactured be- Ing an original product discovered and compounded by Tennessee company ex- perts after years of work. The stor- age capacity of the plant Is 1000 tons and the plant is to be operated so as to fill the storage bins by the time the fertilizer season opens. On account of the plants ability to manufacture a new by-product out of materials here tofore going to waste and on account of the claims that the product will in many instances revolutionize farming. great interest has been aroused in the new industry throughout the country
 Details of Plant
 The official statement issued at the executive offices of the company yes terday describing the plant and the manufacture of the fertilizer is as follows:
 The manufacture of duplex basic phosphate at the Ensley steel works or the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail- road company, Ensley, Ala:
 During the past two years the Ten nessee Coal. Iron and Railroad com pany have been carrying on experi ments which would enable them to pro- duce high quality steel and at the same time make basic open hearth siag with phosphoric acid content of IS per cent or better
 Tn removing the slag from the open hearth furnace it Is allowed to run Into a suitable receiving box on A narrow gauge truck, which is, after the slag has cooled hauled to the slar grinding plant.
 Here the contents of the box are deposited under heavy crane and broken up into small sizes by a 15-ton ball handled by an electric magnet. At the same time any masses of steel which may have. overfowed from the furnace are removed.
 The partially broken sIag is then iifted by means of a digging bucket operated by the same crane, into a bin over large crusher. Here it Is brok- en into still smaller sizes and delivered into an elevator which discharges through sizing screen into a large bin Ill the upper part of the grinding build ihg. From this bin the crushed ma leriai IS passed through large duplex ring roll mill and further reduced In size. It then passes up an elevator into 6 bin from which it is delivered into a ball mill where the final grinding Is carried out.
 This fine material goes by means of elevators and screw conveyors into concrete storage bins. From these pins, by means of screw convertors un- der the bins and elevators at the end or the bins, the ground material is passed through automatic weighing machines and mixers into the bagging machine or into the car direct for bulk loading.
 Slag Is Pulverized
 'The ball mill finally pulverizes the material to such size that at least 80 per cent passes through a 10O-mesh screen. This fine grinding places this material ready for the market and within the European specifications for Thomas slag.
 Duplex basic phosphate is finely ground phosphatic fertilizer manufac- tured from slag produced in the open hearth furnace in the duplex process Of manufacturing steel
 After years Of study and experiment tai investigation, the Tennessee Coal Iron and Railroad company has per- fected method whereby in the operation of the open hearth furnace they are able to produce slag very rich in phos- phorus. As much care and attention Is given to see that the slag produce shall be as suitable for fertilizer as is exer- cised later in the process to produce a steel of required specifications. The slag obtained in this way. containing a large quantity of phosphorus and lime. is crushed and passed over magnetic sepa- rators to remove the small particles of steel It is then ground in a series of mills to a fine inpalpable powder. 80 per cent or more of which will pass through a standard 100-mesh screen. From the screen it passes to the storage bin and is later placed in sacks ready for the mar ket.
 Duplex basic phosphate is not ordi- nary open hearth furnace slag; neither is it blast furnace slag. and it should not be confused with these products, the or dinary open hearth furnace slag being of