The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-10-09

While no new industries have been added by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad company to It's business in Bessemer, many Improvements of a substantial nature have within the past few years been made. The most important and the one that has had more money expended on 1t than any other in recent years is the Bessemer rolling mill one of the best equipped and most modern plants of its kind south of the Ohio river, and 1t has often been said that "the rolling mill is the best money maker the company has"
 The rolling mill was built in 1887 and has been operated practically ever since. and always with success. A number of changes have been made in the character of its machinery. each addition making for the better and adding to It's value as a manufacturing plant.
 Superintendent George Miller has been in charge of the plant for the past three years and during his regime many improvements have been made and the mill placed on a most success full basis. The mill has a bar mill, a guide mill. roughing mill and a plate mill, the latter rolling plates S4 Inches
 in diameter. and up to 4soo pounds in weight. These plates are made from steel billets from the Ensley steel mill. Within the past few months the bar
 mill has been changed from steam operating mill to motor run mill, a 60 0-horse power motor of the most i'm proved pattern having been installed which, with a continuous table, makes the bar mill work more satisfactory in every respect and adds to the smoothness of the manufactured ar ticles on account of regularity of run ming.
 FINISHED PRODUCTS Open hearth steel bars, guide and
 plates, light and heavy up to S4 inches, l light rails and twisted bars for con
 crete work. are manufactured at the
 mill, which has a capacity since it's Its products are in demand all the time, and orders far ahead of it's ca
 pacity. The mill employs about 500 men regularly, many of them earning
 large wages.
 l It has been estimated that the Ten lnessee company has within the past few years spent more than quarter of million dollars on this plant, which is in every particular modern | and upAto-date.
 l The same company also has at Bes-
 semer four blast furnaces in active loperation for the past year, with Su- lperintendent Roy Ledbetter in charge. The furnaces, built almost 80 years
 ago, are still breaking records for
 daily output of high grade pig iron. They have in the past few years been
 much improved and large sums of money have been expended on them.
 Many times the blowing out of the furnaces for good has been predicted,
 as they are old style. Still when fur mace built with a capacity of 200 tons daily can make, after 25 years or ser- vice mofe than 250 tons day there IS
 reason to believe that it will be some time before they reach the scrap heap
 All four stacks have been in blast for 12 months without a shut down for more than few days for minor re- pairs Three of them are making a Ihigh grade pig iron. while one is mak- ling manganese iron, making this val uable iron at considerably less cos' than it can be made in Chicago, where the most of the, product iF used.
 CHEAP PIG IRON
 It has bee none of the proud boasts of Bessemer that pig iron can be made lthere cheaper than at any place Tn the world. When the price of pig iron wal far below the present figures the loca' furnaces kept steadily at work, anc lmany who knew the cost of operation freely stated that even at that very How price the company was making { good profit on it's output. The 1oul furnaces at Bessemer have a capacity
 of nearly 300.000 tons annually. ol almost 1000 tons a day. The old be' lhive coke ovens. almost a thousand 1T humber, were discarded by the com pany several years ago. and the fur' lnaces run on by-product coke manu lfactured at Fairfield and Ensley en Itirely. The rapid rise in the price o lpig iron and the growing demand fol liron of all grades caused the old be' lhiye ovens at Bessemer to be re lliehted, Within the past year the, lhaye been overhauled and repaired ant Iarain their smoke and flames in thu
 darkness of night go skyward as re hinder that even the most improved
 methods may<at sometime give way tt , urgent demand and the old time sys : fem be a comeback" that is proo
 of what can be done in an emergenc,
 land when demands cry for more out
 but. The coke is a 72-hour coke ans