The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-26

ment. It is turning out steel rails and structural steel and it will install ma chinery for other products in connec- tion with the needs of the nation
 The buildings of the Ensley plant already cover almost 20 acres. They in clude blast furnaces as big around as a hayStack and as high aa 10-Story house. These furnaces are largely heated by gas, which Is a by-product of the coke ovens They have alto I gether a capacity of 2000 tons of pig iron per day. Gas pipes so large that horse could trot through them wind 1 their way like mighty snakes above
 and below, as you go through the works; and the Bessemer converters. kettles of iron so big that each would form a bathub for an elephant. send forth showers of sparks and flames
 more brilliant than those which re- duced Sodom to ashes. Here you see
 rivers of boiling, bubbling metal flow
 ing in waterfalls of gold from the fur i naces into the cars, and there vast clouds of steam burst forth like vol
 canoes in cooling the coke
 1 Everything is on an enormous scale. and | that after such cost efficiency methods l that the savings are calculated to the hundredths of thousandths of cent. | Everything possible is done by machin- cry, and the human labor. which includes l the work of an army twice as large as | that which Xenophon led on his march 1 to the sea, is reduced to the minimum. l Nothing is wasted, and the company Is alive to new ideas. The employees are interested in the plant, and suggestion boxes are scattered throughout it In order that they may give their ideas as to its improvement. Such suggestions may be posted in sealed envelopes and at fixed intervals prizes are awarded by com nittee of judges The best suggestion re- ceives Q premium of S100, the second best S25 and there are many other awards Of S3 each. This system of giving the en- ployes a personal interest In the plant
 runs throughout all of its departments. During my stay I followed the processes of making the iron ore into steel rails. saw the iron and coal as they came from the mines, and watched them as they were dumped with the limestone into
 the furnaces. The Birmingham ore is mixed with other impurities. Only about one third of it is pure iron, and the whole has to be smelted or turned to a liquid in such way that the impurities may be taken out and only the iron left. This is the work of the draft furnaces. The ore is put in with limestone and coal and from the bottom a hot blast is in | | 1 to a boiling, bubbling liquid, many times hotter than the fire through which Shad- rach Meshac and Abednego walked at | the command of King Nebuchadnezzar. | The blast has been heated in great stoves 1 to a temperature of 1000 degrees Fahren- ! heit, and it is blown into the boiling l lquid at pressure of 20 pounds to the ] square inch. It reduces the mixture of coal limestone and coke to golden l liquid in which the impurities rise to the top and float, as foam does upon water. l The iron, which is the heaviest part ot l the mixture, sinks to the bottom. and the 1 furnace men know just where it ends and where the floating impurities. known las the slag, begin. At the latter point a l hole is made in the side Of the furnace and the slag is drawn off. leaving the iron below. Later the molten iron is drawn out through a hole much lower down. It is now pig iron, and is ready to be turned into steel.
 wish I could show you the motion iron as it flows forth from the furnace. It is a flaming stream of the purest gold. l It drops into great ladies holding 2 tons and it boils and bubbles as these are
 carried by locomotive to great steer,
 brick-lined oven which holds about 60t
 tons. This is known as a mixer The
 iadles are lifted by steam cranes and
 poured into it.
 After this the iron goes to the Besse-
 mer converter, an immense sg-shaped
 barrel hung upon axles. The coverter is made of steel plates and lined With ma I terial that will withstand the fierce heat
 of the molten iron. In the bottom are set
 cylinders of fire clay which are so ar
 ranged that an air blast may be forced
 in at pressure of 30 pounds to the inch
 The barrel is turned on the side while
 the motion iron is poured in. but it rises
 to an upright position as the air roars
 through the metal. As it does so flames
 leap forth from the top. They come out
 in millions upon millions of sparks. form
 ing mighty fireworks of giant skyrockets
 which grow and grow until the sparks