Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-11-18


DULUTH. MINI.
E-HIS is the age OF efficiency. The
is the e. Open ,ss so4s to the
4. Germans are using it as the
robbers did in 1.-The Arabian Nights''
tale of Ali Bahia and the Forty Thieves.
In the great war of today, the Germans
take the place Of tho Forty Thieves and
ourselves and our allies represens Ali
Baba, who conQuers them by their own
password. I have written OF the eff
cheney Of our iron mines and how by
steam shovels we are getting out ore
for the steel required for the war. A
single steam shovel will mine from five
enough to load train of two-horse wag-
ons thirty or forty miles long.
The password Of ore transportation Is
are taking the iron from the mines
down to the lakes. Efficiency is stamp
ed upon the cars and their operation.
Each car holds upward of 100000
OF them are carried down to the ports
by a single engine. I have counted
trains Of 125 cars. These trains are
loaded in the mines and they do not
stop until their contents are dropped
into the great ore bins through which,
by gravity. they pass into the mighty
steamers that carry them a thousand
miles down the lakes. This Is so not
withstanding the ore must be graded
and sorted to fit the requirements for
making steel Of various kinds. and
weighed by the government in course
of transit. The weighing is done while
the cars pass through the station of
Proctor. which is the largest ore yard
of the world. All they do is to slow
less than eight Miles an hour. At this
speed they pass over automatic scales
which record their weight.
~
Efficiency stamps the transfer Of the
ore from the cars to the hugo steamers
which carry 1t to the steel plants. Tho
loading docks about Lake Superior
have cost millions. You may see them
at Two Harbors, at Duluth. and at tho
ports Of northern Wisconsin and Mich
igan. came into Two Harbors on the
James A. Farrell. the flagship OF the
fleet of the United States Steel Cor
poration. and watched them taking on
ore. The huge steamer. a low. rakish
looking craft about sixty feet wide and
600 feet long, came to anchor under q
steel pier as high as an eight-story
house. The pier reached like great
arm far out into the water. There are
four of these piers at Two Harbors and
one OF them is almost half a mile long.
Each pier upholds a double row of bins
made OF concrete into which the ore is
from the mines onto the tracks over
head. The bins extend out from the
pier, and from the bottom of each
long steel chute or spout allows the ore
f0 vaAaaI9
chutes are raised and lowered by cleo
tricity. They extend from the bins
right into the hold, and the pulling OF
lever will drop a river Of ore into
matches. and, were 1t advisable. all
could be loading at once from that
many bins overhead. 1t takes only
and $4,000 tons Of ore have been load
ed in less than an hour. Three steam
ers were taking cargo at the time OF
my visit and within two or three hours
started on its way down Lake Superior.
Similar loading Is going on at the
other ports Of the lake. During my
take passage on steamer carrying
ore from the Gogebic mines down to the
Illinois steel plant. I observed how the
ore was mixed and graded during the
must have just the right proportion Of
certain ores. and the mixing Is done in
the loading so that when the ore
reaches the steel plant It is ready to be
dumped without change into the fur
naces. Everything IL scientifically ex-
act. The ores are analysed at the
mines. samples being taken from the
cars as they leave. and the ores from
different mines are dropped into tho
ship 80 that the iron contents and quail
ity Of the cargo are Just those required
for steel. Much of this work IL d.
rected from the eastern once Of the
steel company where tho exact con-
tents and character Of every iron do
post are known. and much by the
scientific engineers on the ground, who
have a small army of chemists analys-
ing and assayirg the ore as 1t Is dug
from the earth. In another letter
shall show you that this is but the be-
ginning of the scientific methods Of
steel making. The metal is analysed
as 1t flows from the furnaces and 1t IL
tested again and again as 1t passes
through the many pro<e sses which turn
It into steel rails. machine guns, armor
plate. and the dne tough material used
L. ~ ali tat