Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-08-26
Carpenter Writes of Iron Resources of the South


since it was taken over and which has
now authorized the rapid expenditure
of S11, 0Q0, 900 more to meet the demands
of the war. This plant is now working
at its full capacity upon orders for the
United States government. 1t is turn
. ing out steel rails and structural steel
and it will install machinery for other
products in connection with the needs
of the nation.
The buildings of the Ensley plant al
ready cover almost twenty acres. They
include blast furnaces as big around
as haystack and as<high as ten
story house. These furnaces are large
ly heated by gas, which is hy-product
of the coke ovens. They have alto
gether a capacity of 1000 tons of pig
iron per day. Gas pipes SO large that
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 bathtub for an elephant. send
forth showers Of sparks and flames
more brilliant than those which reduced
Sodom to ashes. Here you see rivers
of boiling bubbiing metal flowing in
waterfalls of gold from the furnaces
into the cars, and there vast clouds of
Steam burst forth like volcanoes in
cooling the coke.
Everything is on an enormous scale.
and that after such cost-efiiciency meth
DDS that the savings are calculated to
the hundredths of thousandthS of cent.
Everything; possible is done by machin-
cry, and the human la Dor, which includes
the work of an army twice as large as
that which Xenophon led on his march
to the sea, is reduced to the minimum.
Nothing is wasted. and the company is
alive to new ideas The employees are
interested in the plant and suggestion
boxes are scattered throughout il in
der that they may give their ideas as to
its Improvement Such suggestions may
be posted in sealed envelopes. and at
intervals n
committee of judges. The best sugges-
ton receives a premium of $780, the sec
ond best. SIS, and there are many other
awards of IS each. This system of Civ
ing the employees a personal interest in
the plant runs throughout all of it's de-
partments.
During my stay / followed the proc
esses 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 turned
to liquid in such way that the i'm
purities may be taken out and only the
iron left. This is the work of the draft
furnaces. The ore is put in with lime
stone and COAL and from the bottom
hot blast is introduced which turns the
whole interior to boiling, bubbling
liquid. many times hotter than the fire
through which Shadrach MeShac and
Abednego walked at the command of King
Northumberland. The blast has been
heated in great stoves to temperature
of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. and IL is
blown into the boiling liquid at a pres
sure of twenty pounds to the square
- inch 1t reduces the mixture of coal.
limestone and coke to n golden liquid
in which the impurities rise to the top
and float, as foam does upon water The
iron. which is the heaviest part of the
mixture, sinks to the bottom. and the
furnace men know just where 1t ends
and where the floating impurities, known
as the Stag, begin. At the latter point
hole is made in the side of the furnace
and the Stag is drawn of. leaving the
, iron below. Later the molten iron is
drawn out through a hole much lower
down 1t is now pig iron, and is ready
to be turned Into steel.
/ wish I could show you the molten iron
S as it flows forth from the furnace 1t
is a flaming stream of the pureSt gold.
/. 1t drops into great ladies holding
7 twenty tons and it boils and bubbles
as these are carried by a locomotive
y to great steel, brick-lined oven which
n holds about 500 tons. This is known as
r a mixer The ladies are lifted by steam
t cranes and poured into it.
-t
After this the iron goes to the Bes-
Z semer converter, an immense egg
e shaped barrel hung upon axles. The
d converter is made of steel plates and
!, lined with material that will withstand
e the fierce heat of the molten Iron. in
d the bottom are set cylindes of fire ella.
3 which are SO arranged that an air
= blast may be forced in at a pressure OF
! thirty pounds to the inch The barrel
is turned on the side while the molten
q iron is poured In, but it rises to an-up-
Q right position as the air roars through
s the metal. As 1t does SO flames lear
: forth from the top. They come out In
n millions upon millions OF sparks. form
: ing mighty fireworks of giant sky.
Q rockets, which grow and grow until th<
5 sparks Join together In lnameA ~ thu
blast continues the dance rise higher
. and higher. They grow whittier, reach