Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1919-11-08
STRANGE FACTS THAT
FEW PEOPLE KNOW

In view of the nationwide attention
now directed toward the strike of steel
workers the National Geographic So
ciety has issued a bulletin, based on
a communication from William Joseph
Showalter, concerning the making of
steel. which he terms .'industry's
greatest asset" The bulletin follows
THE story Of Bessemer steel is ono
OF the fascinating chronicles of the
Industrial world. 1t seems to have
been one of those cases where two
men working in different countries,
each without knowledge of what the
other was doing, reached the same con-
clusion about the same time. Both
were granted American patents; but
upon application for renewal, the
patent office held Kelly to be the in
ventor. The world, however. gives the
credit to Bessemer, and the process Is
known as the Bessemer process.
Kelly was a maker of old fashioned
cooking pots and kettles. 1t is related
that one day he was sitting in front of
his furnace and observed a point of
incandescence where there was no
charcoal-only the metal and the air.
This led him to contend that air alone
would burn out the impurities from
molten iron. When he developed his
fitting converter, his engineer blew
such a tremendous blast through the
first charge that iron and all went up
a. sparks, to his discontinue and the
crowds amusement. He finally sue
ceeded in getting the amount of air
regulated, and poured out of his con-
verter the first Bessemer steel. Peo-
pie said Kelly would soon be burning
ice. Since his old converter was first
used, billions of dollars worth of steel
has flowed out of the worlds con-
verters.
Both Kelly and Bessemer were baf-
fled by the problem of regulating the
supply Of air so thai II would not burn
out all the carbon, a little Of which is
essential to steel. Furthermore, their
products frequently proved to BIO brit
tie, owing to the fact that the molten
metal absorbed oxygen from the air
Last The first difficulty was solved
eventually by the expedient OF burn
inY out practically all the carbon, then
adding exactly the amount required
for the speciflc quality of steel desired,
The second difficulty was overcome
through the addition of manganese to
take care of the hurtful oxygen The
latter suggestion was the contribution
OF Robert +. Mushet, Scotch steel
maker. GoranssoD, a Swedish IRON
master, mad previously achieved tie
same results by using pig iron in
italy rich In manganese. Thereafter
UNDERGONE and overdone steel disao-
peared.
ITO go into a great building where
there is battery of Bessemer con-
verters Is to see more heat than Dante
ever pictured. A converter is q huge
egg swung 'amidships1 on trunions. The
great egg of steel lined with fire brick
has the top off. Some twenty tons
OF molten pig are poured into 1t, and
then through some two hundred little
holes In the bottom powerful engines
pump In a stream of cold air. AS the
oxygen laden air sweeps up through
the molten iron, It touches the molten
carbon and silicon, which constitute
the impurities, and carries them away
Millions Of red and white sparks fill the
air, ~ II some demon within the fiery
fluid were giving a pyrotechnic per-
Torrance. A thousand engines, with
safety valves kissing under tremendous
pressure, have the voice Of q xephvr
In comparison. First the flame thai
pours forth IL violet. then shades into
orange. burning finally to faint blue.
which Is a sign that all the impurities
are gone.
"Then the blast ceases, the carbon
Cd portions burnt out IL added. the
great brick and steel err swings haolr
to position. the carbon II mixed Win
the fervent fluid, ,ad then the err tips
over on its side. and out Of the ton
flows the liquid steel into great la
ola When it 10 swung back into no.
sition a man with colored glasses walk.
out over the converter and peers down
into its white hot drpths To. see e the
Heat from the last charge has me}teS
away any Of the fire brick lininr. n
e has ho hurle balls Of putty Hke ola~