Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-10-17
MAKING OF STEEL
Interesting Facts About A Wonder.
full Industry.
DISCOVERY OF BEssEHER PROCESS

Two Men Caught the Idea at Abou,
the Same Tims-Ths Open Hearth
Process 10 Still in Most Universal
Use. N
In view Of the nation wide attention
now directed toward the strikes OF
steel workers, the National Geographic
Society has issued bulletin, based on
communication from William Joseph
Showal:er, concerning the making OF
steel, which he terms "industry's
greatest asset" The bulletin follows:
The story of Bessemer steel is one
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
conclusion 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 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
as sparks, to his discontinue and the
crowds, amusement. He finally suc-
ceeded in getting the amount Of air
regulated, and poured out Of his con-
verter the first Bessemer steel. People
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 converters.
Both Kelly and Bessemer were baf-
fled by the problem Of regulating the
supply, Of air 80 that 1t would not burn
out all the carbon, a little Of which is
essential to steel. Furthermore. their
products frequently proved to be britt
.le,! owing to the fact that the molten
metal absorbed oxygen from the
air blast. The hrst difficulty was solved
eventually by the expedient Of burning
out practically all the carbon, then
adding exactly the amount required for
the specific quality of steel desired. The
second difficulty was overcome through
F. Mushet, Scotch steel maker. Cor
ansson, Swedish ironmaster had pre-
viously achieved the same rseults by
using pig iron initially rich in man
ganege. Thereafter undetrdone and
overdone steel, disappeared.
To go into a great building where
there is battery of Bessemer convert
ers Is to see more heat than Dante ever
pictured. A converter Is huge legg
swung amidships' 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 con-
stitute the impurities, and carries
them away. Millions Of red and White
sparks fill the air, as IL some demon
within the fiery fluid were giving a
pyrotechnic performance. A thousand
engines, with safety-valves Kissing un-
der tremendous pressure, have the
voice of a zephyr in comparison. First
the flame that pours forth is violet,
then shades into orange, becomes a
dazzling white. burning finally to
faint blue. which Is a sign that all the
impurities are gone.
Then the blast ceases, the carbon
that is necessary to replace the need
ed portions burned out is added, the
great brick and steel egg swings back
to position, the carbon is mixed with
the fervent fluid, and then the egg
tips over on It's side and out Of the top
flows the liquid steel into great ladle.
When 1t is swung back into position, q
man with colored glasses walks out
over the converter and peers down into
its white-ho depths to see II the heat
from the last charge has melted away
any of the fire-brick lining. 1t has,
he hurls balls of putty-like clay down
into the holes to stop them up. or sets
crew Of workmen to patching the
damaged shell. This done, the big egg
swings back again, gets another charge
of molten iron, and begins the pro-
cess over again. The whole operation
takes about 20 minutes-a ton OF
steel a minute. Bessemer steel is useo
for structural material, railroad rails
wire and pipe.
In 1900 there was twice as rnuch
steel produced in the United States oy
the Bessemer as by the open-heartn
process. But with the rapid exhaus-
ton of ores having the proper amounts
of phosphorous for converter practice
the open-hearth furnace, which can
use with equal success ores which con-