The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-03-02
BEEHIVE OVENS
PUT BIRMINGHAM
ON MINERAL MAP
Old Superannuated Group
Being Dismantled BY
Sl0ss-Sheffield
MODERN BY-PRODUCT
OVENS USHER NEW ERA
Component Parts Of Coal Now
Saved, Which Formerly Went
Up In Smoke

ulbmdntllnk some Oh Une Olu Uec"uAVD
ovens, squat and dingy sentinels Of
an industrial past.
Time was when equipment Of this
kind was the basis of the districts
manufacturing life, for there was no
other way of producing coke for use
in foundries and furnaces than by the
old and wasteful method. Six tons
of coal, dumped into one of the old
bee-hives by means of negro power,
baked forty-eight hours and produced
3 10 tons of coke-nothing less-about
sixty per cent lost.
Today, seventeen tons of coal, auto
matically fed into a modern Semet-Sol-
way oven, will produce 75 per cent of
that weight in coke, and, in addition,
will create useful by-products num-
bering into the hundreds.
Waste Serves City
Where formerly everything but three
coke went up in wasted smoke from the
beehive ovens, the new process in
vogue today furnishes the entire city
of Birmingham with its illumina ting and
cooking gas, runs power houses that
generate current for mines, provides
L
plants. 1t provides coal tar for creo-
sote oil, roofing materials, fertilizer
ingredients for farmers of the south
Woco Pep and Go-Zip for your motor
car! And coal tar products, numbre-
ing literally into the hundreds, ulti-
mately are turned out, through vari-
Gus graduations of refinement--the very
drug you take for a headache may
come from the gas you once saw spout
ing out in smoky clouds from the
ancient bee-hives.
The Sloss- Sheffield company is not
dismantling all the old bee-hives, but
a number of them are being RACED
to make way for track extensions.
However, they never will be used again.
The changes of the last ten or twelve
years have rev0lutionized the science
of coke production. Not only is bet
ter coke produced by the by-product
method. but the tail is beginning to
wag the dog, so to speak, for the
by-products are coming to prove Of
greater value than the product.
Built In 1882
The old bee-hives Of the SIoss-Shef-
field company were built in 1SS2-there
were 2SS Of them in all.
The process then used for coke pro-
duction not only was iaborious and
wasteful, but the problem of getting
men to work on the ovens at all was
one of the thorns in the side of the in
dustrial man. The negro and his pro-
verbal mule drove over the tops Of
the oven battery, propelling one Of the
old fashioned Carries" containers with
convenient apertureS at the bottom
which could be opened to dump the
fnkn af h. H.
greatest difficulty, however, came in
drawing the ovens after the coal had
been baked a sufficient period to pro-
duce coke, usually As hours. The
heat was almost unbearable, and the
laborer welded a fork which to one
of Impractical muscle would find too
heavy to use. This type of skilled
negro labor was difficult to procure;
one plant was wont TO bid against
another for its men, and it was a per-
petual problem to get sufficient men
to handle the work.
Withal, the product was inferior to
that produced today by more facile
methods. In order to make foundry
coke it was necessary for the oven 70
burn Y hours-three days.
Modern Plant
The modern by-product plant of the
Sloss- Sheffield company at North Bir-
mingham is composed of the Semet-
Solvay type, and is considered one Of
the model coke plants of the United
States. The entire process is auto
matte, from the filling of the ovens by
means of electrical larries, to eAe final
screening of the various grades pro-
duced. Only from 10 to 20 hours, i'm
stead of AZ hours, are required to pro-
duce by-product coke. The ovens, in an
endless process of renewal of energy,
use their own by-product gas, about
half of the total daily output of APP
proximately 25,O0O,000 cubic feet be-
ing employed for this purpose.
Where all save the coke was lost
in the old process, the modern ovens
produce 8 to ~ gallons of coal tar
for each ton of coal used, which is
shipped to refineries in the district to
be prepared for commercial purposes.
Each ton of coal also yields from rs
to 30 pounds of ammonium sulphate,
which is supplied to southern fertilizer
companies to be combined with potash,
phosphates, etc, for use as fertilizer.
Birmingham was the first industrial
district in the country to market motor
benEol secured as a by-product from
this process. About 2% gallons Of
this product, one of the principal in.
gradients of Woco-Pep and Go-Zip, are
produced from each ton of coal at the
by-product plant. D.
Utilizing Waste
The utilization of the vast quantities
of by-product gas that formerly went
to waste daily at Birmingham manufac.
turing plants, is one of the compare.
lively recently outgrowths of the new
process of coke manufacture. In adj
dition to its own needs, which include
fuel for a power plant supplying its
mines, the Sloss-Sheffield company pro-
duces enough of hits industrial gas at
its North Birmingham plant to sup
uly the entire city of Birmingham with
domestic gas. 1t is sold to the Bir-
mingham Railway, Light and Power
company, which retails the gas to its
customers after it is properly purified
for domestic use.
The plant of the Alabama By-Prod-
ucts company at Tarrant City is sup
plying millions of feet of industrial
by -product gas daily to such concerns
as the American, United States and
National Cast Iron Pipe companies,
other plants, and the demnad for this
kind of fuel is growing daily.
The by-products plant of the Sloss-
Sheffield company at North Birming-
ham was placed in operation In 1920.
In addition to this plant. aud that Of
the Alabama By-Products company at
Tarrant City, the Tennessee Coal, Iron
and Railroad company maintain a by.
product plant at Fairfield, the Wood.
ward Iron company one at Woodward,
the Semet-Solvay company one at Ems
ley. and the Gulf States Steel company
one at Alabama City
Soroo of kko ali fnsks.-nI L.. II.