Evening star., 1942-09-25
Steel Makers Warn
OF Inability 10 Build
Scrap Stock Piles
Nay Have to Close Some
Furnaces Unless
MoterioI Is Found
~ the Associated Press.

| sVotSgH W. - V0uO
| ~ the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Sept. 2S.-while tn,
Nations newspapers today sparkee
enthusiasm for the next three weeks
intensive scrap metal salvage cam.
paign, steel men gave this gloom,
warning:
Unless millions Of tons Of junket
ironyAnd steel are soon found, some
Of their furnaces, which otherwist
could be producing all-out for war
may have to lie idle.
O. M. White. vice president Of tn,
Republic Steel Corp, said:
Last winter and spring the scrar
situation was 20 acute that Republic
had one or more open hearth fur
naces standing idle continuously
from November through May. Had
sufncient scrap been available, thess
furnaces could have produced l73..
900 additional tons Of ingots.
Unable to Build Stocks.
"Since May Republic has beer
able to obtain adequate supplies o1
scrap for current operations but ha.
been unable to build up stocks TO,
the winter months, when scrap col.
lections will again be curtailed.
New blast furnaces financed by
the Government will ease this stu
alton to some extent, but Republic's
ingot capacity has also been in
creased since last winter and we
are very much afraid that we will
lose ut least rs much ingot pro-
duction between now and the spring
Of 1943 as we did last year"
Newspaper executives and steel
men agreed that collection OF the
vital scrap might be speeded II city
dwellers and farmers knew the why
and wherefore Of scrap from the
time 1t is found in q home till 1t Is
sent on its way as Z plate for Q ship
or tank.
Following Is an explanation:
In peacetime, steel mills can re-
claim . great part Of the needed
scrap from their own operations
and 1t is thrown back into the fur
naces to make more steel.
But now the recovery is much
smaller because 50 much Of the
production is for war purposes, such
as ingots for export to this coun-
try's allies and plates for ships and
tanks that may be lost at sea or in
q desert.
II any householder, reading that
the mills this year will need more
than As million tons of scrap, gets
the idea his little 20 or Is pounds OF
scrap Is a poor contribution, he Is
wrong.
Those poor" contributions, null
tiplted on . Nationwide basis, be.
come millions Of tons.
Scrap and Pig Iron.
The steel industry uses scrap to
make its supplies Of raw materials
60 further. FOR instance:
Steel II made generally from a
mixture Of half scrap. half pig iron.
A ton Of pig iron itself Is made
from two tons Of iron ore, half
ton Of limestone and more than
three-quarters Of Q ton Of coke all
piled into 3 blast furnace.
Next the pig iron is refined into
steel BY being mixed with an equal
amount Of scrap. principally In two
kinds Of furnaces: s + '''
l. Open hearth furnaces = big.
shallow, kettlelike affairs heated by
gas, oil or tar--with some Of them
holding 200 tons Of n1etal at . time.
2. Electric furnaces-also kettles,
but usually smaller than open
hearths-in which over. 80 per cent
OF the materials used are scrap.
High quality alloy steels-such q
90 into sirplane engines and most
OF the key parts Of . gun or tank
are made in the electric furnaces.
Just TO see how 1t works:
Suppose Sunday night, exactly at
midnight, your old lawnmower Is
part Of load Of scrap charged into
an open-hearth furnace. BY noon
Monday the furnace has done its
work and the steel is poured into
molds to solidify into ingots.
The ingot. however, is not yet q
steel plate. Plate production now
is at . rate Of over 10000, 900 tons
. year, twice as much plate a was
needed In 1920. Steel plates 60 into
tanks, machinery, new war plants,
naval and cargo ships.
Before the ingot becomes a plate
1t must be heated white hot, nat
tened on a rolling mill, inspected,
shorn to size and tested for quality,
From the time the lawnmower en-
ters the furnace until the finished
ship plate is placed on a railroad
car en- route to a shipyard 81 days
elapse.