Blast-Furnace Management. [Volume: 8, Issue: 4, 1889, pp. 204-208]

204

UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF

[VOL. 8,

Blast-Furnace Management.
To one who carefully studies the operation of American blastfurnaces there appear many conditions which help to make up the
causes of success or failure attending the efforts of individual managers; for it is not alone to the person who has actual or apparent
charge of a furnace plant that results are attributable. There are
good and bad managers and there are good and bad principals who
either help or retard their subordinates.
The credit of the wonderful advance made in American blastfurnace practice is very largely attributable to the managers of our
furnace plants, and we know of individual instances where even
better results would have followed had the managers been properly
sustained by the owners or directors of iron-works. On the other
hand, cases could be cited where the management of blast-furnaces is
such as to materially restrict, if not to ultimately cripple, the works.
We have before asserted that eternal vigilance is the price of success in blast-furnace practice-but unless such vigilance is properly
recognized and sustained by those who really control the policy of
the organization, only partial success at best can be secured. If a
blast-furnace manager obtains good results with a poorly equipped
plant, or by the use of imperfectly prepared stock, we may naturally
expect that better returns would follow the adoption of such improvements in plant or material as a policy of true economy may
dictate.
A manager who with meagre facilities accomplishes satisfactory
results for his principals, is fairly entitled to be consulted concerning possibilities of better operation from modern structures or improved materials. We, however, recognize in some iron-works a
parsimony (which is mistaken for economy) by the owners that
restricts the management and forces a contention with disadvantages
which could be readily removed if a liberal spirit pervaded the controlling power.
On the other hand, there are managers so wedded to ancient traditions and practice-so averse to attempting, or even studying the
merits of modern plants or methods-that notwithstanding a desire
and intention on the part of the owners to keep up with progress