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

No. 4.]

CHARCOAL IRON WORKERS.

207

good ore from the owners' mines, which was blown out twice and
banked down five or six times in a year for want of ore, and the material furnished was very imperfectly prepared. Another furnace, operated by a corporation with ample capital, has the reputation of receiving a large part of its burden from ores refused by other furnaces,
which are bought under the supposition that they are cheap. We
could instance a manager who asserted with candor that he doubted
if good chilling car-wheel metal could be made if anything but the
wooden blowing-tubs and open tuyeres were used, and another was
positive that no furnace would work well with charcoal which had not
the old saucer-shaped boshes. A man, whose title was general manager of a blast-furnace, suggested to his superintendent the propriety
of sweeping out the inside of hot blast-pipes while the oven was cooled
down to clean the outside of the pipes and repair some leaks. We
need not repeat similar statements to emphasize our assertion that
some of the older established furnaces have more to fear from their
owners or managers than from any new competition. We note
others improving their plants, securing better prepared ores, or enriching the mixtures, studying the fuel problem with care, the direction of the operations being confided to intelligent, progressive
managers, who are sustained by the owners. These last are not
the furnaces which are expected to be speedily wiped out of existence. 4
We are not slow to recognize the rapid advance being made in
comparatively new sections, and we rejoice to see a proper development of local resources and the establishment of new industries,
but in some of these districts the most foolish predictions are madepredictions which can only be explained by gross ignorance or
falsehood, and which will result in injury to the sections whose
praise is sounded. The race for pre-eminence is not to be a onesided affair. We have pointed out some weak points which prevail among a portion of the older established plants, and indicated
what we believe to be a remedy. The newer plants must be
equally vigilant and progressive, for a modern construction can,
under inefficient management, lose as much money for its owners as
an ancient works; imperfectly prepared ores or unsatisfactory fuel
are as costly and troublesome in one section as another, and a furnace plant which has no working capital and interest on a heavy