Narrative of the Tenth Annual Meeting. [Volume: 8, Issue: 5, 1889, pp. 274-289]

278

UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION OF

[VO1.. 8,

FOURTH DAY.-ASHLAND, Wis.
On arriving at Ashland, in special sleeping cars, a delegation of
citizens escorted the party to the Chequamegon House, and, after
breakfast, provided carriages to visit the handsome plant of the
Ashland Iron and Steel Company.
THE HINKLE FURNACE.
The ore is run into a stockhouse 62 feet wide, 150 feet long and
32 feet high, on two elevated tracks passing through the building
into an annex, where charcoal is stored for emergencies, that for
daily use being taken from the cars direct and put into chargingbuggies. Immediately back of the stock-house, and within a short
distance is the hoist-tower, a brick structure, 85 feet high, in which
is an Otis hoisting-engine. The stack is a taper-shell, 60 feet in
height and 12 feet in diameter at the base. The air is supplied by
an Allis engine, with 72-inch air-cylinder and 48-inch stroke, to
two Whitwell fire-brick hot-blast stoves, each 12 x 60 feet, where
it is heated to an average temperature of about 900 degrees.
The casting-house has been enlarged on account of the increased
output, and is about 521 feet wide and 152 feet long. The furnace
was not running to its full capacity, its yield being 80 to 85 tons
per day of foundry iron, while during the former blast the production at times exceeded 100 tons per day, and, on one occasion, Mr.
Hunt states that 122 tons were made. About 85 bushels of charcoal and 1- tons of Lake Superior ore were used to make a ton
of pig-iron. Steam is furnished by three batteries of Heine watertube boilers. We publish the record of the furnace in this issue
under the caption " Blast-Furnace Records."*
ORE DOCKS.
The party next proceeded to the ore docks of the Milwaukee,
Lake Shore and Western and the Wisconsin (entral railroads, the
first named having two docks, and the latter, one. The Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western docks are each 1400 feet long, and
have 234 pockets, with capacities of 24,000 and 30,000 tons respectively. The Wisconsin Central Railroad dock is 1404 feet
long, and has a capacity of 28,250 tons. The combined capacities
of the three docks would supply a blast-furnace for an entire year
* Vide page 274.