The Iron Age

Xr<m Zl^ricm ' KttWpara Joykri»hn% I'oblio LtteMf Ck>vt of West Bcogal New York, January 12, 1922 ESTABLISHED 1855' Semi-Continuous Bar Mill for Alloy Steel Cooling E<juipraent Embodies Iiielined EM*apement and Hori- zontal Notched Bed Features — Flat Spring Steel Is Self-annealed in Packs HY K. L. PRENTISS Tlu pi-oliit m wfisi put uj) tu the Morgan Cmistnictinij <'u., vvii^fh itu orpoiatod in the cooling bed means fnr self anntahng under temperature control, with neither fuiM mu* laho)- rests. This eooJing }>e«| i< a mtuhination of two distinct types f»f btui. 'J'ht* first [lorlioTi is the well known Edwards inclined cvcapeinent bed, which in this case has racks very much shorter than usual. The function tif this portion of the bed is to ctintrol the bars while they drop from rolling heat to annealing heat. The second pf»rtion is a liorizontal notched bed capable of The Coolini; B<}ci Is n ('orribinatlon of tlu* IriiiUned KsuipcjiKuit T.vik* ami thi^ IJorlasontal Notche^t Type. Hotween. the two Hcctlons Ik a iiae^ini? device,' Ihu alloy spring steel being carried In packs acioks Uic , horizontal section. The product self -annealed In these slowJy - cooling’ packs Tl'c cooling hfd is lUmhlc ^the photograph showing only one st^^c) tt) txike caro.of the large output f)rk wise the mill Is opfraiinp for .some tiim- on alloy steel spring Hats, and ]?e<jt«Srlng cq^ntlfitidus use the paqMng device. The mug’ioiic conlrollrrs for the auxiliary motorH are on halconteK aloriR the ajde wall, safety ftrst feature bed talfes a very large portion of th^ mill building reofeiving several bars in a .single notch. Connectings and, in a dwai^s the rdtling mill Jinit proper. In these two portions of the bed is a mechanism designed this particdl^r Tase, the cooling bed is mere than ever to place flat alloy spring steel ^in, an orderly pack in the predoii^nil!ll^' ieature of the^ill, not only because the first notch. £lueh a pack, Having been farmed at a it iiB a double beia, 24(1 ffc lon^, but also Wavse thei‘c high temperature, retains its heat very mtich longer has been incorpora^ in this bed means or controlling thah .a single bar and th^ necessary self-annealing is the physical structure of the. rolled product. thus performed in these slowly cooling packs. The ' The annealing bf alloy steel spring flats after roll- ipechanism can handle flats up to 6% in. wide in packs ing is a costly but necessary operation* which the up to 3 In. to 4 in. high. Each pack is can:ied as a United Alloy Steel Corporation has long sought to unit from notch to notch until it is delivered upon 141 T he United Alloy Steel Corporation. Canton, Ohio, has recently placed in opera ti<in a new 12-jn. semi-continuous bar mill, designed and built by the Morgan Construction Co., Worcester, Mass. Tt is of a special type and includes interesting and novel fca lures to insure the economical production of laige out puts of high quality alloy steel product‘s. The most interesting feature of the installation is the equipment for handling the steel from the time it lcuve.s the finishing rolls until it i.s cooled and sheared. In modern merchant bai mills, tlic automatic cooling 142 The Iron Age January 12, 1922 r?f>11i llif hikI l^Mnisl lup Mills Aie’ Driven 1*3* One Mottn* Tliis i.*- 'tofMi-hp iinliietinn ninlor vi'hie}i s provi«U‘i.] wjlli :i Kraiin-r i ♦‘Si'ilal liij: Jet ftir . >iil i mIIidk tin* plettricalJy-drivcu shuffit.* Inir.s which scpaiate tht* pack Steel fur the 12-iii. mill is made on a .‘{p-in, bloom- and carry the bars to the shear table. The cooling bed mg mill, and after the billets have been inspected care- is oircnated by electric motor.s throughout, these being fully and chipped for the leinovnl irf surface imper- controllfcd from a pulpit by an operator having a clear factions, they are transfei red to the billet storage view' of the entire bed. building, 80 x ilOO ft., which adjoins the mill building. To provide for the, large output of this mill, the This is covered by a lO-ton Alliance crane which de cooling bed is made double, and the product is dc*- livers the billets to the furnace charging platforms, livered to two No. 5 “Q” Morgan bar shears and back The billot^ are charged intu two Morgan gravity .shear tables. These .shears, with their V>ack sh<‘ar discharge' continuous-heating fiirnace.s of the regenei- Lables, deliver the cut product into cradle.-;, mounted alive type with hearths, .‘>4 x 18 ft. They are tired directly upon 100,000 lb. Fairbanks, Morse & (ki. .scales, by gas from a battery of eight Morgan producers. Each shear is equipped with two hand-traversed shear This battery of producer.<^ al.'^o .serves the soaking ]dt.s gages. The shears and back shear tables are located of the bloc.niing mill which r»c( uj>y an adjacent building, in the shipping (department of the mill, wJiich is a The waUu-cooled furnace' .'•kid pipes extend to with building of OO-ft, span and .800 ft. in length, at right in 7 ft. of the discharge* end of the furnace where they angles to the main building, Thi.s is served by two turn downwards. The remainder of the hearth bottom 10-ton Alliance cranes. Extension of this building is is of magnesite. On this hearth the ('old spots in the possible should the necessity for more shipping space billets caused by the water cooled skids disappear, arise. Three standard gage loading tracks serve the A new feature of the healing furnaces is the isley shipping building, and in addition, a narnnv gage track gas regulating valve. Thi.'^ is the First installation of connects this building with a heat-treating dojiartmcnt. this form of gas legulator. The producers are located The Finishing Mill Consists of Four 12-in. Staadfl, of the Staggered Utio Type. Arranged in Twp Trains. The mill is eguipued with four "Y" reversing skew roller tables which connect the successive passes. These tables are sufflclenUy long to handle, with any ordinary series of reduction, bars having a finished length of 240 ft. X IlJb XMMJK AU& 14«S SixLoori-IiU'h Verliral Kdpine Are Tl.^ed Wh«n Rolling Kliti Tlirn hy iiivatiy the Number of Slab ScetioiiH Roqinnjrt to Tov^r the Itan^e of I'roduction. Two are ahovvii, *iu in of tin- lilth a^and, another following ihe sixth stand fully 100 ft. from Iho furnace. Tlio enters the mill building underground, and passes u]) through Ihe regulating valves, wlu‘re its admission to the furnaet^ is manually-t'ontrolled by the hc^aler from the furnace platform. flacli furnace is etpiipfied with a single l.sh*y re* versing valve, which conti'<*ls the regeneration of the air. Since tht* prodiicis of eomhustion flow through the heating furnace in one direction only, the valve is neces.sarily placed between thi* furnace and the checker ('harnber.s, and must liandio j'U one side the products of eomhustion at their maximum jieat. and on the other, the incoming air at its maxiojum heat. The valve is similar to thi' lsb\v va)\e commonly used under the less .scvtuv (‘onduions of open-heai lh pra< - lice. Billots disi'harged from iht* hearing furnace are carried on a standarii hillct coM\<\vor the roughing mill. In the table, in front of the first nojghing stand, is an fdootrically-d riven shear f<n' dividing billets in order to produce in Ihe lini-ihcd section the di'sired length for ihe cooling bed. The roughing mill is a special Morgan .soini-con- tinuoiis mill, consisting of six i-oughing and four lini.sh- ing stands. The first two roughing stands have IH-in. rolls, the last fion , Ib-m. rob:-. The roughing mill is bn»ken up into groups with connetting tables, the ar- I'angeiju nt hemg such that the hai’ runs free butwe^en the first and second, the second and thirds and the f(»urth and fifth stands. In front of the fifth, and follovcing the sixth rough- ing stands, are vertnal edging mills, driven from the cross .shafts of the j'oiighing mill. The Cidgirig rolls are employed when rolling tbits, and by their use the number of slab sections re(|uired to cover the range of proiluction is greatly lessened. The linishing mill consists cf four r2-in. stands of the (ieorge staggered duo lyF>e, the arrangement ])emg tw<» trams of two stands each. The mill is equipped \\ilh four reversing skew I'oller tables which con - nect the .successive passi^s. Tliese lable.s are, ample in length to produce, with any ordinary .series of reduc- tions, bars having a length of 240 ft. when finished. The roiigliing inili is designed to roll its proiluct from billets, fJ in. to 0 in. .svpiare, and from slabs, V, in. 'o 0 in. wide, and up to 2‘''; in. thick. The mill uses both billets and .slabs up to II ft. d in. in length. The usual practice will be to use 4 and b-^in. billets^ except when rolling the larger round bar.s, for which d-in. billets will be required. The finishing mill can 111111^11111401111 The Httafing Furnaces Are Equipped vdth I.sloy Regulating Valves, This Uolng th« First Installntioii of Tlds Form of Cl as Refioilalor. The gas enters the mill building underground :in«t passes through the regulating valve, its admission to tho fur-' naco being ninnually controlled by a heater from tl\e furnace plrttfonii. Each furnace Is also equipped with a .single Islay rc- vorsing valve for controlling the regeneration of the air. The gas regulating valve is shown In the foreground and the reversing valve back of it in front of the disc)mrg€i mid of the furnace 144 the Ikon Acs Aonwiy 12, 1222 jHNjduce rounds from % lb 2H in. in diameter, fiats up to (iVfe in. wide, and equivalent sections. The expected output is upwards of 10,000 tons per month of alloy iind carbon steel. The mill building is 90 x 680 ft., with a 40 x 100 ft. lean-to for the electrical sub-station. The roof is of the ordinary truss type. Ample window space is pro- vided, steel sash on roller bearings being used through- out. The shipping and billet storage buildings are similar in roiiatriietion. A railroad track extends part W'ay clown one side of the mill building for bringing in rolLs and carrying out refuse. The building is served by a 10-ton Alliance ci*anc. The water supply comes from the plant's general water works system. Water from the furnaces and mill is discharged to the .sewer IhiHiugh two scale pits. Both the* roughing and finishing milks are driven by the same motor through a line shaft and gears. A set of main gears reduces the speed of the main motor to the desired speed for the main shaft. The driving DISMANTLFNC; VKSSELS \a\al nfib'ials ImcNtigating as to Melliod of IVoreiliin* Washington, Jan. 10 Data arc hinne a.ssembled by naval cflicials with the aid of private interests, look- ing to the development of practical plan.*^ for the dis- mantling of vessels which the Navy is otfci mg for sale, and otliers that will In* disposed of acctirdiiig to the terms of the (’oiiferenec on the l.imitaticm of Arma- ment. The material will he of great value in the evemt a permanent ship salvaging industry is established. The scratiping of the naval vessels would be an impor- tant preliminary to the institution of .such an industry. With the eo-operation of publishers of leehnieal papers, acetylene torch interests, and shipbuilders, as well us through its own direct efforts, the Navy De- partment is obtaining information from England France and Germany as Uj the preci.^e methods used in those countries in dismantling war ve.^sels. Accom- panying these studies will be photographs and possildy diagrams and charts showdiig the actual w'ork of beach- ing, dry docking and .scrapping the vessels, and the lo- cations of site.s of the work wdth respect to steel plants consuming the sci-ap that is removed and cut to size. After this material is as.seinbled, il is likely that another conference, supplementing the one held recently at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, will be held in Wa.sh- ington and specific discussion made of the entire scrap ping program. It is believed on that occasion finan- ciers, acetylene torch people, .shipbuilder.^, and others, will he presented with sufficiently concrete studies of the subject so that they can intelligently make offers to the Navy Department for the purchase of vessels, W'ith more a.ssurance tlian has been possible heretofore, as to the success of their undertaking, which, being new', is in a state of uncertainty. Investigations by privatt' interests tlicm.selve.s also will aid them in pre- paring estimates, .should they become interested in the matter, and correspondence with the Navy Department indicates that they have been giving the question con- .^iderable study and are becoming intcre.sted in it. It is believed that as to the iron and steel manu- facturers, the only concern they wnll have will be as consumers of the scrap to be salvaged, and it remains to he se<‘n whellier this will he made available to them at altractiv(* prices, and whether or not the tonnage will bo desired, in view of the present unsatisfactory condition <kf the iron and steel markers. While it has beem stated that England has devel- oped the shiji salvaging industry to u greater and more scientific point than any other country, this opinion is not accepted by some who have casually studied the <|uestion. On the contrary, they think tjiat Germany leads in this respect and that that country', through its experience in dismantling ships since the armistice has e.stablished th(‘ industry on a more economic and satis- unit is a 3000 hp., S-phase, 60-cycle> 2200-voltf West- inghouse Induction motor, having a synchronous speed of 507 r.p.m. The motor is provided with a Kraemer regulating set which gives speed control between 500 and 300 r.p.m. Electric current is supplied from the main power station, and is stepped down from 11,000 volts to 2200 volts through three 2000 kw. transformers. There are also three 333 kw. transformers which step down the 11,000 volt current to 181 volts for a rotary converter which supplies 250 volt direct current to the auxiliary motors that operate the cranes, mill tables, cooling bed and other equipment. All the motors, converters and transformer equipment were furnished by the Westing- house Electric &. Mfg. Co. All motors have magnetic control, either of the Westinghouse or Cutler-Hammer type. A safety feature in the plant arrangement is the placing of the magnetic controllers for the auxiliary motors on balconies along the side wall, several feet above the floor. factory basis than any other. For this reason as much information as possible is to be obtained from the oper- atiorhs of the industry in Germany. Another faet which indieatos that the work of dis- nianiling ship.s in Germany has developed to a success- ful point, at least for that country with its low costs of labor, is that several German firms are showing a keen interest in the proposed dismantling of American ship.s and have written to the Navy Department at- tempting to gi‘t the contracts for the dismantling of American vessels, which would have to be taken to Ger- many. These offers, how'ever, are not being given the slightest consideration. At the outset, the Naval offi- cials point out that the proposed plan of limiting the building of war vessels has been a severe blow to the shipyards of the United States, and it is not proposed to iidd to the? difficulties of shipbuilders and workers by letting the work go outside of the United States. Secondly, Naval officials consider it absurd to think that a great industrial i-ountry like the United States cannot, if it chooses, develop a ship salvaging indu.stry as efficient in every respect as any other country. The assembling of information from foreign coun- tries regarding salvaging may delay negotiations for the sale of the various naval vessels on which bid< have been asked and which are to be opened on Jan. 16. I’inie of No Aecideiits “1 believe the day is coming when we will have no accidents in industry. You and 1 may live to see that day,” says Charles Close, manager of the Bureau of Safety, Sanitation, and Weltare of the United States Steel Corporation, in National SafMy News, '‘Two years ago T would not have said that,” he con- tinued, “but when 1 think of our Farrell Works, with a normal force of 3000 men, with all the hazards of the steel industry, going two months without a lost time accident, and our Edgar Thompson plant with a nor- mal fon'e of 6000 men going 54 days without an acci- dent, and other remarkable records made by many of our plants, I do not hesitate to say 1 believe the day is coming when we will have no accidents in industry. And it is not very long ago that old timers were saying no .steel mill could ever go a week without an accident. “But to bring about the time of no accidents we have to develop a new generation of workmen. We must train the child so that he will develop habits of .safety. We must do more than show him the safe way of doing things once, twice, or ten times. We must teach him the safe way of doing things every day, so that when he comes into the shop as a workman he will habitually do the safe thing just as his father to- day habitually does the unsafe thing.” The main building of the Pittsburgh Steel Tube Co.^ Beaver, Pa., was destroyed by fire on the morning of Jan. 1. The building was one story, of brick construc- tion and housed the drawing mill and machine shop. Light Movement of Lake Superior Ore * Steel Corporation and Others Give Employment to Miners to Prevent Suffering — ^Moving of Hibbing Involves Great Expense — ^Interesting Developments BY DWIGHT B. WOODBRIDGE, E. M.* T he Lake Superior iron ore trade of the past year has been at low ebb. Not since 1904, when ship- ments from Lake Superior were slightly under 22,000,000 tons, has there been a season of so small business. This year water shipments have been 22,- 252,871 tons, in addition to which there are some 425,- 000 tons all rail, making the gross tonnage from mines of the lake district 22,778,000 tons. Of this 15,555,000 tons were received at Lake Erie, and about 22,000 tons were sent to the St. Louis district for furnaces there. The figures include 52,145 tons shipped from the Can- adian mines north of Michipicoten. Total movement of the year is almost prtKjisoly 2.2 per cent of the business of 1916, the greatest year in the history of the American iron trade. So much for statistics. They tell their own story. This naturally has led to much unemployment in the iron region, and for a time the past fall, conditions were rather seriou.s. Business conditions on all the ranges were very bad, collections slow, new buying .slight, and a great number of men W(‘ro without any work at all. To the everlasting credit of the Steel < -or- po)-ation be it said that it undeviatingly maintained as nearly as possible a constant fui*ce and, while it was unable to furiii.'jh work to all its nieji continuou.sly, it did arrange to keep most of them on a part time basis. Grateful to the Corporation While a full employment basis would have been about 12,000 men, it has gone into the winter with some 10,000 at work, half tinv* or bett(?r. I well remember the time in Birmingham, a few years after the Steel Corporation became interested there, that the busines.s interests of that city wanted to creel a statue in grate- ful commemoration of the purchase of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. The business men (»f north- ern Minnesota have this winter had Wne in upon them, as never before, the rea.son for that feeling in Birmingham seven or eight years ago. The Steel Cor- poration has realized the danger of unrest by unem- ployment, and its moral obligation to humanity- and to the district. These same considerations have influenced the Lake Superior managers for several of the other concerns in the mining business and they have strained every nerve to induce their Eastern boards to follow a similar humanitarian policy, and finally with no small degree of success. As a rule these boards have been in no easy position in this matter, for they have appre- ciated that ore won now can 'be delivered only at a h^avy loss and that the money for operations largel}' must* be borrowed capital; and perhaps they were not fully awake to the needs of the situation until recently. The" Hanna and Pickands, Mather and other smaller employers have ordered several mines into commission and the year closes with a far brighter labor outlook than was believed possible a few weeks ago. It is ex- pected that additional mines will resume in January and that alleviation will continue throughout the lest of the winter. The general situation is more dra.stic than otherwise on account of the condition of the lor- est products market. Usually this absorbs thousands of men and is exceedingly active during winters: a year ago there were delivered in Duluth alone over one rail- way, the Duluth & Iron Range, 200 carloads of pulp- wood daily for the entire winter; now this business is trifling, as is that of railway posts, poles, ties, etc. Hanna Mines Resume During December the Hanna interests resumed full time operations at four Mesabi mines, adding about 500 »0u1uth, Minn. men to the 250 they had been working there. The rate of pay was reduced to a basis of ?2.75 a day, common labor, so that minors are earning about $3.75. Pick- ands, Mather & Co. resumed at three mines on the Menominee, and will start others on the Mesabi in Jan- uary. Yale, Gogebic range, is to open in January with :I00 men, full time; the Oliver mines at Ironwood are running full time; the Hanna interests have taken over the former Hayes propertie.s, Ashland and others, and have been paying the 1921 scale, but no doubt will re- duce this .soon. Ironton i.s to be on good production soon. Several mines at Crystal Falls are reopened, paying the 1912 scale whicli, at that point of lovr living co.st.s, was about $2.25. Almost nothing is going on in mining on the Mar- quette range. The Gwinn district is idle; stock pile.s are so large in the entire Manpiette region that there is little hope of much activity for some time. At Iron River. Ory.stal Falls, Norway and Vulcan, on the Meno- minee, things are fair /or the time.s; the Cuyuna is al- most in a slate of conm ; the Vermillion is more busy- I'elaiively, than any of lh(‘ lake districts, with most of its mines running and a new one under development The Hopeful Spid Really, the most hopeful spot in the region is Iron Mountain, where, t(» a very limited mine employment, is added the Ford body plant and sawmills, and where there jire under negotiation two blast furnace proj- ects. The expectation i.s that the Ford Motor Co. will construct plants at Iron Mountain for the manufacture of all its motor bodies, and a building 900 ft. long is now under way. By rail shipment to Menominee and from there by water to Detroit, these knocked-down bodies can be delivered cheaply. The Ford purchase of the properties of the Michigan Land & Iron Co. gave it an abundance of hard woods for its requirements. The’ lower the price of ore and in general the gi'eater the need for economy in operation, the higher is the Minnesota proportion of the total output of the Lake Sui>erior region; last year Minnesota's percentage of the total was 63, this year it i.s 79.5. Those figures are eloquent as to the activities of the Michigan districts during the year. European Ores Just now the situation i.s complicated by the advent of northern European ores; while it is probable that the pre.sent price for Kiiruna ores delivered at Philadel- phia, of say 8.5c. per unit of iron, is less than they will bring later, the fact that contracts are being ar- ranged for perhaps 100,000 tons a year at a vessel rate of twenty shillings the ton, Narvik to Philadelphia, is interesting, to say the least. The price of lake ores is much mixed; at a time when prices are still quoted nom- inally at $5.56, Mesabi non-bes.semer, it is claimed by some buyer.s that quotations equivalent to $4.20 are being made. It i.s further stated, by operator.s near St. Louis, that they arc able to buy lake ores at $4 delivered. Thi.s would not leave much above freights. The Proposed Merger Talk of a merger of various independent steel makers, all with more or less ore in the Lake Superior region, has served to call attention to these holdings and to the life of these deposits under normal mining activities as compared with those of the Steel Corpor- ation; also to the vast reserves of the Mesabi Iron Co., soon now to come on the market as finished product of high grade ores. Of the approximately 250,000,000 tons of merchantable iron ore held by the seven steel companies mentioned as entering this merger, Midvale 145 146 TlfS IRON AGB Jasmify 12, iS2St has most, and Brimr Hill leaati bat curiously enovh^ the life of these two, based ott their annual eonsmnlng capacity, is almost the same. It is generally supposed that the ore faiterestg of Pickands, Mather & Co* will be a part of the proposed organization and it is likely that the ore activities of the merger will be directed to a considerable extent by that company’s organization; the situation in this respect is somewhat analoi^us to that of the old Oliver Iron Mining Co. at the time of the organization of the Steel Corporation. The ore organization of the Republic is likely to be a factor also. The mines and ships of Pickands, Mather & Co. will be a valuable adjunct to the properties of the merger. These ships have a seasonal capacity for about 6,000,000 tons of ore, or say 45 per cent of the probable annual requirements. Some of the best ores held by companies expected to enter the merger are on short time leases, and it will be impossible to come anywhere near exhaustion of these mines before the expiration of present leases. The only very important ore tonnage classed as independent to be had in the lake district is that of the Mesabi Iron Co. One effect of the consideration of these facts has been to induce a more active inquiry for mines, and a number of transfers seems to be pending. Furthermore, there has been recent in(jiiiry for undeveloped favorably situated ore lands, and this inquiry and examination has in- . eluded tracts not commercial but containing large de- posits of lean magnetites, capable of concentration, in «both Minnesota and western Ontario. While there are TU> such vast bodies of these ores as that held by the Mesabi Iron Co., there are, nevertheless, deposit.s of fair grades collectively running into hundreds of millions of tons. That these will come into the market in due course there i.s scarcely a doubt. Minnesota Granta Rights After many years of withdrawal from market, the State of Minnesota is again to grant rights on mining lands, and the first bids for leases will he opened Jan. 9, next. There are a few State owned tracts — less than a dozen, perhaps — that present more or less attractive possibilities for mining. The law differs from that which was repealed some years ago in several par- ticulars: The maximum unit of land to he taken under one permit is now 80 acres; formerly 160. The royalty is on a sliding scale based on assay of ore and be- ginning at 25e. or less (dry analysis) on which grade the minimum royalty is 12c. a ton, with a 5 per cent cumulative increase in royalty for every 1 per cent in- crease in grade. Under this an ore assaying 50 per cent (dry) will be charged a minimum royalty of 40.3c., formerly 25c. for all grades. These are minimum roy- alties, but properties are put up for lease under sealed bids which must not be- under the minimums, and are disposed of to the highest bidder. Formerly there were no bids, the first applicant having preference, but if there were synchronous applicants, then these were given opportunity to bid against each other. The sum to be advanced by applicants is now $250, of which $50 is with the application for a permit and $200 is to bind the successful applicant to ‘‘carry out in good faith the covenants of the permit.” Formerly the total cost of a permit was $50. In case land desired contains ore of a class suitable for magnetic separation, only the contained magnetite is considered as iron in figuring the assay value. No doubt there will he many bids for the few tracts worth consideration, most of which probably contain one form or another of concentrating ore. Many old State leases, all of which were for the period of 50 years, are approaching maturity; and it • will be the efforts of lessees to exhaust them in the next 20 y^ars. This will result in the concentration of effort at points where State leases still show large ton- nages, notably to the Mesabi Mountain mine of the Oliver company; and will tend to disarrange former schedules elsewhere. The Removal of Hibbing Of spectacular engineering or developnufiit projects there have been few during the year. Perhaps the most notable of these has been the removal of the village of H&bing, yhliij while twgun; flNsme time, ago, 1$ now practically complete. It is the removal of the 'meet densly populated 40 acres of the business and residence portion of a town of some 12,000 people to a site a couple of miles distant, in order to permit the mining of that 40 acres, which has long been under lease to the Oliver Iron mining Co. A reference to tiie map will show that this tract, the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 6, township 67, 21, is sur- rounded on three sides by developed large open pit mines; to the east and north the Sellers, and to the west the Rust, all of the Oliver company. There also is a little ore on the Pillsbury forty to the south. Connecting these mines is a narrow railway cut from Sellers into Mahoning ground. Ore exists clear through from Sellers to Rust and underlies most of the 40 acre tract; and the overburden is light. It is generally supposed that from 35 to 40 million tons exist therein. The Oliver company has been at a very heavy expense to clear the ground for the proposed opening of this new mine; there have been purchased all the building lots on the 40 acres, and the plotting and building of a new town with all its street pavements, sewers, side- walks, etc., all done on the moat modern scale. Old buildings have been moved and repaired for occupancy, and now buildings have been put up under arrange- ments with the owners that permit them to buy on long term payments at very low interest. As all this build- ing has been done during the high coat period and as much of this work has far overrun estimates, the amount of money invested by the company, either for itself or on contract, has been very large. The muni- cipality itself has erected many extravagant buildings, such as a municipal power and steam distributing plant costing $1,000,000, a high castle of a school costing more than $3,000,000, and other structures in propor- tion. As about 95 per cent of the taxes levied in Hib- bing have been against iron ore properties, these foolish extravagances, which the mining companies have been unable to curb until very recently, are being paid for almost entirely by them. The Oliver company does not do things by halves, and its own expense in the new town have been great. The finest hotel north of St. Paul, the best equipped hospital in the State, a consid- erable mileage of concreted streets and sidewalks, are all evidence of its liberal spirit. The new Hibbing is probably the most elaborate and metropolitan mining town in the world; all for the removal of open pit ore, the tonnage of which is numbered. Ending Reckless Expenditures There are evidences that the era of reckless spend- ings on the part of Mesabi range mining communities is about over. The thing has been going so fast from bad to worse that the companies have finally taken a decided stand again.st it, and have invoked, not only the power of the State legislature hut of the courts as well. The State has passed laws limiting the expendi- ture of municipalities to a certain maximum per capita, and the courts have enjoined them from the construc- tion of such public improvements as great recreation buildings, unnecessary schools, and the like. Of the total Mesabi range iron on tax rolls some 20 per cent is in Hibbing and some 4 per cent in Buhl. These two municipalities are referred to as they are among the chief offenders against decent economy in municipal operation. The first had an expenditure of $226 and the other $557 per inhabitant. The State has passed a law limiting municipal expenditures to $100 for gen- eral purposes and $60 for school purposes, per in- habitant. This will limit the Hibbing tax expenditure ajt’out $1,200,000 for running this village of 12,000 persons, and to $720,000 for its schools, and one would think it should be able to worry along on this. Buhl, with its 1500 people, will have to economize down to about 28 per cent of its former orgies^ The courts have stopped many of the contemplated munieipal pro- jects, some of which w^ere well under way with a lot of contracts let and in progress, and the general atti- tude of governing bodies is one of returning sanity. Taxes have become such a burden that they were un^ bearable; those paid in the year 1921 over the Mesabi range as a whole have been not far from an average JtUlmuy 12 , Tf^ mk- i4?r' ^ $1 a too m th« ora produced tliis year, tfioagb the Mahoning mine itaiids out aa a shining example with a tax against the yearns production amounting to more than $4 a ton. Even witt a normal production of ore this mine would be paying about 60c. a ton this year. State Profit Tax Last winter the State legislature passed a law plac- ing on iron mines a ^‘profit tax" of 6 i)er cent based on a supposed net return to the property from its opera- tions. No payments are due under this act until 1022, and what they will amount to is hard to say. It is scarcely conceivable that the mining companies will pay this discriminatory tax without legal opinion as to it, and the general opinion is that, the law will be found unconstitutional. The village of Mountain Iron, whose normal popula- tion is about 1200, had a tax collection this year of $236,000; it is now limited by the courts to an expen- diture of $8,000 per month. This is now the general attitude of the courts, and it is quite evident that they will stand little more of the former reckless extrava- gance, which was not only a crime against the tax- piyers but a crihie against society as a whole. An ambitious project of the early part of the year seems to have been postponed somewhat indefinitely; that is, the purchase of the Port Arthur blast furnace of the Atikokan Iron Co. and the development of the Gunflint district of the Mesabi. This was undertaken by a Chicago syndicate which spent considerable money only to find the plan impracticable for the present. No doubt there is a large amount of ore in the Gunflint, most of which is of the same type as that held by the Mesabi Iron Co., but the cost of concentrating works big enough to be commercial is very great. Other rea- sons also probably have led to a temporary abandon- ment of the project. Proposed Blast Furnaces Two undertakings for erection of charcoal blast furnaces at Iron Mountain, Menominee range, are in progress. The first of these, that of the West Chapin Mines Co., has begun construction and has financed itself to the extent of some $600,000. This propo.ses to utilize the ores of the West Chapin, silfcious hematites running about 40 per cent iron. Its plant is going in at the mines, to the we.st of the town. The other, under the direction of M. E. Richards, has not yet completed its financing, but is confident of doing so shortly; ft expects to take advantage of various ores, more es- pecially of a high lime deposit near Quinnesec. Both are to be of 100 tons capacity, and both will utilize, in part, waste wood products from the Ford mills and another large hardwood sawmill in Iron Mountain. Imperial mine at Michigamme, belonging to the Ford Motor Co. interests, is in process of rehabilitation for production during 1922. There are a million or two tons of high moisture ore assaying about 46 per cent iron, and in the old days when operated by the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Co., the property usually showed a loss. But there was a royalty which does not exist now. Ogkbay, Norton & Co. Operations. Oglebay, Norton & Co., are sinking a 2000-ft. work- ing shaft at their Montreal mine, western Gogebic, and it is now down to ledge. The Republic Iron & Steel Co. is extending its operations in the same region, taking additional properties and planning larger developments. Sunday Lake shaft is to be concreted and much addi- tional ¥fork done there by Pickands, Mather & Co. During the year, the McKinney Steel Co. started its completed electrification at Ironton mine. The hoist is the largest d. c. motor-driven iron ore hoist in Amer- ica, having a capacity for 210 tons per hr. from a depth of 8000 ft., at a speed of 2500 ft. per minute. The shaft at present is 1500 ft. deep, is vertical, of four compartments, with steel timbering to the bottom, and is concreted from surface to ledge, at 90 ft. Hoists, motors and auxiliary machinery are housed in a steel and brick structure that was erected last winter when the average temperature was 6 deg. above sero, and when there was an extreme low of 37 deg. below. .The entire installation is very complete and presages a far greater devekpaieut at both Ironton and Colby mines than has ever yet been undertaken there. Some development U under way on the Mesabi, the chief of which is the stripping of Prindle mine, section 2r, 57, 22, by the Oliver Iron Mining Co. A total of 2,000,000 yanls will be moved, exposing some 3,000,000 tons of ore. This is at the village of Kewatin, close to the Sargent, St. Paul and Bennett mines. At the east end of Vermillion Lake, Vermillion range, the Chippewa Mining Co. is developing its Arm- strong Bay mine; the company anticipates shipping 100,000 tons in 1922. Its ore is a typical Vermillion. Called to South Manchuria Daring the summer, a group of Minnesota en- gineers and geologists were called to South Manchuria by the South Manchurian Railway, to examine low grade iron and large coal deposits. It seems that there are vast tonnages of ore, low in grade, but large part magnetic, situated along the line of the railway, and clo^e to the same company's two blast furnaces at Aus- han. The duty of these engineers was to see if these ores might be made treatable by magnetic separation, which they seem to he, although the proportion of hematite in the ore forbids a clean separation. Mining now is by hand on high-grade only, and the work is merely the following of seams that are good enough to use. It is generally understood that if the Japanese retain their Manchurian control, these properties will be developed under the management of Americans. The Great Northern railway is to build a steel and concrete ore shipping pier to take the place of its No. 2, at Allouez Bay, Superior, at an estimated cost of $3,- 000, 000. Work began in December, and the pier will be ready for the business of 1023. It will be 2100 ft. long, besides approach, and will have 3b0 pockets, and a probable capacity for storage of 175,000 tons of ore. No. 2, now being razed, has capacity for 105,000 tons. The Largest Producers Shipments for the year by the five largest producers in the Lake Superior country have been as follows: Minnosiota Michigan Total rUivor iron Mining Co 1 1.700,000 2,144.000 18.844.000 PickundH, Mather & Co 026.500 968,000 1.694,500 M. A, Hanna inlereKis. . . . 1,119,000 232,000 1,351,000 Clevrlaml-Cliffs Iron Co... 220,000 667.000 987.000 Decrease in Movement of Raw Products Washington, Jan. 10. — The sharp decline in the transportation movement of raw products used by the steel industry and of its manufactured materials for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 1921, compared with the same period of last year, is shown by the regular quar- terly statistical summary of the Interstate Commerce Commission made public last Friday, dealing with com- modities moving over Glass I roads, or those having annual operating revenues above $1,000,000. For the entire United States the tonnage of soft coal, coke, iron ore, pig iron and blooms, rails and fastenings, bars, sheets, structural iron and pipe, the shipments on originating roads for the quarter ending Sept. 30 of the current year aggregated 1,860,663 net tons, as compared with 3,302,625 tons for the same quarter of 1920, amounting to a decline of 43 per cent. The grand total of all traffic on originating lines was 7,056,597 carloads for the third quarter of this year and 9,571,611 carloads for the same quarter of 1920. The figures by products consumed and manufac- tured by the iron and steel industry follow: Carloads of Freight Hauled on Originating Railroads — United Stairs f — Ouarl<n* Rmlins; — , Sept. 30, Sepl. 30. 1921 1920 Bituminous coal 1,402.003 2,057.197 Coke 49,137 196.707 Iron oro 2 S:i. 6 SS 723,246 Pig Iron and blooms 24.014 94,669 Ralls and faartcnlngs 13,040 20,775 Bars, sheets, structural and pipe 86.786 210,031 Total carloads 1,860,663 3,302,625 148 .The ibon Auxiliary Grinding Wheel Truing Attachment The Precision & Thread Grinder Mfg. Co., Phila- delphia, has placed on the market an improved perma- nent alinement wheel truing head, shown in the accom- panying illustration. It is for use on the company's multigraduated precision thread grinder, but can also be used as an auxiliary wheel truing head on any grind- ing machine. The device in intended to keep the wheel always in correct alinement with the lead ol the thread being ground. It dresses the V-form on the wheel to a sharper point, facilitating the grinding of much finer pitch thread.^ than usually practicable. There is said to be no limit to the length of thread which may be accurately ground, as the grinding wheel may be trued while grinding. The in-foed for the head is graduated f\*nnf\nent Alitieinenl Wlivel Truing Hoad, The iliunionds art ti av'.TsiMl by upt^railng th<» iloubU*'eiub-d JiaTullo on Ibc ♦ xlendPd Ihmidecl shafi in 0.001 in. which enables the attachment to be fed-in the same amount as the wheel diameter is reduced by wear and dressing. The form dressed on the wheel is always in line with the axis of the work centers, as the diamond holder head is graduated in degrees corresponding to the spindle graduation on the grinder proper. The dia- monds are traversed by operating the double-ended handle on the extended threaded shaft. They do not cut the wheel simultaneously but in progressive order. A feature of the attachment lies in the self-sharpen- ing position of the diamonds. They are positioned at an angle of 10 deg. and after slight wear can be ro- tated a fraction of a turn to present a new point to the wheel. This can bo continued until the diamond is worn down to its setting. A stop provided for regulat- ing the* return traverse of the two diamonds can be utilized for pre-determining the amount of flat desired at the bottom of the thread angle, thus assuring the same amount of flat regardless of re-dre.ssings and without subseijuent re-gaging. New Combination Drill and V^alve Grinder Following a scries of tests by outside interests ex- tending over a period of two years, the Rivett Lathe & Grinder Co., Brighton, Boston, is manufacturing and selling for the Worcester Electric Tool Corporation a combination drill and valve grindei^, known as the HusKee combination. The tool has a drilling capacity guaranteed up to %-in. in tool steel, although in careful hands helps up to can drilled Jited and %-is. in soft metal. Is is specially desigi^ zdr service station, garage and repair ahop work. It has a spade handle^ which accommodates the largest hand and enables the operator to use ttie tool as a breast or shoulder drill; the side handle carries the switch, white a heavy head protects the switch but- tons. This handle, flattened on two sides and internally reinforced, is designed to be held in a vise. The tool combines the oscillating motion of the valve grinder and the rotary motion of the drill. To change from a drill to a valve grinder it is only necessary to unscrew the drill chuck and slip on the valve grinding sleeve. The tool can be plugged in on any ordinary lamp socket. With the valve grinding attachment it weighs 10 lbs., and with the drill chuck, 11 lb. New Portable Boring Unit A new boring unit based largely on the principles of the portable boring bar and similar in several fea- tures to the unit described in The Iron Age of Nov. 24, 1921, has been placed on the market by the Pedrick Tool & Machine Co., Philadelphia. The appliance is shown in the accompanying illus- tration set up for boring the bearings in a large hous- ing, an extension bar being used. It will drill and feed an auxiliary bar 20 ft. long, and operate either hori- zontally or vertically. It is claimed that, erected on an angle plate in the shop pr attached to bridge members 100 ft. in the air, it will start a hole through a blank .surface and bore it out to a size up to the range of any machine with the same spindle diameter. The four members composing it are the bar, the feed, the driving gearing and the crosshead mechanism. The bar is a steel forging having a square-threaded feed screw embedded in a groove almost the full length of the bar. A J{-in. diameter bar is 3 ft. long and affords 18 in. of travel. The lower end of the bar is bored taper to hold other tools. The feed case is at- PortJibli' Boring Unit Set. Cp for Boring in Une the Bearingtt in JjHi'ge HouHiugH. The «’an be used either hurison- tally or vertically tached to the other end of the bar and by blocking the handwheel, becomes automatic in action. Two changes of feed are regularly provided and are operated by movement of a slip pin. If required, however, the unit can be equipped with a three-change feed case. The driving gearing is in compound ratio. Power may be applied to the primary pinion by belt, air drill, electric motor, or by hand. The crosshead supports and guides the bar, and space blocks provide room between the work and the end of the bar. The crosshead has been designed to facilitate accurate and convenient centering of Uie bar. When the crosshead has been set up roughly central with the work, four radially-disposed set screws, pro- jecting internally against a bearing, permit shifting the bar to its final alinement. Four bolts on the top of the bearing plate are then tightened and the whole firmly secured. The Joel M. Stearns Co., Greenfield, Mass., with a capital of |7S,00fi, has been given a charter to deal in iron, steel, bu&ldeTs* hardware, etc. Joel M. Steams, Greenfield, is president. Ths inon A48B 14 » moot* FURNACE New DeRil^ to Avoid Impetfect and Unequal Heating by Proper Control of Incoming Gaaes BY H. E. SMYTHE^ Improper and uncontrolled reheating of ingots, no matter whether they are charged hot or cold into the typical or standard soaking pit furnaces, for the re- heating before being delivered to the blooming mill for rolling into blooms, billets or slabs, or to the universal or plate mill for rolling direct into finished plates, has for years been a bone of contention, comment, unfavor- able criticism and misunderstanding between the open- hearth operatives producing the steel, and the soaking pit and blooming mill operatives heating and rolling the steel into semi-finished or finished products, all of which contention is to a large degree unnecessary. After many years of study and experience, both in after completing the rolling process. The reasons or caus^ for the majority of time maladies or troubles are improper combuslnon, lack of heating control and poor mixture of the gas and air before entering the pits. The drawings show that producer gas is not re- generated; nor is coke oven gas or natural gas. These gases are introduced through slots or portb in which no checkers are placed. When producer gas is used, the reversing valves simply act as a means of divert- ing it from one side of each soaking pit to the other, and have no connection with the flue leading to the stack, thereby preventing leakage thereto. All the waste gases leaving the soaking pits pass through the air regenerators only, which are increased somewhat in volume. Therefore, the air is pre-heated to the highest point of efficiency and is introduced through one or more ports or openings, directly over the incoming ri on-regenerated producer gas, at a point from 4 to 5 ft. before, the admixture of the gas and air. Horlsontal, Lmigitudliml and Transvor^io Sfctions of Repeat lui? Kurnaoo, feSbowiuK I'assageH Travprse<l by Uas and Air building and operating soaking pits, conclusions have been arrived at which warrant the statement that at least an average' of 85 to 90 per cent ingot yield from open-hearth practice can be assured, and considered a.s good grade and marketable steel. In our judgment, tho real trouble commences when the ingots are introduced into the soaking pits, through imperfect and uncon- trolled reheating, whereby the ingots are subjected to hot gas and air pockets, streaks, waves of flame, which burn, cut or blemish different parts of the ingot, with- out properly or uniformly reheating or soaking the ingot at top, bottom and through to center. This causes a heavy jacket or scale formation around the ingot, which means excessive oxidation, honeycombed, pitted, scabby and spongy surfaces, and these blemishes eventually find a permanent position within the steel ^President. 9. R. Smytne Co., Pittsburgh. or combustion point, thereby a.ssuring a uniform heat, clear flame and proper combustion. This is non-oxidiz- ing, all of the gases being properly consumed within the pits, which is the proper place, and not passing through the checkers out to the stack, which is now the prevailing condition. When using coke-oven gas or natural gas, the gas pipes are introduc