USA > Alabama > Hand-book of Alabama. A complete index to the state, with map > Part 39
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
In the compilation of this article, it has been found impos- sible to obtain any very late and accurate statistics as to the amount of timber still standing in the State : but the following is the estimate of the Bureau of Statistics, United States Treas- ury Department, of such timber in 1886 :
FEET B. M.
East of Perdido river ..
4.055,000,000
West of Perdido river ..
2,000,000,000
Regions of mixed growth
10,000,000,000
Central pine belt ..
1,750,000,000
Coosa river basin. 900,000,000
Northwestern district
1,186,000,01.11
Total. 19,891,000,000
The Northwestern Lonberman, a standard authority, in Chicago, Illinois, published in 1890 a complete directory to the lumber mills in Alabama, with the capacity of each.
According to this authority there were in the State in 1890, the following number of saw mills and wood-working estab- ments ; saw mills, 155: planing mills, 64 ; shingle mills, 11; door, sash, and blind factories, 10; box factories, 2; stave and · heading mills, 3.
Of the saw mills, 13 had a daily capacity of from 1,000 to 5,000 feet : 55, of from 5,000 to 10,000: 45, of from 10,000 to 25,000; 30, of from 25,000 to 50,000 feet : 10, of from 50,000 · 100,000 feet and 2 of from 100,000 to 200,000.
Nearly all the saw mills in the State ent yellow pine lum- er, but there are some that cut both yellow pine and hard- oods, and a few that ent hardwoods exclusively.
The saw mills located at Mobile, or on streams and rail-
455
THE FORESTS.
roads tributary to Mobile and Pensacola, and the mills in southeastern Alabama, tributary to Appalachicola, saw chiefly for foreign markets.
All these mills prepare what is called "sawn lumber," a very desirable class of yellow pine lumber, which has almost completely driven "hewn," or hand prepared timber, out of the foreign markets. These mills are well fitted up and can saw from 40,000 to 150,000 feet of such "timber " per day. The making of such " timber" is comparatively a new indus- try. " Hewn" stuff has been exported for fifty or more years, but " sawn " has gained a name for itself within the past ten years. The seasons have been of varying prosperity and at times very large profits have been made. There has never been a losing season.
The south coast lumber mills saw for the foreign market chiefly, but not exclusively ; and they are frequently engaged also in sawing timber.
Most of the flooring mills and the other mills of the State that dress lumber are located in the interior of the State, along the lines of the railroads, but some. few are located at Mobile and on the gulf coast.
Most of the product in ceiling and flooring (dressed and matched) goes to the northern and northwestern markets. The product of the coast flooring mills goes mostly eastward, chiefly by water and some by rail.
The mills of the interior of Alabama send out car stuff, such as sills, framing, etc .. and, from report, it seems that yellow pine is as good as oak for this purpose. At any rate, a great deal of pine is being used in car building, and the mills in the short leaf pine country are reaping a harvest from the business.
The shingle product of Alabama is almost entirely of yellow pine and cypress, and is marketed in nearly all the States of the Union, and much of it is shipped to foreign ports. The exports of shingles from the port of Mobile, alone, in the ar 1891-92 were 175,000,000.
PART FOURTEENTH.
THE IRON.AND IRON WORKS OF ALABAMA.
In the extent and quality of its iron ore deposits, Alabama is one of the richest States of the Union, and the knowledge of this great mineral wealth has been, in the past twelve years, the means of attracting to the State a very considerable amount of capital for investment in its iron lands and iron producing enterprises. The greatest activity in the develop- ment of the southern pig iron industry during this time was in Alabama, and the State has risen in rank among the States of the Union as a producer of iron ore, from sixth place, in 1880, to second place, in 1889 .*
The growth and character of the iron industry in Alabama may be best illustrated by statistics from the United States census of 1890, and the bulletins of the American Iron and Steel Association, published in Philadelphia.
Iron Ore, Production of in Alabama .- By the United States census of 1890, the production of iron ore in the United States during the preceding year (1889) amounted to 14,518,041 tons,¡ of which Michigan produced 5,856,169 tons, Alabama 1,570,319tons, Pennsylvania 1,560,234 tons, and New York, 1,247,537 tons : total of the four States, 10,234,259 tons or 70.49 per cent. of the total product of the United States in that year.
Of this output in Alabama, 1,190,985 tons were red hema- tite and 379,334 tons brown hematite.
. The output of iron ore in Alabama in 1880 was 171,139 tons, and in 18-9. 1,570,31 tons.
t By Etons of iron ore in this article, is meant long tons.
-
457
IRON AND IRON WORKS.
According to this census, the capital invested in iron ore min- ing in Alabama in 1889, amounted to $5,244,906, against 8536 .- 442 in 1880, and the number of producing mines was forty-five.
By this same authority, the average cost of mining iron ore in the United States in 1880, was $1.71 per ton ; the cost in Alabama (the lowest) being s> cents per ton, against $2.07 in Michigan, $1.10 in Pennsylvania, and $1.64 in New York. Alabama was the only State in 1889 that produced iron-ore at a less cost than $1.00 per ton. The average expenditure for wages per ton of iron ore mined in the United States in 1889, was in Alabama, (the lowest) 69 cents, against $1.19 in Mich- igan, 75 cents in Pennsylvania, and $1.00 in New York.
Pig Iron, Production of in Alabama .- According to late bulletins of the American Iron and Steel Association, the total production of pig iron in the United States in 1891, was 9,273 .- 455 tons of 2.000 pounds ; of which Alabama produced 891,154 tons, divided-charcoal, 87,344 tons, coke 803,810 tons. By the same authority, the production in Alabama for the first half of the year 1892, was 536,627 tons.
Alabama is now third in rank of the States of the Union as a producer of pig iron.
The production of pig iron in Alabama since 1876, has been as follows :
YEARS.
TONS.t
YEARS.
TONS.t
1876.
24,732
1885.
.227,438
41,241
1×86
.283,859
1875.
41,482
1887. .292,762
1879.
49,841
1888. 449,492
1x80
77,190
1889
791,425
1881
98,081
1890.
.914,940
1882.
.112,765
1891
. 801,154
1×83
172 465
1892 first half
.536,627
18×4
189,664
Ore Supply .-- In the order of their relative importance in the production of iron, the Alabama ores stand as follows :
Ist. The limonites of the dolomite and the fossiliferous red ores of the Clinton group of the Silurian formation.
2d. The limonites of the sub-carboniferous, metamorphic, and Tu .aloosa formations.
3d. The magnetites of the metamorphic region, and the carbone es of the coal measures.
* Figut s mostly from the bolletins of the American Iron and Steel Association.
t Tons of 2,000 pounds.
30
1
4.78
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
Whether the ores of the third named elass will ever be of commercial valne remains yet to be shown. The ores enumer- ated under the second head, though not now worked, have in the past been used in furnaces and forges, and may yet again be mined. At the present time the Silurian formation yields all the iron ore mined in Alabama.
The Clinton or Red Mountain formation occurs on the ridge on each side of the Cahaba. Wills, Roups, Jones, Mur- phrees, and Browns valleys.
The great bulk of this ore mined in Alabama comes from Red mountain ridge, along the eastern side of Jones valley, from Reeders Gap to Gate City. This outcrop extends in an almost unbroken line through the State from northeast to southwest for sixty miles, and opposite Birmingham is less than half a mile distant from the city limits. There are at least five beds of the ore which seem to extend throughout the Birmingham district, from two to thirty-five feet in thick- ness and of various qualities. Near Birmingham sections of the outerop show, in from four to six beds, from twenty to fifty feet of ore, and sketches are shown in Birmingham of a section taken at a point not more than five miles distant from one of the furnace plants with sixty-four feet six inches of ore at the outerop. It is estimated that there are more than 500,000,000,000 tons of ore in the Red Mountain deposits, with an average analysis of 50 per cent. of metallic iron.
Mr. John H. Porter, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in a paper read be- fore the American Institute of Mining Engineers in 1886, said : "In the South * the Clinton [ore] is better known than in other places. In Pennsylvania the greatest thickness of the Clinton is probably seven feet ; and in general one to three feet seems to be considered a fair development. This holds true not only for that State but for every region traversed by the ore, from its northern extremity clear into southern Ten- nessee. As far as can be determined, it is throughout that extent at best but a single workable stratum, divided, if at all, only by a thin parting. But from southern Tennessee to the disappearance of the outerop under the alluvial drift of the Black Warrior in Alabama, the ore takes a different character. It splits up into several beds, each often as thick as the whole in the north, and at the same time it decreases in phosphorus
459
IRON AND IRON WORKS.
decidedly. In Alabama * in all of the southern part, it assumes more distinctly the character of an anticlinal, with sharply upturned coal measures on each side; and within a few miles of its disappearance under the Black Warrior allu- vium it shows what are probably the finest outerops of Clinton in the country. * * * Jefferson county has the name of making the cheapest iron in the United States, a reputation deserved, but due to the great development of coal and iron ore in the immediate vicinity, rather than to perfection of practice. From Birmingham to Woodstock and Greenpond, twenty- five miles down the valley, the Clinton has its maximum size, and has in some places twenty feet thick of good ore, at- taining its maximum at Eureka, where the following section shows its wonderful richness: 1, limestone and sandstone of indefinite thickness ; 2, sandy red ore (30 to 32 per cent. iron), 10 to 12 feet ; 3, saudstones and shales, 15 feet ; 4, soft red ores (51 to 54 per cent. iron), 15 feet ; 5, hard red ore (40 per cent. iron), 17 to 18 feet ; 6, sandstone, 3 feet ; 7, medium soft ore (50 per cent. iron), 3 feet ; S, limestone (siliceous) : 9, lime- stone (good). Total, 34 to 37 feet."
Messrs. A. S. McCreath, of Harrisburg, Pa., and E. V. d'In- villiers, of Philadelphia, Pa., writing for the same institute in 1887, said :
"Clinton ore, or Red mountain ores, as they are called in Alabama, make up fully 90 per cent. of the ore supply of the Birmingham furnaces. The ore is found in the Red moun- tain group of rocks, * * *
which in this portion of Ala- bama formis monoelinal hills, on either side of an anticlinal valley of Cambro-Silurian limestone, in which Birmingham is situated. These hills rise 200 to 250 feet above the plain of the valley, tlfeir crests practically marking the outerop of iron ore, and are remarkably regular and persistent as ridges throughout the length of the State, northeast and southwest. The ore-bearing rocks dip southeast and northwest on either side of the anticlinal valley, and, when not faulted, pass regu- lar' beneath the sub-carboniferous measures skirting the · Cal ba coal field on the east side and the Warrior coal field on the vest. The absence of Oneida sandstone No. IV, and Hud- son iver slate No. III, intervening between these Red moun- tain measures and the valley limestone in the north, and the
460
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
attenuated condition, if not total absence, of many of the Paleozie rock-groups usually found between No. V and the coal measures, has brought about a proximity of the raw ma- terials required in the manufacture of pig iron, upon which much of the success of the Birmingham district is founded. Indeed, this condition of affairs is unique ; for, while geologi- cally the same condition may exist in many other places in the State, the same important development of the economie strata can hardly be carried far out of the district described. For instance. East Red mountain ore group has a thickness of twenty-two feet for a few miles south of Birmingham, but no such development is found to the north or south of this area."
The red iron ore is also extensively mined on the west side of Murphrees valley, along the western border of the Coosa valley above Springville, and at Attalla, near the base of Look- out mountain, and along the eastern part of Lookout mountain, at intervals up to Round mountain.
The deposits of brown iron ore in Alabama are also very large and rich, and constitute some of the most valuable prop- erties in the State. This ore is mined extensively in Shelby. Talladega, Calhoun and Cherokee counties: in the Cahaba valley, near Brierfield; in Roups and Jones valley, near Woodstock, and again at points, near Tannehill- station; in Murphrees valley, in Blount county, above Oneonta, and in Wills valley, between Attalla and the Georgia line .*
Most of the furnace companies own large bodies of ore Jands, but there is no prospect of anything like a monopoly of ores. There is a large area of desirable ore properties still on the market at from $25.00 to $200.00 per acre. Several furnace concerns buy all their ore, preferring to pay a little more for their supplies and save the large interest charge that necessa- rily attaches to extensive holdings of land.
* Valuable deposits of this ore are found in many other places in the State, but its mining is done principally at the points named.
For the occurrence of iron ore in the several counties or near the several cities of the State, see part- Eighth and Ninth. ante.
ANALYSES OF ALABAMA SILURIAN ORES. - (DOLOMITE ) LIMONITES.
COOSA VALLEY.
1
2
3
4
5
G.
&
=
10
11.
12.
13:
14.
15.
Specific Gravity
3 63
3 69
3 80
3 29
3.40
3.73
3.81
3.36
Combined water
14-32
13.36
12 78.
12 70
13 21|
10.89
9.77
11 07
11.55
13.76
9.25
3 80
11.86
11.52
siircons matter
0.29
1.19
0. 15
3 211
16.24
20.02|
15 49
1
13 . 85
5.77
7.06
11 71
7.58
11.71
Ferric oxide
82.82, 84 32
8.371
$2.45
60 22 68 13
73.641
72 18
76.81
65.65
78 86
81.35.
77.54 68 93
Alumina .
0 35
0 80
1 21
0 77
0 46
1.41
0.09
1.73
2 34
0.92
2 37
1.59
2 07: 3 59
Ovide ol manga
0.58
0.57
0 07
0.10
Magorsia ..
.... |trace
trace
tracy
0) 12.
0 93
0.05
Phosphorous.
0.06: trace
0.24 trace!
0.04
0.01;trace
0 05| trace
0.47
0 05'
0.16
0 05
0 13
0 06
Sulplmr .
0 14
0.16
...
-
Metallic iron.
57.97| 59.02; 59 06| 57.71 48.45 47.69: 51.551 (0.00. 50.53. 53.79, 45 95. 55 20 56.19, 54.28, 48 25
CAHABA VALLEY.
ROUPS VALLEY.
-
5.
7.
8.
10.
11. 12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Specific Gravity.
3 81
3.78'
3.61
3.75
3.56
3.43
..
8.54
10 49
11.19
11.27
11.98 | 11.35
12.11 11.55
12.51
13.09
8.55
Siliceous matter
6.04
7.84
5.61
3 06
2 34
14.11: 3.09|
13.49
1.50
2 461
12.1%
2.981
9.80
3 28
3.10!
34.03
Ferric oxide
79.13 73.10: 78 63
1.17
1.36
0.25!
0.27
2.65
0.27
1.03
0 20
0.91
0.30
1.39
3.75
Oxide of ma
0.92.
3.36
0.11
0 95!
0.12.
0.41 trace
0.00
0.2011
0.33
0 00!
1.02;
0.00;
Maghesi ....
trace;
0.12|
0.10;
0.19
0.33.
0.07
0.08
0.08'Irace
0.01
0.06 0.12:
Phosphorus
0.45
0.58;
0.57
0 24 trace
0 35
0.09
0 14
0.49;
0 25
0. 00 Frace!
0.12 trace| trace; trace
Sulphur .
0.00
0.00;
0.00'
0.47
0.48
0.00
0 46
0.28
0 03
0.14
0.14 0 14
0.00
Metallle tror
56.10: 51.98) 56.05. 57.91| 61.27|
50.07) 58.89 61.43. 58 82), 59.151 52.55; 56 01
50 68 58.75 59.00 40.24
-
trace ..
0 41 |trace
0 98
0.46
0.13
1.92
0.37
1.33
1 49
0.75
3.77
-.
IRON AND IRON WORKS.
1.
1.43
0.07
0.11|
0.06
1.02
.0.82.
0 11
1.02
0.38
0.21 :
0.26|
0.41 trace
Combined water ..
10.49| 12.41
12.72
7.41
82. 84
87.49. 76 15; 81 10
73 14 84.03
84.16,
75.04: 82 83
72.37| 83.89
84.25
57.46
Alumina
:
461
2
0.08 trace
9 30 2 37
ANALYSES OF ALABAMA SILURIAN ORES .- (CLINTON) FOSSILIFEROUS RED HEMATITES.
COOSA VALLEY.
JONES VALLEY.
ROUPS YALLEY.
HTENN. VAL.
1.
2.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Specific Gravity
4.01
3 87
3.17
3.43
3.23
Water.
7.17
5.15
Sihecou- matter
11 59 20.74
23.45
29.06
27.74 16 24:
37.58 16.31. 31 621 22 04: 31 83
31 16!
31.91. 16.37: 17.58
19.39
1× 60
5.26
Ferric oxide
88.02 76 87 70.08: 63.80
51.46, 70.39
61.87 78 55 62 49: 50 9760.51 59.87
66,84
72 57
79 26
71.93
37.07
Alumina
0.07
3.31
3.761
4.14
5.13
1 44
4.04 . 4.05.
2.01|
0 06
5 37
5.25
15.85
Oxide manganese
trace
0.51. 75 5X
0 24
@17.89
0.941
0.681
1.03|
42.86
₡37.23
Magnesia
0.31
0.21
0.34
Phosphorus
0.04 frace;
0.34
0.30
0.61
0.01
0.22
0 18.
0.19
0.19 0.19
0.19
0.16
0 09
0 06
0.14
.06
Sulphur .
0.11
0.60
trace
0 08
Metalle iron
61.61 53 81 49.08 44 611
36 02 49.40 1 13.31. 54 98: 43 71: 41.98| 42.36: 41.91 42.22 !!
46.79| 50 821 55.51 50.37
25 96
ANALYSES OF ALABAMA CARBONIFEROUS ORES. 1
A-LIMONITES OF SUB CARBONIFEROUS. VALLEY OF THE TENNESSEE IN NORTH ALABAMA.
B .- CARBONATES OF THE COAL MEASURES. WARRIOR FIELD.
1
2.
3.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Specific Gravity.
3.26
3.62
3 80aSpecific Gravity.
3.50
5 86
3.56
3.47,
2.42
Combined water
12 37
10.41 11 8 / Water and volatile natter.
1.17
0 84 1.4.1
Siffcrous watter
5 58: 3.16|
2.86 Siliceous matter.
6 37|
1-1 94. 5.21
7 25
0 71
Ferric oxide
80.65: 84.70 83 51||Ferrie oxide
0 43
1.20
7.92
8 34
8.03
Alumina
0.09. 0.22 0. 14 Ferrous carbonate.
86 85
70.84 67.78: 57.201 62 35
Oxide manganese
0 26 0.871 0 44!
0.19. Calcium carbonate
2 12i
2.31
1.31
2.75
1.ime ..
0.41| |Magnesium carbonate
0,12:
7.64'
6.97
7.501
0 61
Magnesia ..
0.03
0 05 Manganons carbonate. .
3.04.
1 53 :0. 30
0 00
Phosphorous .
0.40, 0 33
0.33; Alumnia.
0.061
0.13
4.05 11.12
1.18
Sulphur ...
0.06
0 os; Phosphorous.
0. 15
0.18! ..
Metallic iron
56 45 59.29. 58 46 Sulphur. .Metallic iron.
42 23: 35 01 35.00. 33.45 35 75
.
..
462
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
ICANAL C'K VALLEY.
6
7.
10.
11.
12.
13.
60.32
0.26 0.05. 0.031
1,i ... .
0 05:
0.05'
24 25
1
0.32
463
IRON AND IRON WORKS.
IRON ORES OF THE TUSKALOOSA FORMATION.
F
1.
?
3.
4
5.
1-
9
10.
Specific Gravity
3.42 3 46
3 39
3.37
3.33
3.99
3.11
Combined water
12 -17 12 37
× 16
12.09. 10 24
4 40
6 41:
6.07
Siliceous matter
4.37
4.87
4 51
3.23.
9.23 17 47 34.74
23.48
12.32 47.86
Ferrie oxide
78.28
80.05
81.18' 82.39 66.68 01 20
47.04
50.89
76 51 44.00
Alumina .
0.70
0.22
1.24 0 71
5.53
9.10
14.08
2.35
1 97
Manganese oxide
0.19
0.07'
0.46
1.02
0.34
Lime
0 81
0.41
11.30
1 48
Magnesia
0.39
0.05
0.03
. Phosphorous Sulphur
0.27
0.27
0.12
0.20
0.53
0.15
0.06
0.14
0.20
0.12
0.17
0.14
0.30
Metallic iron
54.80 56.04 56 82 57.67
48.28 42.84. 33 35: 35.631 53.60| 30.80
Cost of Making Pig Iron in Alabama. - It is conceded . that Alabama can manufacture pig iron at the lowest possible cost and at figures which enable the State to sell at a profit in nearly all the principal markets of the Union. The chief sav- ing of the Alabama iron master, as against northern furnaces, is in the cost of his ores, while even as against his southern competitors, whose ores at some points come to them almost as cheap, he has the advantage of cheaper coke .* It is an acknowledged fact that the materials which enter into the manufacture of pig iron may be collected in the iron districts of Alabama at a less aggregate cost than in any other portion of the United States. This is a consequence partly of geo- logical conditions that make the original cost of individual materials low. and, possibly, in larger measure still, of the exceptional proximity of coal and limestone t to iron ore.
Prof. N. S. Shaler, geologist of Harvard University, in a recent, paper says :
" The peculiar ease with which the southern irons are mined is in good part due to their geologie conditions. They are generally in the form of true beds which once were lime- stones, and have been converted by percolating waters con- taining iron in a dissolved form into iron ores: being beds of this origin, the deposits are more continuous than those of othe' nature, such as those about Lake Superior, where the ore eurs in much more irregular deposits. Moreover, the sont ern country was not occupied by the glaciers of the last
.. e Part Fifteenth, The Coal and Coal Mines of Alabama.
T For the occurrence of limestone in the State, see "Sketch of the Geology of Alabama," page- 35-422, onte. Limestone in abundance is found in immediate proximity to the iron ores in the State, and is very cheaply quarried.
:
464
HAND-BOOK OF ALABAMA.
ice period ; thus the soft oxidized ores were not worn away, as has generally been the case in the glaciated fields, nor have the outerops been hidden by the deep accumulations of drift materials which are so common in northern districts. In part, also, their advantageous conditions are due to the fact that the southern climate permits work to be carried on in open pits throughout the year."
The following estimate of the cost of making pig iron in the Birmingham ( Alabama) distriet is from a reliable source :
214 tons iron ore at $1 05 per ton. $2 361 4
11% tons coke at s2 25 per ton. 3 371.
34 ton of limestone at of16 cents per ton 591%
Add labor at furnace 2 00
Total cost of making pig iron 88 327, per ton.
Cost of mining ore for all lahor f. o. b. mine. . 82c. per ton.
Cost of mining coal for all labor f. o. b. mine. .80c. per ton. Cost of making coke for all labor f. o. b. ovens. Hoe. per ton.
Cost of quarrying limestone for all labor f. o. b. quarry .421/c. per ton.
Labor .- The mineral industries of Alabama have drawn their unskilled labor mainly from the plantations of this and adjacent States, though at present convicts are worked to some extent in mines and quarries. Skilled labor has come from the northern manufacturing centres. The former is, even within the observation of a hurried visitor, abundant ; the latter quite sufficient in quantity for all ordinary demands.
In soft red ore miners are paid from 25 to 40 cents per ton ; in hard ore, 40 to 60 cents; in coal, 40 to 65 cents. Brown ore is dug at the price of earth excavation, 81 and $1.25 per day. The common furnace laborers are paid the same daily wages. The rolling mills pay Pittsburg prices : the shops and foundries much the same rates that obtain throughout the United States.
There has been very little disturbance of labor in Alabama. Probably in no other manufacturing region of the United States are relations between employer and employe so gener- ally satisfactory.
Steel Manufacture in Alabama .-- It is universally recog- nized that the most pregnant problem for Alabama is the practicability of making steel of the native pig iron. As yet . but one venture has been made in this line. In 1887, a small and cheap experimental plant* was built at Birmingham to
* The Hender-on Steel Company's plant.
.
465
IRON AND IRON WORKS.
test the application of what is known as the Henderson process to the basic patents for making open hearth steel, which process undertakes to eliminate at once the phosphorus and the silicon in the iron by the agency of a composition of lime and fluorspar.
This plant succeeded in making "soft steel " at a cost of $21.25 a ton, and the result of its operations was to give abun- dant assurance that the process is a success and that with more approved methods and with operations conducted on a larger scale, Alabama could and would manufacture steel from its pig iron, of a quality and at a cost that would enable the State to compete successfully in all the markets of the union .*
Blast Furnaces in Alabama .- Coke .- Bay State Fur- nace Company .- Fort Payne, Dekalb county ; one stack, 65 x 14 ; partly built : begun in 1889; work suspended in 1890.
Cole Furnaces .- Alabama Iron and Railway Company ; Sheffield, Colbert county ; three stacks, each 75 x 18: built in 1887-8 ; ore, brown hematite: product, foundry pig iron ; estimated annual capacity, 120,000 net tons. /
De Bardeleben (The) Coal and Iron Company .- Bessemer, Jefferson county ; seven stacks in Jefferson county, of which five are in Bessemer and two at Oxmoor; Bessemer-Nos. 1 and 2, each 75 x 17, built in 1886-7 ; Nos. 3 and 4, each 75 x 17, built in 1889-90; No. 5, or Little Belle, 60 x 12, built in 1889-90 ; Eureka-No. 1, 75 x 17, built in July, 1877, and rebuilt in 1883 ; No. 2, 75 x 17, built in 1>76 and rebuilt in 1886 ; ores, brown hematite and red fossiliferous : produet, foundry pig iron ; total annual capacity, 210,000 net tons.
Edwards Iron Company .- Woodstock, Bibb county; one st k, 70 x 15; first blown in in 1880 ; remodeled in 18ST and i., 1890; ore, red hematite; product, foundry and mill pig gron ; annual capacity, 30,000 net tons.
Fort Payne Furnace Company. - Fort Payne, Dekalb county ; one stack. 65 x 14; built in 1889-90; ores, red and brown hematite.
Godsden- Alabama Furnace Company .- Gadsden, Etowah county ; one stack, 75 x 15: built in 1887-88: ores, red and brown hematite; product, foundry and mill pig iron : annual capacity, 37,000 net tons.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.