USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 56
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districts of Pennsylvania nor the bituminous districts of the West were up with the times on this great question. He determined, therefore, upon the introduction of firebrick hot-blast stoves with the inventor, Mr. Thomas Whitwell, a distin- guished engineer, and one of the proprietors of the Thornaby Iron Works, of Stockton (on Tesse). At the same time he visited Scotland and ex- amined into the system of manipulating block or lignaceous coals in that country, called the "Fer- rie system "; the principle of which consists in dividing the trunketed cone of the blast furnace into quadrants, placing them on firebrick arches across the furnace at right angles with each other, some forty feet above the hearth level, and building retorts in these quadrants. This process was ex- pected to expel the hydro-carbons, or waste gases in this block or lignaceous coal, so that the zone of combustion of the furnace would be freed from that duty. This system of blast furnace, or metallurgi- cal phenomena, was quite novel. It had the en- dorsement of Sir John Hunter, who was the manag- ing director of the Coltness furnaces, and who had demonstrated by actual experience that in two weeks' run of his furnaces they had economized one ton of coal to one ton of iron. At Dallmalen- tons, Ayershire, where his brother was manager, they had also two furnaces remodelled on this plan. These facts convinced Mr. Witherow that this type of furnace would be the best to adopt to meet the question of manipulation and utilization of block or lignaceous coal, comparatively free from sulphur, in the basin of the Mississippi, because it seemed almost certain that without some such process cok- ing said coal could not be accomplished, and it might be that in the basin of the Mississippi, iron could be made with Western fuels and be relieved from depending on Pittsburgh for a supply of fuel, where the freights were heavily against them. After returning, in 1872, from England he found the iron industry of the United States booming, and that good times and high prices were prevailing. In- deed at that time the " Lucy" furnace was only a few months in blast, being the first of Mr. Carnagie's great works in the line of iron and steel, and they sold their pig metal as high as fifty dollars per ton. Mr. Withcrow then organized a construction com- pany in Pittsburgh, for the purpose of giving the iron masters the benefit of his observations while abroad, with the hope of gradually remodelling their old plants to the new condition of the metal- lurgical developments of Great Britain, already al- uded to, and as speedily as possible to advance our American practice as near as possible to that of England; but owing to the unusual excitement in the
iron trade, consequent on the high prices and the great demand, neither the iron masters of Pittsburgh or the anthracite districts would pause to discuss the question apart from the possibility of their adopt- ing the same. Indeed, such ideas as he suggested and recommended were considered flighty dreams, impracticable and quite foreign and unnecessary to the American practice. This condition of affairs has generally characterized the history of American iron development. When there are booms or good times the iron men have no time to pause, to make changes, or to advance new ideas; then when the reac- tion sets in they cannot afford to spend the money, but allow their plants to remain frequently idle un- til the next great wave sets in that is again to float them to fortune. Hence Mr. Witherow was com- pelled to conclude that his views and all the obser- vations he had made while in Great Britain were metallurgical fallacies, or else the iron masters of the United States were either intensely prejudiced against all improvements or innovations, or they were enshrouded in mental darkness, whose atmos- phere forbade the introduction of all new discoveries and improvements in the metallurgical world. Still he persisted in presenting the question of firebrick hot-blast stoves, especially of the Whitwell type, of increasing the height of the furnaces and enlarging all the parts and zones, so as to reach the heat of 1400° or 1600º Fahrenheit, and increase the volume of blast as the heat was increased, but he could not make converts, nor could he get a single iron mas- ter in the whole anthracite district to adopt his views. In the winter of 1873 he was invited by Mr. Norton to visit Ironton, Ohio, and there formed a company with Mr. George Willard, for the purpose of building two furnaces. Mr. Willard was Presi- dent of this company. The intention was to make the coal of Kentucky the fuel for the furnace, as they did not intend to depend on the Connellsville coke. Mr. Witherow stated to the directors that there were two conditions by which they could avoid the use of Connellsville coke ; that is to build the smaller about fifty or sixty feet high, supported with super-heated blast, with a mixture of Connells- ville coke as fuel, or else, if they had the nerve to advance to the front, he would submit to them for their consideration the plans of a self-coking furnace in Scotland, introduced and built by Mr. Ferrie, and would recommend them to test this new system in Ohio, and to support this process he would strongly advise, if they had the capital to pay for the plant, to introduce the Whitwell firebrick stoves, and together they would likely revolutionize the production of pig metal in the basin of the Mis- sissippi. The latter plan was finally adopted, and
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commissioners were sent to Great Britain to investi- gate the self-coking system and the firebrick hot- blast stoves of the Whitwell type. These commis- sioners sent cablegrams unanimously approving of what they had seen, and recommending the adoption of this type of furnace and stoves, and these were adopted just before the panic of September, 1873. The panic nearly destroyed the new enterprise, which was then advancing in its construction, but through the perseverance, however, of Mr. Willard, its President, the construction was economically allowed to proceed for a given time. Mr. Willard, with two experts, the following winter visited Great Britain to convince himself that the commissioners' report was well founded, and that what they were about to introduce was advisable. He returned and approved of what was being done. This plant of furnaces at Ironton was novel in every direction. Nearly every interest in the town was represented among its stockholders, who numbered several score. The plant was completed, that is to say, one furnace was finished ready to go into operation, and the second was partly finished,-the work hav- ing been completed under the great depression of 1874 and 1875,-when the officers of the company ex- perienced great difficulty in collecting of parties that had subscribed, and of getting money to com- plete the work. In the autumn of 1875 the first furnace was put in operation, or in blast, and was reasonably successful, but the coal used as fuel was of an extremely lignaceous character. It had been for several months accumulating in the stock house, and, when used in the furnace under a pressure, instead of imparting its gases and main- taining its position, it pulverized into dust, thus diverting it of its calorific or heating properties, and really impairing and obstructing the proper re- actions in the furnace; and this dust, banking or lodging on the lower parts of the furnace, soon ob- structed the descending column of stock, so that the retorts could not discharge the contents that were descending therein. This obstruction was consid- ered a failure in the process, and all kinds of hypoth- eses and inventions were manufactured against the whole plant. After exposing himself for ten days and nights almost without sleep, Mr. Witherow determined that there was some obstruction within, and, having established apertures ten feet apart, he opened one about forty feet above hearth level, and found that the coal was banked for several feet on the circumferential lines, thus allowing only a hole in the centre, of say six or seven feet, for the stock to descend. This was evidence that the coal was unfitted for use, and destroyed the whole process of the furnace. In order to be relieved from this
position he concluded to clean it all out and have everything free again, and soon had it in operation. But the information had gotten abroad that the whole process was a failure, and many of his friends gave him a wide berth. It was useless to reason or philosophize with them on this metallurgical ques- tion, or to desire a different class of fuel that would not pulverize. The company was then nearly ex- hausted, and could not get any coke except by river, as there was no railroad communication. The second test of the furnace was more successful, and made from eighty to one hundred tons per day of good iron, and had the self-coking system working reasonably well, but the coke running out, and not being supplied with the coal he wanted, it looked as if the experiments would be a failure just as they were progressing. The officers and directors of the company had withdrawn their support from him, and he was left alone to contend with these new developments without the aid of a single individ- ual to espouse his cause. In two months he re- signed, others taking charge, and this self-coking system was sacrificed for the want of support and capital, and men with nerve and brains to stand by the experiments, and also because there was not the proper time given for such experiments as to deter- mine its true merits. Thus a new system of ex- periments, which had cost a great deal of money, was thrown aside by the timidity of the directors, and America lost the opportunity of having a really good test for determining whether lignaceous or block coal could be made into a furnace fuel by this process. If the panic had not been on the coun- try at that time, the enterprise would, doubtless, have had better support, and its practical re- sults would have been very different. Those that succeeded him condemned the system. This plant was the finest ever built in this country, and it has continued as a first-class establishment. It still re- mains and may continue for many years. During these experiments Mr. Witherow again visited Europe, and on returning located permanently in Pittsburgh in blast furnace engineering, where he became identified with nearly all the new enterprises which were established in the following years, and which adopted all the improvements of blast furnace construction wherein the Whitwell stoves and other types of firebrick stoves were built. It might be said that from 1873 to 1883 was the period wherein the whole blast furnace industry of the United States underwent a great change. The old ideas of the Lehigh and Schuylkill and other regions were abandoned, and the whole blast furnace business of this country began adjusting itself to the new era. In the winter of 1878, after the death of Mr. Thomas
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Whitwell in the North of England, Mr. Witherow bought the Whitwell system, wherein Senator J. Don Cameron and Colonel Henry McCormick be- came partners. At this time the Edgar Thompson Company had commenced the construction of the first of their furnaces (that is, "A" and "B") of the present plant at Pittsburgh. Although he was de- prived of being in charge of this engineering enter- prise, he had the satisfaction in a few years of hav- ing his views established and approved throughout nearly all the districts of the United States of the iron industry. The fever began in 1880 for the use of super-heated blast for blast furnaces, and although Isaac Lothian Bell had written adversely of this action in his great work on the " Phenomena of the Blast Furnace," still the application of the Whitwell stoves in many districts throughout the United States had more than doubled the output and re- duced the fuel one-half, demonstrating so strongly its success that but few could avoid the inevitable and irresistable results and conclusions on this ques- tion. This was the great era of the blast furnace history in the United States. One of the furnaces at the Edgar Thompson works, under the manage- ment of Mr. Julian Kennedy, had made an output of three hundred and forty tons every twenty-four hours for over eight successive days, and the iron masters of the country were astonished at the re- sults. At this time, that is to say from 1878 to 1880, the Bessemer steel business was gradually asserting itself. It advanced to a very high price, and the impetus in the Bessemer steel rail business in the United States was all-powerful. Plants were estab- lished in many of the leading cities, especially Chicago ; the Edgar Thompson works at Pittsburgh taking the lead. Thus it only required five years to bring the output of Bessemer steel in the United States to a greater figure than that of Great Britain, which we now still surpass. However, the pneu- matic or Bessemer process was only used for manu- facturing Bessemer steel for rails, and indeed it was considered impossible to make soft steel by this pro- cess. Mr. Witherow gave a great deal of thought to this question, and went to Wales in 1883, where he saw a small converter built in an humble way and whose capacity was blowing one ton of iron per blow. This was the experimental converter of the Clapp-Griffith process. After examining it thor- oughly he was convinced that there were merits in the plant, although its appearance and general ex- pression were anything but imposing. On present- ing the results of his observations to Mr. Henry W. Oliver, Jr., of Pittsburgh, whom he met in London, they revisited Wales together and bought the patents of the Clapp-Griffith process. In 1884 Mr. Oliver
built his experimental little converter at one of his mills in Pittsburgh, which was the beginning of the Clapp-Griffith process in the United States. This process has met with many criticisims, but it has survived and overcome them all. It developed the idea to a great extent, of the manufacture of soft steel in the United States, and this was considered the period of the soft steel evolution. From what was done with the experimental process in Pitts- burgh, there have been constructed works which make a softer steel than had previously been made. This was really the era of the soft steel business, that is to say, steel with carbon less than one-tenth of one per cent-possibly down to one-half of that amount-and which is as easily wielded as the best of Swedish or other brands of wrought iron. This process has now advanced with all other improve- ments, and it will likely dispense with the manufac- ture of wrought iron in the United States ; in other words, this class of steel will be made cheaper than wrought iron. This brings the history of our iron and steel development down to the present day. For the last eight years Mr. Witherow has been identified with the development of the iron business in the States of Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama, which promises greatly to lead in the iron and steel industry of the United States. Alabama now bids fair to supersede the old blast furnace business of both the Lehigh and Schuylkill, in other words, the production of pig metal will be so much cheaper in that State that it will be difficult for eastern Pennsylvania to maintain its market and survive. Still the distance of Alabama from the market may enable them to struggle for a time, and possibly the diversion of the Alabama product to supply Texas and the great Southwest, as soon as they have mills for the manipulation of their pig metal, may relieve the East from their strong competition. It is, there- fore, needless to say that the United States can hardly dream of when there will be an overproduc- tion or surplus, " provided," as Mr. Witherow says, " the country is allowed to go on in its great Amer- ican system of protection and development." Mr. Witherow is just now engaged in operations at New Castle, near Pittsburgh, where his shops are located, and which is the largest plant in the United States, thoroughly equipped for the construction of blast furnaces, rolling mills and steel plants in all their details, employing from three to four hundred men daily. His principal offices are located in Pitts- burgh, where the designing and drafting or engineer- ing operations are executed and determined. A company is being organized for the development of the iron and steel business of Mexico, which Mr. Witherow recently visited. Their coal equals that
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of Pittsburgh in purity and hardness of the coke, and almost equal in carbon, and Mexico abounds with mountains wherein are large deposits of mag- netic, specular and hemitite ores, ranging from sixty-four to sixty-eight per cent. metallic iron, and down to .004 of phosphorus, thus ensuring an iron capable of making pig metal fit to be converted into steel. The company that is now being organized expects to spend, in the coming two years, between two and three millions of dollars, and the develop- ment of this iron and steel enterprise will commence with several blast furnaces and terminate in Besse- mer works for making steel, not only for railroad rails, but for the various commercial purposes for which it is required. This enterprise or scheme will be owned and controlled by American and Mexican capital, of whom Mr. Eugene Kelly, of New York, and Patricio Milmo, of Monterey, Mex- ico, are the largest capitalists, the latter being the richest man in Mexico. Both of the above gentle- men have entered earnestly into this enterprise, which will be owned and controlled by Irishmen ex- clusively. The United States have now the suprem- acy in the iron and stcel business of the world, and Mr. Witherow says, "Should the American people be true to themselves and maintain the present system of protection, they will in the next twenty years be producing more iron and steel than any two of the greatest nations in Europe, not excluding Great Britain." Since the development of this in- dustry the development of other industries has advanced in the same ratio, and it can safely be said that this Continent will soon attain a position in the manufacturing world that will far surpass all other countries. It can plainly be seen from the foregoing that the political views of Mr. Witherow are strongly Republican, "for the protection and development of our Nation," which abounds in such seemingly inexhaustible resources. While his sym- pathies are so strongly American, his views are broad and not averse to acknowledging merit in other nations. To use his language: "My views are strongly Republican, and I am convinced that such views are conducive to the greatness of our country, and in harmony with its history." It has been a rule with Mr. Witherow to visit Europe every two or three years, so as to glean ideas in the line of the iron and steel development in all coun- tries and contrast them with those of the United States, and thereby ascertain the most recent im- provements in the saving of labor and cost of pro- duction which must be the leading ideas, because unless we advance with the improvement evolved by science in the metallurgical world, we cannot at- tain the manufacturing supremacy above alluded to.
MATTHEW BAIRD.
MATTHEW BAIRD, who was a prominent citi- zen of Philadelphia, by reason of his many excellent qualities and his varied interests in the institutions of the city, was still more prominent among the ranks of railroad men throughout the country, because of his inventions applicable to that line of industry, his identification with the great house known as the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and his heavy investments of capital in railroad enterprises. Mr. Baird was born near Londonderry, Ireland, in 1817, and was the son of Scotch-Irish parents, from both of whom he inherited good and sturdy strains of blood, and qualities of physical and mental man- hood which equip one to win victories in the world's arena of strife. The family immigrated to America when Matthew was four years of age, and, selecting Philadelphia as their home, settled on Lom- bard street. The father, a skilled workman, a cop- persmith by trade, was able to give his son a good school education, and that being concluded the youth immediately became sclf-supporting. It was indicative of his character that, being unable to have such a position as he desired and was qualified for, he should accept the next best available, with the object of making a living at least. Thus he was for a time an employe in a brick-yard, but it was not long before he had an occupation more in accor- dance with his taste and capability, for he went from the brick-yard to the laboratory of one of the professors of chemistry in the University of Penn- sylvania. While still a lad he went, in 1834, to New Castle, Delaware, where he entered the copper and sheet iron works of the New Castle Manufac- turing Company, and soon after he was made Superintendent of the railroad shops located in the same town. Four years later, in June, 1838, occurred the actual beginning of his successful career, for it was then that he became identified with the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadel- phia, with which institution he spent many years of his life. He began in this establishment as foreman of the sheet iron and boiler department, and he remained in the employ of the house until 1850, constantly advancing in knowledge of his trade and of mechanical science, developing ideas which in after years bore fruit in the way of useful inven- tions, and at the same time performing his routine duties with an industry and fidelity which com- manded the respect and confidence of employers and associates. In March, 1845, while still in the employ of Mr. Baldwin, he became associated as a partner with Richard French, Sr., Superintendent of motive power of the Philadelphia, Germantown
Magaums of Westor. ltd.
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& Norristown Railroad Company, and Harry R. Campbell, a lawyer, under the firm name of Frenchi & Baird, for the manufacture of locomotive spark arresters. These spark arresters were made under a combination of three patents, issued to James Stimpson, of Baltimore, April 17, 1837, William C. Grimes, of York, Pa., February 12, 1842, and Rich- ard French, of Philadelphia, March 28, 1845, and the article manufactured was a thoroughly efficient one which came into very general use throughout the United States, Canada and other countries, and was of especial use in the cotton-growing States of the South. Both the patents and the business were sold to Messrs. Radley & Hunter, of New York, in August, 1850. For four years subsequent to 1850 Mr. Baird was absent from the Baldwin Locomotive Works, and through about half of that period was engaged in the marble business with his brother John in Philadelphia, but in 1854 he returned to the works where he had so long been an employe, as a partner of Mr. Baldwin's, under the firm name of M. W. Baldwin & Co. In this position of enlarged influence and usefulness, his energy, acumen and genius had a sphere of operation commensurate with their powers, and he exercised them to their utmost capacity, largely increasing the business effectiveness of the house with which he had merged his interests. In a multitude of matters his skill was felt. As an instance among many that might be cited, his devices for the economy of fuel. At the time he entered the firm as a partner the use of coal, both bituminous and anthracite, had been practically demonstrated as successful, but means for its most effective combustion had not been per- fected, although many minds were engaged upon the matter. Mr. Baird made the subject one of careful investigation and study. An experiment was conducted under his direction by placing a sheet iron deflector in the fire box of an engine on the Germantown & Norristown Railroad, and the success of the trial was such as to show conclusively that it made a more perfect combustion, and there- fore a more economical use of fuel. It was obvious, however, that a deflector made of a single plate of iron would soon be destroyed by the intense heat to which it was subjected, and to obviate this diffi- culty Mr. Baird devised first a water-leg projecting upward and backward between the fire box and flues, and finally a deflector in the form of a fire brick arch, which seemed preferable to the former invention, and in fact was adopted and found a valuable appliance for locomotives built for Cuba, and other localities where economy in the use of coal was especially desirable for reason of its high cost. In 1867, after the death of Mr. Baldwin, who
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