The Wonder Book Of Knowledge Part 54

Pictorial Story of the Steel Industry

[Ill.u.s.tration: MINING ORE, ISLAND OF CUBA.[36] (See page 415.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOADING ORE, ISLAND OF CUBA.[36] (See page 415.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PIG IRON CASTING MACHINE.[37] (See page 415.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE STOCK YARD.[37] (See page 415.)]

MINING ORE, ISLAND OF CUBA. (See page 413.)

The immense veins of magnetic ore lie close to the surface and are mined or quarried by working along a series of benches or ledges.

LOADING ORE, ISLAND OF CUBA. (See page 413.)

The ore is loaded into small buggies at the mines and run down an inclined plane, where it is dumped into railroad cars for transportation to the s.h.i.+pping wharves, seventeen miles distant.

PIG IRON CASTING MACHINE. (See page 414.)

No. 1 casting machine has a capacity of 1,000 tons per day. There are 180 molds, each pig weighing about 125 pounds.

No. 2 machine has a capacity of 1,800 tons per day. It has 278 molds, each for 125-pound pig.

Product, low phosphorus, Bessemer and basic, or high phosphorus machine-cast pig iron.

OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE STOCK YARD. (See page 414.)

The raw materials for the open-hearth furnaces are received on elevated railroad tracks graded and piled preparatory to sending to the furnaces.

Yard No. 1 is 950 feet long and 87 feet wide, and is served by three electric traveling cranes of twenty tons and sixty tons capacity. Yard No. 2 is 790 feet long and 84 feet wide, and is served by two ten-ton electric traveling cranes.

OPEN-HEARTH FURNACES. (See page 416.)

No. 1 open-hearth plant consists of twelve furnaces, two ten-ton, two twenty-ton, five forty-ton and two fifty-ton basic furnaces and one forty-ton acid furnace with gas producers. Length of floor, 623 feet.

No. 2 plant consists of ten fifty-ton furnaces with gas producers.

Length of floor, 890 feet.

CHARGING FLOOR OF OPEN-HEARTH FURNACES. (See page 416.)

The stock is delivered to the charging floor in iron boxes loaded on narrow-gauge buggies, and is charged into the furnaces by electric charging machines. Length of floor of No. 1 open-hearth plant, 477 feet; width, 28 feet. Length of floor of No. 2 open-hearth plant, 890 feet; width, 50 feet.

BLAST FURNACE STORAGE PLANT. (See page 417.)

The coal, c.o.ke, ore, etc., is delivered direct by the railroad cars under a traveling cantilever crane running on tracks laid the length of a wharf and is dumped from the cars through chutes into buckets and piled until needed at the furnaces. The plant is capable of storing over 1,000,000 tons of material.

BLAST FURNACES. (See page 417.)

Showing stock house, blowing-engine house, etc. Plant consists of four furnaces 70 feet high, 18-foot boshet and 12-foot hearth. One furnace 90 feet high, 22-foot boshet and 11 feet 6 inches hearth. Blowing engines are of horizontal compound and horizontal vertical compound types, capable of blowing a pressure of 25 pounds of air. Four furnaces provided with fire-brick regenerator stoves 100 feet high and 18 feet in diameter. Large furnace has six stoves 100 feet high by 22 feet in diameter. Boilers fired with waste got from furnace.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OPEN-HEARTH FURNACES.[38] (See page 415.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHARGING FLOOR OF OPEN-HEARTH FURNACES.[38] (See page 415.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BLAST FURNACE STORAGE PLANT.[39] (See page 415.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BLAST FURNACES.[39] (See page 415.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: 15,000-TON HYDRAULIC FORGING PRESS

In all respects this press is the largest and most powerful forging press in the world. Water is supplied to the two plungers under a pressure of 7,000 pounds per square inch, giving it a maximum capacity of 15,000 tons. The columns supporting the cross-head are 14 feet 6 inches apart, and the working height under cross-head is 17 feet 1-1/4 inches.

_Courtesy of the Bethlehem Steel Co._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DROP FORGE DIE SHOP.[40] (See page 421.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW OF A SECTION OF PROJECTILE FORGE SHOP.[40] (See page 421.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORGING HOLLOW HEAVY SHAFT.[41] (See page 421.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OIL-TEMPERING HEAVY SHAFT.[41] (See page 421.)]

DROP FORGE DIE SHOP. (See page 419.)

This shop has a floor s.p.a.ce of 20,400 square feet. With full equipment of most modern die sinking tools.

VIEW OF A SECTION OF PROJECTILE FORGE SHOP. (See page 419.)

This shop has a floor s.p.a.ce of 22,000 square feet and is thoroughly equipped with the necessary hammers, presses, furnaces, etc., for the forging, punching, closing in, treating and tempering of all sizes of armor-piercing and explosive projectiles and sh.e.l.ls.

FORGING HOLLOW HEAVY SHAFT. (See page 420.)

No. 22. The block has a hole bored through its center, and in this the mandrel is inserted, the tube being forged around it. The hydraulic pressure for this 5,000-ton press is furnished by Whitworth pumping engines. This department contains also a 2,500-ton press of similar design.

OIL-TEMPERING HEAVY SHAFT. (See page 420.)

Showing a shaft weighing about 33,000 pounds being taken from the vertical heating furnace and suspended over the oil-tank preparatory to being lowered for tempering. The heating furnace and oil tank are served by a sixty-ton traveling crane and forty-ton jib crane. The shrinking pit for a.s.sembling is situated between the heating furnace and oil tank.