Iron mill

“ Kent and Sussex have no coal, and the iron manufacture left these counties when smelting with coal or coke began to supersede smelting with charcoal. Iron was also worked in Surrey. John Evelyn, in a letter to John Aubrey, dated February 8, 1675, states, that on the stream which winds through the valley of Wotton "were set up the first brass mills, for casting, hammering into plates, and cutting and drawing into wire, that were in England; also a fulling mill, and a mill for hammering iron, all of which are now demolished." ”

“ These two inventions of Cort’s were epoch making, though of the two the more important one was the invention of the rolls from which has developed the modern rolling mill.
There remains to be described in a little more detail the making of wrought iron as practiced to-day. The puddling furnace used has a grate upon which is built the coal fire. ”

“ Our mines have yielded more iron, in many places more coal, than is wanted; much less iron is now required for trades-tools, machinery, and railroading, than at that not far-distant period when a great deal was consumed in building new roads and erecting new machinery where there had been none before. Mines are bringing up more silver than can be usefully employed; hence it is being hoarded, and its price must sink.
The cotton and the iron are forced upon the converting trades, in which so many mill-hands and factory-operatives are employed. The raw material in excess becomes cheaper. ”

“ The directory to the iron-works of the United States and Canada enumerates 1545 works of various kinds, of which 386 are now abandoned; 560 blast-furnaces, 389 forges, and 210 rolling-mills are now in operation; and the directory states the position, capacity, and prominent characteristics of each furnace, forge, or mill, the names of the owners or agents, and, in many cases, the date of the construction of the works, and their annual production. The great importance of the iron-manufacture, as a branch of industry, in this country, is clearly demonstrated by this very complete catalogue. ”

“ Even in the iron industry where could a line be drawn-at the end of mining the ore, the production of the pig-iron or steel ingots, when the rolling mill operation is completed, fabrication on order or at some stage of manufacture into standard merchandise? ”

“ To manufacture iron required knowledge--was a science, and to be master of his business was both his duty and his pride, and claimed all his unflagging energy, his undaunted courage and determination. Thus the small mill at Newburg grew from the capacity of turning out thirty tons of re-rolled rails to its present capacity of sixty tons, beside the addition of a puddling mill, a merchant bar mill, a wire rod mill, two blast furnaces, spike, nut and bolt works. ”

“ Pig iron was for some time the sole product. The mill to draw and roll the iron came later.
In five years the population of New Damascus trebled. The mines, the blast furnaces and later the drawing mill,—the first in this country to pass iron through rollers,—employed thousands of workers. Their wants made business. The town was rebuilt. That made more business. Enoch on his own venture built houses for the iron workers and opened a large company store. ”

“ In the mean while the industry of Manchester and the neighbourhood, through which the firm had risen and prospered, was not neglected, but had the full benefit of the various improvements which they were introducing in mill machinery. In the course of a few years an entire revolution was effected in the gearing. Ponderous masses of timber and cast-iron, with their enormous bearings and couplings, gave place to slender rods of wrought-iron and light frames or hooks by which they were suspended. ”

“ Material that might economically be used in the workshop is indiscriminately passed out with the rubbish and sold away at a cheap rate — at a fraction of its real value. Tons of metal — good solid iron, often of the highest quality — which might be used for forging and stamping, are rejected and scrapped because it would take a trifle longer to handle. Other large scrap material might be slabbed and used without sending it to the mill, and thus large profits would accrue to the shed ”

“ They all had nice houses and plenty to live on. The business was profitable. But they were withered and rickety, older than old Enoch in the midst of their years, and had a baffled look in their eyes.
The town became rich and famous. The mill was the source of its greatness. There the first American rails were rolled. For twenty years they were the best iron rails in the world. There iron nails were first cut from a sheet, like cookies out of dough. Then the Civil War came and iron that cost ten dollars a ton to make could be sold for fifty and sixty. ”

“ This was not only because of the American Steel Company’s competition; the steel industry as a whole was running wild. There was no controlling it. For a year or two the demand for steel would exceed the utmost supply at prices which made a steel mill more profitable than a gold pocket. Then new mills would appear everywhere at once and presently, although there never could be enough steel really, the bowl would slop over from sheer awkwardness. ”

“ But most of the early workmen at the Sussex iron-works, as in other branches of skilled industry in England during the sixteenth century, were foreigners—Flemish and French—many of whom had taken refuge in this country from the religious persecutions then raging abroad, while others, of special skill, were invited over by the iron manufacturers to instruct their workmen in the art of metal-founding. [8]
As much wealth was gained by the pursuit of the revived iron manufacture in Sussex, iron-mills rapidly extended over the ore-yielding district. ”

“ Aaron, therefore, might choose between seeking a market outside for his pig iron or building a mill to work it. To build a mill would require, first, a large outlay of capital, then an organization of expert workers and superintendents, and thirdly a market for his wrought iron in competition with the product of the established mill, now Enoch’s. ”

“ There were still the three great groups,—the Western group, the Carmichael group and John’s—all growing very fast. Minor groups were continually springing up at precisely the wrong time. They generally smashed up or had to be bought out by the others to save themselves from ruinous competition. The steel age cared nothing about profits. All it wanted was steel—more and more and more.
Next was the phase of specialization. One mill made rails exclusively, another merchant steel, another structural shapes for bridges and skyscrapers, another sheet steel, another steel pipe, and so on. ”

“ No new iron mills or furnaces for making or working of any iron or iron metal shall be established in the country around London and the owners of carriages of coals, mines and iron which have impaired or destroyed the highways shall also carry coal ashes, gravel, or stone to repair these highways or else make a payment of 2s.6d. ”

“ One naturally wonders how it is possible to mine and carry these ores to the shipping ports of Duluth, Superior, Two Harbors, Marquette, Ashland, Escanaba, etc., put them aboard ore carrying boats, transport them by steam power to Milwaukee, Chicago, Gary, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Buffalo, and the many other iron centers and convert them into iron and steel at a profit. This, of course, is only possible because of the inventive genius of man. For every operation ingenious machinery has been constructed which has brought the cost of such operations to its lowest terms. ”

“ Thus the last field of activity for the laborer and his shovel, in the iron-ore industry, has been usurped by mechanical devices. From the time the ore is taken [283] from the mine until it appears as molten metal from the furnaces, it is not touched except by mechanisms driven by steam, compressed air, or electricity. And yet, so rapid is the growth of the iron and steel industry that there is almost always a demand for more workmen. ”

“ Economies in handling the ore, by means of steam shovels and carriers, and in transporting it by water and railroad, have enabled it to be brought to the heart of the coal and coke regions at comparatively slight expense. In the reduction of the ore and in the various processes of manufacture the American iron makers in recent times have been quick to introduce improvements discovered in other countries; and have themselves contributed important devices by which the efficiency of the labor employed in iron manufacture has been greatly increased. ”

“ If a ton of rich magnetic ore costs more than $4 at the furnace, good hematite more than $3, and poor ores more than $1.50 or $2, they are too expensive to pay, unless iron is unusually high. Deep mining for iron is not profitable. Generally speaking, a bed of good iron ore, a foot thick, will repay the cost of stripping it of soil, etc., twelve feet thick. ”

“ Persons unacquainted with minerals would be unable to discover the slightest affinity between the rough ironstone as brought up from the mine, and the iron or steel of commerce. To unpractised eyes they would seem to possess no properties in common, and it is only after subjecting the stone to severe processes of manufacture that usable metal can be obtained from it. The effectual reduction of the ore requires an intense heat, maintained by artificial methods, such as furnaces and blowing apparatus. ”

“ It is not surprising that ore can be produced at lower cost in the United States than even in those countries where the most wretched wages are paid. Evidently this one iron field, to say nothing of others already worked, gives a permanence to our steel industry.
Not only did America have the material resources; what is even more important, she had also the men. American industrial history presents few groups more brilliant, more resourceful, and more picturesque than that which, in the early seventies, started to turn these Minnesota ore fields into steel—and into gold. ”

“ The industries connected with iron and steel making in the United States are conducted in a much larger way than in Great Britain and Germany next in rank. The increasing use of steel by railroads, in highway construction, ship-building, the making of engines and farm machinery, and for large building is causing many persons to wonder how long this progress can continue unhampered. Is there no limit to our high grade ore and to the development of the gigantic enterprises dependent upon coal, iron and steel? ”

“ Steel has no fiber and for this reason it cannot be split as was the wrought iron bar shown in the illustration of page 92.
It will have been noticed that only small amounts of iron can be refined at one time. This, indeed, has been the unfortunate part of wrought iron manufacture, for it may readily be seen that production of any such material in lots as small as a quarter ton results in labor costs which are almost prohibitive in these days of machine-made goods. Not only is the output of a furnace small but much skill and judgment are necessary for the production of a high grade product. ”

“ Annal’s pits, on the eastern side of the Forest, constitute that exceedingly important range of mining operations, from which the Cinderford furnaces have long obtained their chief supply of iron ore. These are four in number, having a height of 43 feet, an extreme breadth of 14 feet, that of the hearth being 6 feet. They make 500 tons every week of the finest hot-blast iron. ”

“ And how many of the materials and articles which we wear, use, and have about us constantly would be in any way possible without the wealth of steel machinery and tools which are available and absolutely necessary for their production?
16The iron industry is often spoken of as the barometer of a people’s civilization. If all iron and iron products and their influence upon the world should be obliterated, it seems impossible that we could be even started on the road to civilization. ”

“ In the midst of the insecurity, however, engendered by civil war and social changes, the pursuits of industry must necessarily have been considerably interfered with, and the art of iron-forging became neglected. No notice of iron being made in Sussex occurs in Domesday Book, from which it would appear that the manufacture had in a great measure ceased in that county at the time of the Conquest, though it was continued in the iron-producing districts bordering on Wales. ”

“ After the death of the iron manufacture South Jersey passed into another industrial stage—the making of glass. The glory of this industry is also passing, and ruins of old factories are not uncommon.
Those furnaces and forges mark the infancy of the iron industry in America—an industry which has made this century "the age of iron." Its local decline was natural and unavoidable—due to an inadequate supply of ore, a crude manner of manufacture, and difficult means of transportation. ”

“ The amount of metal which can be reworked is constantly increasing. Most of the iron factories remelt large quantities of old iron, to be used with the new, and this will lessen each year the demand on the ores. It is also possible that new deposits of iron ore will be found and these will greatly increase the supply. ”

“ It was thought, and justly, that the making of pig-iron with pit coal was a great acquisition to the country by saving the wood and supplying a material to manufactures, the production of which, by the consumption of all the wood the country produced, was formerly unequal to the demand, and the nail trade, perhaps the most considerable of any one article of manufactured iron, would have been lost to this country had it not been found practicable to make nails of iron made with pit coal. We have now another process to attempt, and that is to make BAR IRON with pit coal ”