Difficult as my task was, it was made almost insupportably burdensome by the outspoken opposition of nearly every influential person in Wyandotte. Nevertheless the work progressed, so that on the return of Z. S. Durfee from England in September, 1862, I was enabled to show him the "converter" nearly complete, and was greatly pleased to hear him say that it "looked
Fig. 61.—Cross-section of the Casting-house at Wyandotte.
very like converters that he had seen abroad." In the winter of 1863-'63 the blowing engine was commenced, but owing to various interruptions it was not completed till the spring of 1864.
The plan (Fig. 60) shows the general features of the arrangement adopted, save that over the casting-pit was a single-track traveling-hoist for handling ingots and molds. This hoist was operated by a winch located at w, the space allotted me in the casting-house not permitting the use of a crane of ordinary form.
The reverberatory furnace for melting pig iron was not included in my original programme; but in the summer of 1864, before the first conversion was made, it was decided to erect it in order that we could experiment with a variety of brands of pig
