into an ingot sufficiently heavy to make four rails; this ingot is taken from its mold while it is red-hot on its outside and still liquid internally, and put into a "soaking pit"[1] or a reheating furnace to prevent loss of heat, and as soon as possible, it is sent to the "blooming train" and rolled into a bloom; this is at once automatically conveyed to the "rail-train" and rolled into a continuous rail about one hundred and twenty-three feet in length, which is carried on rollers driven by power to the "cutting-off saws," which divide it into four rails of thirty feet in length, and the two extreme ends of the original rail, called "crop ends," are about eighteen inches long. The four rails, while still red-hot, are carried by machinery to the "cambering machine," and thence to the "hot-bed."[2] They are next taken to the "cold straightening presses," and any crookedness is removed by powerful pressure; the bolt-holes for "fish-plates" are then drilled in their ends, after which the rails are turned over to the "inspectors" representing the railway for which the rails are intended.
Fig. 65[3] is a very spirited night view of a scene outside the casting-house of one of the furnaces of the Illinois Steel Company. A portion of the furnace itself and one of its supporting columns are seen through the left-hand arch. In the left foreground are two "slag-buggies" being filled with liquid slag; on the right is a locomotive ready to pull them to the dump. In the center of the picture are two large "ladles" (numbered 14 and 10) capable of holding ten tons each of fluid metal, which is conveyed to them by the "runners" or "gutters" whose ends are seen projecting over the "ladles"; these gutters receive the molten metal direct from the "blast-furnace," and as soon as the "ladles" are filled they are drawn away by a locomotive which takes them up an inclined plane on to an iron bridge or platform, which extends across the converter-house in front of the converters. This bridge is plainly shown in Fig. 60, and a small locomotive is seen on the left-hand end of it.
Beyond this bridge, and between it and the back wall of the building, are the three converters, each intended for the conversion of ten tons of iron into steel at one operation. The left-hand
- ↑ This is a pit but little wider than the ingot, lined with fire-brick. The lining prevents the heat of the steel from radiating into space, and hence the internal heat of the ingot is diffused uniformly through its mass; and after being in the "pit" a certain time the ingot is apparently hotter than when it was put in; it is then taken out and rolled immediately. "The soaking-pit process," invented by John Gjers, is the most important improvement in the manufacture of steel that has been brought forward in the last eight years.
- ↑ This term is the reverse of descriptive. The "hot-bed" is a huge gridiron, on which the rails are placed to cool.
- ↑ I am under obligations to E. C. Potter, Esq., late Vice-President of the Illinois Steel Company for the very effective views from which this and the three following engravings have been reduced.
