INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1875. cclxvii 



pointed sub-committees on the strength of iron and steel, 

 with instructions to make experimental trials with materials 

 actually employed in the construction of boilers, bridges, and 

 other structures of iron and steel. 



As indicating the growing appreciation of the value of gas 

 fuel in metallurgical and allied operations, and of the great 

 economy resulting from its use, Ave would refer to the rapid 

 increase of the introduction of the regenerative furnace of 

 Siemens, which has of late been extended to various other 

 industries besides iron and steel for heating purposes. The 

 Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association au- 

 thorizes the statement that in this country there are in op- 

 eration 32 crucible steel-melting furnaces, capable of pro- 

 ducing 45,000 tons of cast steel per annum, and 14 open- 

 hearth furnaces for the manufacture of steel by other proc- 

 esses, of a working capacity of 35,000 tons per annum. 



Throughout the country, likewise, there are at various iron 

 and steel works 56 of the Siemens gas-furnaces in operation, 

 capable of heating at a single turn over 300,000 tons of 

 iron and steel per year of 270 working days. In addition 

 to the foregoing, there are also in successful operation a 

 number of single and double puddling furnaces, glass fur- 

 naces, etc., and there are in present course of construction 

 44 furnaces, to include crucible steel-melting, open-hearth, 

 heating and puddling furnaces. Nearly all of these have 

 been erected within the past eighteen months.. 



In close relation to the above stands the use of natural 

 gas, the largely increased introduction of which for indus- 

 trial purposes throughout the neighborhood where it is 

 found attracted great interest during the last year. The 

 flow of natural gas from oil-wells and gas-wells has been 

 utilized for heating and lighting purposes in several local- 

 ities in Pennsylvania for some years. The credit of having 

 first applied natural gas to metallurgical purposes belongs, 

 so far as we are informed, to Messrs. Rogers and Burchfield, 

 iron manufacturers, at Leechburg, Pennsylvania, who have 

 successfully applied natural gas for about two years to all 

 the operations incident to rolling-mill practice. The results 

 obtained by these enterprising manufacturers were so satis- 

 factory that wells were sunk for gas at various other local- 

 ities where it was supposed to be attainable, and the flow 



