AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 



21 



Difficult as my task was, it was made almost insupportably 

 burdensome by the outspoken opposition of nearly every influ- 

 ential 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 com- 

 plete, and was greatly pleased to hear him say that it " looked 



Fig. 61.— ('iMss-f^KCTioN 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 arrange- 

 ment adopted, save that over the casting-pit was a single-track 

 traveling-hoist for handling ingots and molds. This hoist was op- 

 erated by a winch located at lu, the space allotted me in the cast- 

 ing-house not permitting the use of a crane of ordinary form. 



The reverberatory furnace for melting pig iron was not in- 

 cluded 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 



