1904-5. ] THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES OF THE DOMINION. - 155 
On the eastern seaboard of the Dominion are situated the works 
of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company, begun in 1899. Coal and lime- 
stone are found comparatively near at hand, the farthest afield mine 
from which the coal supply is drawn being twenty-five miles distant, while 
the nearest one is six miles. Nearly all the iron ore at present used is 
brought from mines owned by the company on Great Belle Island in Con- 
ception Bay, Newfoundland, some 400 miles from Sydney. This mine is 
estimated to contain 28 million tons of available ore, besides areas under 
the sea, which are believed to be very extensive. Analyses of the ore 
show it to contain fifty per cent. of iron, little sulphur, but rather too much 
silica, aluminium, and phosphorus. The result is a pig iron too high in 
phosphorus, but during the subsequent conversion of the pig into steel 
in open-hearth furnaces, this impurity is eliminated, and a fine quality of 
steel produced. For the best kind of pig iron, it is necessary to mix 
other ores with it, and for this purpose Cuban, Spanish, and Swedish ores 
are used, the result being a low phosphorus pig. Indications of large de- 
posits of high-grade ores have been found both in Nova Scotia and Cape 
Breton, which, when fully developed, will in a great measure replace the 
foreign ores. 
Limestone is obtained from the company’s quarries at the Bras d’Or 
Lakes, about eighty-five miles, by water, from the works. It is a stone of 
good quality, and is found in large deposits; it acts well with the Newfound- 
land ore and the Cape Breton coke’ °*- — The works contain four blast-furn- 
aces capable of yielding 1,000 tons of pig iron per day; the furnace gases are 
utilized also to the utmost, being used to heat the blast and also to raise 
steam. The iron produced is partly cast into pigs and in part conveyed 
in a molten condition direct to the open-hearth furnaces, where it is con- 
verted into steel. Of these there are ten in number of the H. H. Campbell 
type of tilting basic open-hearth furnaces, having a capacity of fifty tons 
each. A very complete arrangement of testing the steel at intervals is in 
vogue, and of stamping each ingot with special marks so that the consumer 
can ascertain from the company at any time every particular regarding 
the analysis and making of the piece. 
The gases produced in the coke ovens are used in the opening 
hearth furnaces, the other bye-products, namely, coal-tar and ammonia, 
being also collected. The ammonia is converted into sulphate of ammon- 
ium by neutralizing it with sulphuric acid—which can be obtained from the 
pyrites separated from the coal in the preliminary grinding and washing 
processes to which it is subjected, and is principally exported to the 
United States, the West Indies, and Glasgow. 
(8 bis.) The daily shipment is 1,500 tons. 
