FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN IRON INDUSTRY 99 



per cent. These rich beds could be only partially utihzed at 

 first, because of the extremely fine or powder like condition 

 of the ores making it difficult to prevent the strong blast of 

 the furnace from forcing them through the flues or out of the 

 top. Engineering skill, however, has largely overcome this 

 difficulty, and by mixing a small percentage of the old range 

 ores, good results are reached. It might be remarked in 

 passing, that it is in the almost complete ownership of these 

 old range Bessemer ores, essential for mixing, that the United 

 States Steel Corporation comes nearest to control of the 

 situation. 



The duration of the supply of Lake Superior ores can 

 only be conjectured. Since the great revival in iron in 1899, 

 exploration work has been carried forward with great energy, 

 and it can safely be said that new sources of supply are opened 

 faster than old ones are worked out. Close to 25,000,000 

 tons per annum, however, are now being brought down the 

 lakes and this colossal tonnage cannot be taken from the 

 ground each year without leaving some tremendous gaps, 

 which nature at present is not engaged in supplying. Some 

 new and considerable deposits have been found in Canada, 

 and the north shore of Lake Superior is known to be rich 

 in iron, although so far as developed, sulphur is found to be 

 present in troublesome quantities. 



Basic open hearth steel making would seem to be secure 

 for all time on account of the wide range of ores which can 

 be utilized. The non-Bessemer Lake Superior ores are now 

 most extensively used; next comes the high manganiferous 

 ores of Virginia, and lastly the cheaply mined red ores of 

 the Birmingham district in Alabama. In the latter section 

 there has not been the rapid development of basic steel making 

 that has been expected, owing to a variety of causes. In 

 the building of the past few years, the great expansion in 

 open hearth plants has been in eastern Pennsylvania and the 

 central western states. The magnetite and hematite deposits 

 of New Jersey, partially neglected a few years ago, are found 

 to be peculiarly adapted to the making of high grade steel, 

 and a new and important future is opened for these proper- 

 ties. It is not generally known, perhaps, that one of the 



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