170 WALDON FAWCETT 



wits about them when the furnace has been tapped and jetties 

 of the searing sUme leap out in every direction, but there is 

 ever present the danger that the furnace will break. No 

 vigilance in advance will serve the artisan of the iron world 

 under such circumstances. When the rent has been made 

 and through the gaping wound there pours the white shining 

 fluid that carries destruction, his only chance is to run for his 

 life. 



As has been noted before, very little manual labor is 

 utilized nowadays in the feeding of a blast furnace. The 

 cars of coke, ore, and limestone are taken in hand upon their 

 arrival by ponderous machines that upturn them bodily and 

 empty their contents. Instead of the antiquated elevator, 

 with its cargo of wheelbarrows, there are small cars which 

 travel up and down on an incline, and which, upon arrival 

 at the top, are made automatically to dump their contents 

 into the furnace. Even the gases which were formerly the 

 terror of the workmen are saved, to a considerable extent, 

 in the type of furnace now generally constructed. Indeed 

 within the last few years, means have been successfullydevised 

 for converting these gases into electrical power or utilizing 

 their force in the operation of machinery of various kinds. 

 The key note of the whole evolution is economy, and what 

 has been accomplished in this direction may perhaps be best 

 illustrated by citing the fact that where the blast furnace 

 of a decade or so ago produced a ton of iron for each man 

 employed, the present day structure has a proportionate 

 production six times as great. 



Even in the disposition of the molten iron a short lapse 

 of time has wrought great improvements. Under the old 

 system the iron which escaped when the furnace was tapped 

 was run into little channels cut in the sand all about the base 

 of the furnace, and there allowed to cool. It hardened, and 

 came out of its earthen bed in the form of pieces called pigs, 

 about three feet long and larger around than a man's arm. 

 Each piece was fiat on the bottom, but had a rounded back 

 bearing a slight resemblance to that of a fat pig; hence the 

 name. These pieces of iron were the universal currency of 

 the domain of iron and steel. They might go to the puddling 



