CENTER OF STEEL WORLD 175 



The thrusting of the ingot into a bed of flame to relieat 

 it to its old temperature marks the first of the final stages 

 in the evolution of the iron and steel. From this form it 

 may be changed into blooms, or billets, ])locks of steel smaller 

 in size; it may be flattened in ponderous presses into armor 

 plate for war vessels; or it may emerge, after endless squeez- 

 ings between giant rolls, as rails or sheets or bars. 



Almost any visitor to one of the great mills where the 

 steel receives the finishing touches which makes it ready 

 for the market is likely to be surprised by the seemingly 

 meager force of men that people the immense structure. 

 Standing at one end of the building, he can scarcely distin- 

 guish any of the objects at the other, but under his gaze comes 

 only a vast vista of machinery. The mechanical workers 

 rise from the floor, reach out from the walls, cling to the 

 ceiling. Some are stationary, while others travel at high 

 velocity up and down, round and about the building; yet 

 there is no confusion, no delays or collisions, and, most won- 

 derful of all, the visitor catches only an occasional glimpse 

 of the human hands which control all this vast mechanism, 

 unless he peers into the tiny houses where, inclosed by glass, 

 the operators sit surrounded by levers, like switchmen in 

 their towers. 



The most interesting objects in all this mechanicl array 

 are the rolls. Each set, by its appearance, suggests a clothes 

 \vringer or the mangle in a laundry, save that there are great, 

 hard, smooth rolls on each side as well as above and below; 

 in other words, pressure is administered from every direction. 

 The ingot is carried to the big flattening machine along a series 

 of revolving rollers, as though it were a board in a moving 

 sidewalk. When the rolls first bite it, and for several trips 

 thereafter, as it squeezes back and forth, the scale which has 

 formed causes each fresh gripping to be heralded by an ex- 

 plosion like the sudden crash of artillery. All the while water 

 is poured upon the rolls in a perfect stream, to keep them from 

 getting overheated, and frequently it splashes on the ribbon of 

 hot metal ^^Tiggling through, but apparently without the slight- 

 est effect. The drops appear inky black against the fiery 



