LAUNCHING A STEEL MERCHANTMAN AT NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA 



No war in history has had more "if s" and "buts" about it than the one America is help- 

 ing to wage today; and perhaps the most threatening is the submarine "if." Can America 

 and her Allies turn out enough steel and wooden ships to counteract submarine destruction 

 until the Allied armies are victorious in the field? American industry answers "Yes," and 

 with the conviction that grows out of never vet having met a situation it was unable to master. 



the bonds that bind the foreign materials 

 in the ore to their companion iron when 

 stressful times come. He knows that. 

 given half a chance, thev will find affini- 

 ties and elope, and that's what he wants 

 them to do ; so in limestone he provides 

 the affinities. 



SOUL-MATES IN BLAST FURNACES 



The modern blast furnace is a tremen- 

 dous and spectacular institution. At the 

 top it takes in coke and ore and limestone 



and turns loose two streams of molten 

 material at the base. It is a large circu- 

 lar, silo-shaped affair, some 90 feet high, 

 kept going day and night, Sunday and 

 Christmas alike, year in and year out. 

 when it does not give way under the 

 strain. The coke, limestone, and ore are 

 mixed in proper proportions and carried 

 up to the top of the stack and dumped in. 

 Down at the bottom of the furnace a tre- 

 mendous air blast is driven in by huge 

 engines, under a pressure of as much as 



140 



