CHEROKEE COUNTY. 299 



which will be laid with the bosh brick. A circulation of water through the 

 casting will prevent the too rapid destruction of the fire brick lining, which 

 is exposed to the intense heat of the fuel under blast. 



Blowing Engine. — The blowing engine will be of the Weimer type, made 

 by the Weimer Machine Works Company, Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Steam 

 cylinder, thirty inches in diameter; blowing cylinder, seventy-two inches in 

 diameter; stroke of both, forty-eight inches. 



Steam Boilers. — The boiler house will contain three batteries of two 

 boilers each; diameter, fifty-four inches; length, thirty feet. Each boiler 

 will have two eighteen-inch flues. 



Buildings. — The ore stock house and the coal stock house will be built of 

 wood. Every other building on the place will be of brick and iron. 



Products. — Besides the production of foundry and car wheel iron, this 

 company will probably add as rapidly as possible a water and gas pipe foundry, 

 a machine shop, a rolling mill, and a nail factory. 



Additional Transportation. — This company has faith in the idea that, 

 with these added industries, this region must soon of necessity have another 

 railway, and that the building of this road will solve the fuel question. 



GENERAL SUGGESTIONS. 



Economy in the Use of Iron Ores. — As a matter of public or State 

 economy the best results in the production of pig iron would be obtained by 

 shipping a portion of the hard refractory iron ores of Central Texas to the 

 furnaces of East Texas, and mixing them with the soft aluminous ores of that 

 region, which would result in a mutual benefit to the working qualities of both 

 ores and a mutual benefit to both sections of the State. 



The hard igneous ores of Central and West Texas are located in districts 

 which are as yet without a known fuel supply, and must therefore remain 

 useless until fuel can be obtained or until a market can be found for the ore. 

 The smelting of these ores alone is attended with considerable disadvantage. 

 Furnace experts claim that the refractory magnetites and red hematites injure 

 the fire brick lining of the boshes, from their weight and hardness in passing 

 downwards. On the other hand, the hydrated ores (limonites) of East Texas 

 contain such a large percentage of alumina that they, when used alone, tend 

 to clog the furnace by crumbling and impeding the blast or draft through 

 the mass of ore. 



The mixture of the igneous and aqueous ores would therefore greatly aid 

 the working qualities of both ores. While the quality of the iron as now 

 manufactured in East Texas is excellent for pipe, architectural work, and by 

 reducing the temperature of the blast for car wheels, it would, by the proper 

 admixture of the ores, be greatly improved for general castings, such as ma- 

 chinery, etc. 



