1906. 
iTHE RURAL NEW-YORKERS 
AN INVESTIGATION OF FENCE WIRE. 
Why Is Modern Wire Inferior? 
Part III. 
We know from reading the article on page 31 what 
is meant by cast iron and how wrought or “puddled” 
iron is produced. Most, if not all, of our modern wire 
is made of steel. This “steel” is a combination or alloy 
of iron and carbon. In the discussion of fence wire we 
shall often find the terms “Bessemer” and “open hearth” 
used to designate different methods of preparing the 
steel. Briefly stated, what we call “steel” is made by 
remelting the cast iron with a great heat and driving 
through or over it a blast of hot air. We saw in the 
last article that cast iron contains considerable carbon 
and the object of this heating and blowing is to burn 
most of this carbon up and also drive off some of the 
other impurities. It is desired to leave just enough of 
the carbon in the iron to give the steel its desired qual¬ 
ities. We must understand that the more carbon used 
the harder is the steel. We sometimes read of “mild” 
steel. This means a steel in which there is rarely more 
than 1-10 or 1-5 of one per cent of carbon. There may 
be 10 times as much carbon in a “hard” steel. 
THE BESSEMER PROCESS.—Prof. Cushman, in 
liis excellent bulletin, gives the following statement of 
what this is. Without doubt it has had. a wonderful ef¬ 
fect upon the progress of civilization, since it has made 
steel cheap and easily produced: 
The Bessemer process consists of pouring molten cast 
iron into a large pear-shaped vessel called a “converter,” 
furnished with a number of small holes in the bottom 
through which a blast of air is forced under high pressure. 
Bv this means the carbon is nearly all burned out, together 
with the silicon. The iron, too, is slightly burned, and 
after the blow is over a certain amount of manganese, in 
the form of lumps of an alloy or combination of manganese 
and iron known as ferromanganese, is thrown into the con¬ 
verter before the metal is poured into the molds to coot. 
These cooled blocks of steel are known as “ingots.” If the 
molten metal were to be immediately poured after the 
blow, it would be found on cooling to be full of cavities 
known as “blow holes,” caused by the retention in the 
metal of gases from the air blast, and would be quite unfit 
for any purpose w r hatever. The action of even the small 
amount of manganese that is added is almost magical in its 
effect. The burned iron is again reduced or deoxidized, the 
mass of metal becomes more perfectly fluid, the gases escape, 
and the metal pours smoothly and evenly. In other words, 
the manganese acts as a so-called “flux.” Just as small 
quantities of carbon dissolved in iron change and modify 
its properties, so small quantities of other substances pro¬ 
duce ther own effects. Manganese is supposed to decrease 
the danger of “breaking up,” as the metal passes hot through 
the rolls in the “rod mills.” 
BASIC OPEN HEARTH PROCESS.—The follow¬ 
ing brief description is also taken from Prof. Cush¬ 
man’s bulletin. Many readers have heard the discus¬ 
sions about basic slag as a fertilizer. This will give 
them an idea of what this “slag” is—the phosphorus 
taken out of the melted iron by the lime with some iron 
mixed with it. We notice that this basic process enables 
the manufacturer to use iron which would not answer 
for the other: 
Phosphorus and sulphur both have a deleterious effect 
upon steel, reducing the ductility and making the metal 
brittle. In a process like the one just described (Bessemer), 
it is necessary to specify that the pig iron shall contain 
below a certain percentage of phosphorus. This would, of 
course, exclude much of the pig iron that is manufactured, 
as phosphorus in some of its combinations is almost always 
found in iron ore. By making the lining of the furnace 
out of a material that will combine with elements like 
phosphorus, which easily combines with oxygen to form 
phosphoric acid, much of this impurity may be made to 
combine with the furnace lining and to remove itself from 
the metal by entering the slag floating on top of the molten 
mass. Without going further into the chemistry of the 
subject, this is all that is meant by basic open-hearth steel, 
namely, that the pig iron is melted in large basin-shaped 
furnaces in which the carbon is burned out by the play of 
hot air over the surface of the molten mass, while at the 
same time the acid-forming impurities, such as phosphorus 
and silicon, are absorbed by the basic lining of the furnace, 
which is usually made of a rock material found in nature, 
consisting of carbonate of lime and magnesia, and known as 
“dolomite.” I.ime or limestone is also added to hasten this 
action and save the lining. With the exception that the 
hot air is not blown through the molten metal, the open- 
hearth process is much like the Bessemer. At the end 
of the run ferro manganese is thrown into the liquid bath 
of metal to flux it. This is done sometimes in the furnace, and 
sometimes in a ladle into which the metal is tapped. It is 
then run off into the ingot molds to cool in the usual way. 
It will be noted that the open hearth process depends essen¬ 
tially, as does the Bessemer, upon refluxing with manganese. 
We want to make the difference between cast iron, 
steel and puddled iron as clear as possible,_ because in 
the future no one will be able to buy wire intelligently 
unless he knows what the metals represent. We are 
probably safe in stating that there is no steel wire now 
made, however well galvanized, that will last like the 
old puddled iron wire. The exception may be tele¬ 
phone or telegraph wire run in straight lines without 
sharp curves or twists. Having shown how the^ metal 
is prepared we can now describe the process of “draw¬ 
ing” and galvanizing the wire. 
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.—The report by the 
Keep Commission of its inquiry into the operations of the 
crop reporting section of the Department of Agriculture, 
made public Jan. 18. contains this statement : “The wide 
divergence of the results obtained by the Bureau of Sta¬ 
tistics from the actual results arrived at by the census 
in the case not only of live stock but of all crops other 
than cotton justifies, we think, the conclusion that the 
methods and results must be Improved materially, or the 
service (crop reporting) should be discontinued.’ The Keep 
Commission (or the Committee on Department Methods, as 
it is officially known) spent several weeks in the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture inquiring into the methods used in the 
collection and dissemination of crop reports. This work is 
centered in the Bureau of Statistics, of which John Hyde 
was for many years the chief. Taking the returns of the 
Census Bureau as a standard, the Keep Commission comes 
to the conclusion that the statistical work in the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture has fallen far below the standard. The 
statement is made that while the estimates made by the 
Bureau of Statistics on the cotton crop have been close 
its estimates on other crops have been generally far 
out of the way. Taking the year 1899 the report shows 
that the Bureau of Statistics estimated the acreage in corn 
at nearly 13,000,000 acres less than the census found it. 
In wheat the acreage was 8,000,000 less. In hay the Bureau 
of Statistics fixed the acreage at 41,000,000 acres, while 
the census found the acreage 02,000,000, the former being 
about two-thirds of the latter. “Faulty as these statements 
were,” the commission continues, “the reports for the Bureau 
of Statistics on farm animals were even worse.” The figures 
are then given. The Bi'-^au of Statistics estimated the 
number of swine at 37,0bu,000, while the census found it 
63,000,000; on cattle other than milch cows the Bureau of 
Statistics estimated the number at 28,000,000, the census 
at 61,000,000. Variations in the case of sheep, horses and 
mules were almost as great. Officers of the Department of 
Agriculture have frequently declared that the large number 
of reporters in the field, aggregating about 85,000, was a 
guarantee of the accuracy of the Department reports. “Great 
stress has been laid in the past on the number of persons 
from whom reports were obtained,” says the commission. 
“In our judgment, it does not add authority to the estimates 
to state that information has been sought from 85,000 dif¬ 
ferent people. The enormous number of correspondents 
rather raises a presumption against care in selecting them 
and genuine knowledge by the bureau of the persons whose 
reports it receives.” 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Ohio Live Stock Association 
will hold its annual meeting Feb. 14 and 15 at the Ohio 
State University, Columbus, O. Programmes will be sent to 
members and the press. Others desiring them address C. S. 
Plumb, Secretary, Columbus, O. 
Last Summer, while the Hope Farm man was burning 
up and dying from thirst, we in this vicinity were con¬ 
stantly soaked, soaked, soaked, with never-ceasing rain. I 
have been trying for two years to make a living on a farm, 
but the weather man seems to object. Each year I have 
planted several dollars’ worth of peas and beans, and have 
never had a mess. w. H. E. 
Ohio. __ 
THE BUTTER COMES.—Many thanks for the answer 
telling me how to make butter. I have tried since to make 
it oftener, and it has been all right. MRS. c. c. 
Connecticut. 
REFORM NEEDED.—iHow many of these sharks that 
Uncle Sam is getting after does Tub R. N.-Y. think will ever 
get jailed for one day even? There are two laws it seems, 
one for the rich and one for the poor. Keep the parcels 
post question agitated; we must have it. Why should the 
rum-seller not be made to settle if he sells rum to my men 
and knocks me out of perhaps $5 to $10 per day? d. b. o. 
Massachusetts. 
lO LigHts 
lO Hours 
lO Cents 
Make Yotir Own LigHt 
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Nanticoke, Pa., Dec. 12.1905 
American Harrow Co., Detroit. Mich. 
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