r fi I I' 5'3 *, e PITTSBUR(i Souvenir of the 134th General Meeting of the AMERICAN INSTITUTE of MINING AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERS October 5 to 9, 1926 II - - -- -- -- ---- -, - ------- .I1 I PITTSBURGH Souvenir of the 134th General Meeting of the AMERICAN INSTITUTE of MINING AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERS October 5 to 9, 1926 I-~ Night scene along the Monongahela River, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. {A,-', -' t< l Z./t, FOREWORD. When a group of engineers holds a special meeting, such as this Fall meeting of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers at Pittsburgh, they like to have something in addition to the program of technical sessions and trips of inspection. The average engineer first wishes to orient himself in the city and district he is visiting, and then he is keen to know something of the living conditions and the principal industries that support it. Therefore, as customary at previous Fall meetings of the A. I. M. E. in other centers, this brochure on Pittsburgh and its work has been prepared for our visitors. To give each industry in this district its due value would fill volumes, so this brochure merely presents brief reviews of the major industries and plants, some of which are to be inspected by the visiting engineers. As with the excellent souvenir booklets distributed at previous meetings in other centers, it is hoped that this one will be found of interest and permanent value. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Without the cooperation of City and County engineers, and engineers and others engaged in our various industries, this brochure could not have been produced, therefore the Publicity Committee at this place makes grateful acknowledgment to the following for their willing assistance: Aluminum Goods Mfg. Co., Manitowoc, Wisconsin, for pictures of rolling aluminum. American Bridge Co., through L. J. Affelder, division contracting engineer, for part of the section on Boat-Building Along the Ohio River. American City Magazine, New York, for the air view of downtown Pittsburgh. American Metal Co., through A. J. Bien, assistant manager, and M. F. Warner, chief engineer, for notes on the zinc smelter at Langeloth, Pa. American Iron and Steel Institute, New York, for statistics of iron and steel of Allegheny County. American Steel & Wire Co., through C. F. Blackmer, manager of wire mills, for the section Zinc Works at Donora, Pa. R. J. Anderson, consulting metallurgist specializing in aluminum, Cincinnati, Ohio, for the section Aluminum. F. L. Bishop, dean of the Schools of Engineering and Mines, University of Pittsburgh, for the section Glass Industry. III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Board of Public Education, through G. W. Gerwig, secretary; H. W. Cramblet, assistant secretary; and C. Bernhard, for the notes and pictures of public schools. Carnegie Steel Co., through A. N. Diehl, vice-president, and John Unger, manager of the Central Research Bureau, for the section Metallurgical Practice and Trend ot' Iron and Steel, and. some pictures to accompany same. Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh, through L. G. Fishach, in charge of Division of Information and Publicity, for information and data on chemical industry, machinery, etc. City of Pittsburgh, through E. G. Lang, director, and C. M. Reppert, chief engineer for the Department of Public Works; J. D. Stevenson, chief engineer for the Bureau of Bridges and Structures; and C. A. Chaney, engineer of the Division of Design. County of Allegheny, through Norman F. Brown, director of Public Works; V. R. Covell, chief engineer; and Joseph White, chief statistician, for notes and pictures of bridges. The Dravo Contracting Co., through W. H. Fowler, secretary, for part of the section on Boat-Building Along the Ohio River. Duquesne Light Co., through the late J. M. Graves, vice-president, and T. E. Purcell, general superintendent of power stations. for description of power plants. The Explosives Engineer, Wilmington, Delaware, for the frontispiece. John L. Gans, engineer, and managing editor of and for 17 years with The Courier, Connellsville, Pa., for the section Beehive Coke. W. A. Hamer, assistant director, Mellon Institute of Research, for the most of the section Chemical and Physical Research. K. C. Heald, staff geologist, The Gulf Companies, Pittsburgh, for the section Pittsburgh and Petroleum. Hillman Coal E Coke Co., through W. I. Affelder, vice-president, for some pictures of coal and coke. B. F. Hoffacker, engineer and geologist, for map of the Pittsburgh coal bed. The Koppers Company, through H. B. Kirkpatrick, contract manager, for the section By-Product Coke. C. E. Lesher, assistant to the president, Pittsburgh Coal Co., for the section Coal Resources and Production. Philadelphia Company, through Lester Bernstein, Commercial Department, for information, data, and maps on the city. Monongahela River towns, iron and steel, glass, and power. C. C. Robbins, assistant to Ralph E. Davis, chairman of Publicity Committee, for assistance in arranging for the writing of several technical sections of this brochure. J. F. Robinson, geologist with The Peoples Natural Gas Co., for the section Natural Gas. Federated Metals Corporation, through I. A. Simon, manager, for the section Secondary Non-Ferrous Metals. United States Bureau of Mines, for photographs of coal mines, etc., and sundry notes, including statistics, under various heads. United States Engineer Office, War Department, for notes and pictures of river dams, locks, and traffic, pictures of bridges, and maps of the Monongahela River. IV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. United States Geological Survey, for statistics on coal, coke, natural gas, petroleum, etc. United States Weather Bureau, for data on topography and climate. Universal Portland Cement Co., through W. S. Wing, Eastern sales manager, and J. K. Hallock, division sales manager, for notes on Cement-Making in Pittsburgh from Slag. West Penn Power Co., through G. G. Bell and F. D. Mahoney, Department of Power Development, for notes on the West Penn System. Westinghouse Electric 5 Manufacturing Co., through J. C. McQuiston, manager: R. R. Davis, assistant manager; 0. M. Ostlund and W. W. Rodgers, assistants of the Department of Publicity for the section on Manufacture of Machinery. This souvenir booklet was prepared by M. W. von Bernewitz. RALPH E. DAVIS, Chairman. W. L. AFFELDER. GEORGE H. DEIKE. ALFRED HURLBURT. W. F. RITTMAN. M. W. VON BERNEWITZ. Publicity Committee, Pittsburgh Section, A. I. M. & M. E. V CONTENTS. Page Foreword, by the Publicity Committee _. --- —-------— III Acknowledgments _-______-______ _________ III History _________1__-____-____________-___ 1 The City of Pittsburgh_____________________________ 2 Topography __________________________________ 4 Climate _____ —_________________________._ 4 Living conditions --- —-------— ________________ 5 The Civic Center_____________________________ 7 Parks_ ----__ ____-_-__-___ —_ _______ _._____ 7 Educational facilities --------------------------- 9 Pittsburgh Public Schools ------------------- 9 Technical education ________-________ ____- 12 Carnegie Institute of Technology___________ 12 Carnegie Institute ---------------------- 13 Duquesne University ___________________ 13 Pennsylvania College for Women _________ 14 University of Pittsburgh__ ______________ 14 Banking and finance ---------------------------- 20 Transportation facilities ________________________ 21 Railroads _____________________ ___ _- _ 21 Rivers _________________________________ 22 Freight movement ___________________ 22 Means of improving rivers _______ —______ 24 Locks and dams ---------------------- 25 Value of river transportation_____________ 27 Boat-building along the Ohio River________ - 28 The Monongahela River and its activities and a trip to Clairton ________________________________ 32 Bridges at Pittsburgh and Allegheny County —_______ 44 City bridges_ --- —-------— _ -------- 45 County bridges______________ —____________ 47 Coal resources and production ----------------------— 53 Pittsburgh bed_______________________________- 53 Mining methods-__________________________ 56 Production__ —_ — ----------— _ --- —_____ 58 Markets __-_________-__ —__-___-_____ 59 Thick Freeport bed ----------------------------- 59 Experimental Mine of U. S. Bureau of Mines_________ 62 Coking industry_ —_ — --- -------------- - 64 By-product coke -------------------------------- 64 Clairton plant ____________________________ 65 Other by-product plants_____________________ 67 By-product gas for domestic use-______________ 68 By-product coke ovens and production__________ 68 Beehive coke _ _ —_ --- —---- _____-_________ 69 Historic development ________________________ 69 Maximum oven capacity and production_________ 72 Prices ruling ___________________________ 73 Effect of by-product ovens on beehive ovens______ 73 VI CONTENTS. Page Natural gas resources and uses ______________________- 75 Development of industry_ ______________________ 75 Production__ ____________ ______- _____ - - 75 Distance transported ____________________________ 76 Future supply_________________________________ 76 Pittsburgh and petroleum _________________________-__ 79 First refining plant in America ______ ____________ 79 Development of production and refining methods _-__ _ 80 Oil and gas areas ____________- ________________ 82 Early importance of Pennsylvania oil_______________ 83 Future production and recovery___________________ 84 Oilfield equipment made at Pittsburgh______________ 85 Refractories production and uses _______________________ 86 Production — ___- ___-__________-______________ 86 Types of clay _____-_________________________ 86 Fireclay brick ________-________________________ 87 Silica brick ______~________________-____________ 90 Magnesia brick ______________ --------------— _ 90 Chrome brick ______-______________________ 91 Power for the Pittsburgh district-___________ _________ 92 Duquesne Light Company -_ ___- _ __- _- _ - _ _-_ 92 Colfax power station _______________________ 92 Engines _____________________________ 92 Condensers-_____-________-__________ 93 Boilers _ _-_______________________ 94 Use of pulverized coal _____-_______ 95 Valve control_ -_ _-_ __- _ - __ - _ -_ _ 95 Coal delivery and storage_____-__-_-____ _ 96 Voltage and tie-line with another system______ 96 Heat reclamation _-____________ ____-__ 96 Brunot Island power station —._____________ 97 Engines ______-______________________ 97 Condensers_ _-_______________________ 98 Boilers ---_ —__ —_ — --------------- _ 98 Use of pulverized coal ----___ -______ 98 Water supply-__-_ ___-______-_________ 99 Coal delivery and storage -_ —_-_________ _ 99 Voltage ______-______ _______________ 99 Heating downtown Pittsburgh-__-___-___-___ _ 100 W\est Penn Power Company________________ _ - - — 100 Territory served __ —__-__-___-__- ____-_ __ _ 100 Generating stations_________________________ 100 Major transmission lines ____________________ 102 Interconnection with other systems_____________ 102 Type of load supplied ______________________ 103 Iron and steel: production, manufacture, and metallurgy______ 104 Brief history — ------ --- --- --- _______ 104 Production of iron and steel in Allegheny County_______ 105 Manufacturing processes ___________________ --- —- 106 Reduction of ore in the blast furnace ____________ 106 Refining pig iron for production of iron and steel___ 108 Bessemer process _____________________- 109 Open-hearth process — _ __ _ _ _ ________ 109 Puddling process _______________________ 110 Electric-furnace process __-_____________ 111 Crucible process _ _______ _______1______ 1 Metallurgical practice and trend _________-___________ 112 Blast furnaces _-__-_- __-_-_-_- _____________ 112 Open-hearth furnaces________ _ __ _________ 11 3 Converters _ ~- _ _ _ _ _-_ _ _ _ 114 Rolling mills __________________________ 11 5 Utilization of blast-furnace slag_______________ 116 VII CONTENTS. Page Cement-making in Pittsburgh from slag______ 117 Chemically-controlled operations_______ 117 Calcining __-______-__________ 117 Sacking cement _____ --- —_____ 118 Operations and price ____________118 Universal cement universally used_______ 119 Non-ferrous metal production and use___________________ 120 Aluminum________________________________ 120 Aluminum Company of America______________ 121 Production and uses_ --- —------------------ 121 Manufactured products______________________ 122 Lead __________-___ _________________ 124 Zinc__ --------------------------------— 125 Smelter at Donora, Pennsylvania______________ 125 History and products ________ --- —-_ 125 Pottery ------- ___ ------ ---- _ 126 Materials used and preparation-___________ 126 Zinc furnaces _________________________ 126 Sulfuric acid plant______________________ 127 Muriatic acid plant_____________________ 127 Smelter at Langeloth, Pennsylvania ____________ 127 Raw materials _-___ _____ ________ 127 Processes ____- __-____________- __ 128 Products __-______ ________________ 128 Vanadium __________________________________ 128 Secondary non-ferrous metals-_____ __-_________ 128 Manufacture of machinery____________________ _ 130 Production of machinery in Allegheny County in 1923___ 130 Principal manufacturers and their products-_______-__ 131 Glass industry ________________________-__- 137 History and development-_______________________ 137 Value and diversity of production__________________ 139 Hand labor replaced by machines --- —----— _ -~ - 139 Types of glass-making machines-__________________ 139 Chemical industry and research________________________ 141 Manufacture __-__-_________ —_______-_________ 141 Chemical and physical research —_________-____-____ 142 Historic development ---------------------- 142 Laboratories-____ _____-____-______-___ 144 Research on iron and steel products_________ 144 Research on ferro-alloy metals____________ 145 Research on tool steels________ _______ 145 Radiochemical research-_____ ________ 145 Research in the coke industry ---------— _ 145 Research in the glass industry_____________ 146 Research in the brick and fireclay products industries __ —__- ____-__________ 146 Research in the electrical industry —___ _____ 147 Other industrial laboratories ____-________ 148 Consulting research laboratories____________ 148 Pittsburgh Experiment Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines _ ---_____ —______ _ 148 Chemical research in educational institutions___ 150 University of Pittsburgh-__________ 150 Mellon Institute-_________ _______ 150 Carnegie Institute of Technology ---____ 152 Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh-___-__-_________ 152 Scientific Societies_ --- —-- -------------— _ ---_. 153 Manufacture of food products_ — ------— _-__ ___ 154 VIII PITTSBURGH HISTORY. THE history of Pittsburgh is of intense interest, as it concerns the whole country. The valley of the Ohio was first explored by Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de la Salle in 1679. Captain Celeron de Brienville, a French explorer, voyaged down the Ohio and Allegheny rivers in 1749 and took possession of the present site of Pittsburgh that year. George Washington passed through the Pittsburgh district in 1753, and in this connection a bronze tablet placed in 1926 on the handsome new bridge over the Allegheny River at Fortieth Street by the Daughters of the American Revolution of Allegheny County, has the following inscription: George Washington, a messenger from the Governor of Virginia to the Commandant of the French forces on the Ohio, and Christopher Gist, his guide, crossed the Allegheny River at this point on December 29, 1753, on the return journey from Fort Le Breuf. Washington had been sent to protest against the French occupation of lands claimed by the English. Near the Point of Pittsburgh, which is at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, and should be seen by visiting engineers and their wives, is the Block House, a redoubt of Fort Pitt built in 1764 by Colonel Henry Bouquet, who was sent to suppress the Indians. At the entrance to the enclosure is a tablet which reads as follows: This tablet records the first military occupation of the Forks of the Ohio. Robert Dinwiddie, Governor of Virginia, intending to hold the country west of the Alleghenies for the British, sent Captain William Trent with a small company under orders to build a fort at this place. On April 17, 1754, Captain Contrecoeur, descending the Allegheny River with a force of one thousand French and Indians, demanded instant surrender during the absence of Captain Trent at Will's Creek. Ensign Edward Ward in command, and advised by Tanacharison, a Seneca chief, refused but was compelled to do so because of overwhelming numbers. Fort Duquesne [pronounced du-kane, after the Governor of Canada] was then built by the French under Captain Mercier. In 1755, General Braddock with 2200 men was dispatched to regain this important point, but with disastrous results. A sign at Kennywood Park, which is high above the Monongahela River a few miles out of Pittsburgh, gives the following information: Just across the river, where the general office building of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works now stands occurred on July 9, 1755, the famous battle of Braddock Field in which General Braddock's English Army on its way to Fort Duquesne was almost annihilated by Indians. Just above where Turtle Creek now stands, the army crossed the river. 1 2 PITTSBURGH. A tablet on the Grant Street side of the Court House, Pittsburgh, has this inscription: Grant's Hill. On this hill the British under Major James Grant were defeated by the French and Indians from Fort Duquesne, September 14, 1758. However, on November 24, 1758, General John Forbes drove out the French from the fort at The Point, but after they had fired the stockade. Fort Pitt was built about a year later; it and the settlement of Pittsburgh were named after William Pitt, prime minister of England and friend of the colonists. (Pittsburgh is derived from Pitts Borough or Pitts Burgh, as Edinburgh, not from Pitts burg or Pitts town, therefore it takes the "h." There are five Pittsburgs in the United States, but only one Pittsburgh.) Iron ore was discovered on the western slope of the Allegheny Mountains in 1780 and for more than 50 years these deposits supplied Pittsburgh with most of the iron ore needed. The first furnace was operated in 1792; the first glass works in 1797; boat-building in 1811; the first rolling mill in 1819; and the first Bessemer steel was made in 1874. Since that time the use of iron ores from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and coal, coke and natural gas from the Pittsburgh district, coupled with many well-known inventions and business organizations, have resulted in the present industrial activity of this city. THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH. The City of Pittsburgh has an area of 47 square miles and a population of 640,000. In the Pittsburgh district, which might be expressed as the territory lying in the valleys of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers and their principal tributaries and along the trunk-line railroads, so situated with respect to contiguity and topography as to constitute an industrial metropolis within a 30-mile radius of Pittsburgh, is a population of nearly two millions. The real Pittsburgh is a number (176 incorporated) of industrial towns about the central city. Fifty miles from Pittsburgh are 234 million people; 100 miles distant are 5 2 millions; 200 miles distant are 13 2 millions; and 500 miles distant are 68X2 millions (including 4y2 millions in Canada), or 57 per cent of the American people. When the requirements of these people and the productive capacity of Pittsburgh are considered, the reason for its great activity is apparent. DOWNTOWN PITTSBURGH. 3 F Zo 0 4 -Qj Its Qj a) L., cl. Q~'0 ~C -C+ 0: 4 PITTSBURGH. TOPOGRAPHY. It will be seen that a city and district which is intersected by three large rivers and tributaries and small streams flowing in deep ravines or wide gullies must have an uneven topography. The topography of the so-called "Golden Triangle" of Pittsburgh is somewhat similar to the lower portion of Manhattan Island, New York. Downtown Pittsburgh has an elevation of 743 feet. The highest point is 1200 feet, at Mt. Lebanon, South Side, but there are several points at about 900 feet. In the adjacent country the elevation is twice as high. Farther out, the country is rolling and high similar to much of the State of Pennsylvania, and the good roads afford much pleasure to automobilists. On three sides of the City proper are high bluffs rising from the rivers and it has been necessary for the County and the street railway company to drive long and large tunnels, and the latter has constructed and operates three steep inclines for foot passengers and vehicular traffic. Some details of these traffic arteries follow: Tunnels. lo0th Street Liberty South Hills Built by County County Pittsburgh Railways Co. Length, feet 13100 5..sS!) 35044I Number Twin Twin Single Width of roadway, feet 20 21 Two cars can pass Height, feet 22 26( Nature of traffic Vehicular and Vehicular and Street cars-maxpedestrian Pedestrian imum of li6) an hour both ways. Ventilation Natural Exhaust and Natural pressure fans Cost $1.o. $5.:~f)4.64:3.......... Inclines. 17th Street. (astle Shannon. Pittsburgh. Length, feet..............s 7:1 -o Rise (from almost river level), feet............:;-, 17:4 71 CLIMATE. Climatically, Pittsburgh has nothing exceptional to complain of. Occasionally in winter the temperature falls below zero, but the average annual mean temperature for the winter months during 55 years is 36 degrees, with a minimum mean of 28 degrees. In summer the temperature occasionally reaches 100 degrees, but the average annual mean temperature for the summer months during 55 years is 70 degrees, with a maximum mean of 80 degrees. The average annual rainfall for this period of years is 36 inches and for 42 years the average snowfall was 34 inches. LIVING CONDITIONS. 5 North entrance to Liberty Tunnels. LIVING CONDITIONS. If the downtown section of Pittsburgh is congested by reason of its peculiar layout resulting from the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, the environs of the city are as attractive as any city in America. No city has any better homes and gardens and tree-lined streets. Pittsburgh is not an hotel or apartment-house city; it is a city of homes; from the bungalow to the mansion, as shown. During the last three years there have been marked improvements in the city proper and suburbs. Thousands of homes have been built and a number of new buildings (offices, stores, apartments, churches and schools) erected, and many are under way. In addition, a great bridge replacement plan is well started with three finished, three in process of construction, and others contemplated. I _ _ - - Ventilating plant above and for the Liberty Tunnels. 6 PITTSBURGH. Types of the newer homes in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is a much-maligned city-that is, as far as living conditions are concerned-but most of those that speak in derogatory terms of the City and district are disgruntled with their own condition and never are satisfied, or have merely passed through or base their views on hearsay. Granted that we have and always will have some smoke and dust and some fog, these conditions mean industry, which is the lifeblood of the City. Smoke is as much the lifeblood of this district as snow is in the Sierras of California for its power and irrigation. When the mills along the rivers are belching forth black smoke, red dust, and white steam, then we know that they are at high capacity; if they are not, then business is dull. But as the blast-furnace plants wash more of their gas, the combustion of coal is improved, and the railroads in the city are electrified, the dust and smoke will be reduced considerably. A row of mansions overlooking Schenley Park. A row of mansions overlooking Schenley Park. CIVIC CENTER AND PARKS. 7 THE CIVIC CENTER. A considerable part of Pittsburgh's activities other than industrial and commercial are congregated in what is known as The Civic Center. This area is about three miles from downtown. Here are the following institutions all bordering Schenley Park and near the main residential section: Carnegie Institute including the Art Galleries, Library, Museum, and Music Hall; Carnegie Institute of Technology, Catholic Boys High School, Schenley High School, University of Pittsburgh, and Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind; Mellon Institute and U. S. Bureau of Mines Experiment Station; Duquesne Garden (ice skating and dancing), Forbes Field (capacity 40,000), Panorama of part of the civic center of Schenley District. and University Stadium (capacity 70,000); Phipps Conservatory; Hotel Schenley; Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, Ruskin, Schenley, and Webster Hall apartment houses; Allegheny County Soldiers Memorial Hall, Knights of Columbus Hall, Schenley Theater, and Syria Mosque; Masonic Temple, Pittsburgh Athletic Association, University Club, and Young Men and Women's Hebrew Association; Eighteenth Regiment Armory; Western Pennsylvania Historical Society; Pittsburgh Musical Institute; and Bellefield Presbyterian, Christian Science, First Baptist, First United Presbyterian, St. Paul's (Roman Catholic), and Temple Rodef Shalom (Jewish Synagogue) churches; and the Oakland Savings 8 Trust Company. PARKS. The wooded ravines and hillsides of the City's parks with their driveways, bridle-paths, and rustic walks are attractive features in the city plan; and many are noted for their natural beauty which has been undisturbed in their development as recreation centers. These parks cover 1322 acres. 8 PITTSBURGH. Schenley Park, which covers 420 acres of ground, is the largest and contains a golf course, racecourse, lake, swimming pool, tennis courts, tourist camp, and other attractions; one of the greatest is Phipps Conservatory which is rated among the most important in the country. Highland Park, with an area of 366 acres, contains storage reservoirs from which a part of the City's water supply is obtained, the Zoo, and a lake used for boating in summer and skating in winter. Frick's Woods, bequeathed to the city by the late Henry Clay Frick of coke fame, will contain an area of 340 acres of "forest primeval" which is to be left in its original state so far as possible. 1 Air view of part of Schenley Park with Phipps Conservatory, Carnegie Institute of Technology, U. S. Bureau of Mines, and Shadyside and other residential districts. Riverview Park, on the North Side of Pittsburgh, contains 240 acres and is one of the highest points in Allegheny County, and is a fitting setting for the Allegheny Observatory, built on the crest of its highest hill. EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES. 9 EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES. Although Pittsburgh is well supplied with educational facilities of a high standard there is a constant need for more, and additional schools and colleges are under construction and projected. The Board of Public Education has supplied the following information regarding the public schools: PITTSBURGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS. The school property of the City of Pittsburgh is valued at $34,202,799. It consists of 145 school buildings with school grounds covering a total area of 7,124,429 square feet and a net yard-area of 4,695,219 square feet. The school-rooms have sittings for approximately 104,500 pupils, and provide almost a seat for every child admitted to the schools. Greenfield Elementary School. Oliver High School. The equipment within the school buildings is such as to afford every pupil of the proper age and grade the opportunity for a fundamental training in elementary and high-school studies, together with free textbooks and supplies; and for such additional or special training in industrial, technical, vocational, or cultural lines as individual tastes may demand or the needs of the individual in the community may develop. 1 U PITTSBURGH. Westinghouse High School. The total number of pupils in the Pittsburgh Public Schools is 105,449. Of this number 20,142 are in the Junior and Senior High Schools; 10,083 attended evening classes. The high-school enrollment has increased 343 per cent during the last 1 3 years. The Board of Public Education employed 4208 persons during the last year, distributed as follows: Grade. Number. Clerks to Principals............................................. 101 Kindergarten teachers and assistants...................... 166 Elementary grade teachers....................... 1734 Principals, supervisors, and special elementary teachers............ 282 H igh-School teachers........................................... 62 High-School Principals and special teachers...................... 294 Special schools: Continuation schools................................... 40 Teachers' Training School.............................. 16 Industrial schools...................................... 67 Other special schools................................... 29 - 152 Superintendent and associates.................................... Adm inistration clerical staff..................................... 15 Jan itors........................................................ (96 Schenley High School. HIGH SCHOOLS. 11 4jfiit Langley High School. Since the organization of the present Board of Public Education in 1911 more than $17,000,000 has been spent in the acquisition of sites and the erection of new buildings and additions to older buildings. Among the many large and modern High Schools erected may be mentioned the Schenley, South Hills, Langley, Oliver, Westinghouse, and additions to the South, Fifth Avenue, and Peabody schools. Among the Elementary Schools erected, the Greenfield, Chatham, Dilworth, and Boggs Avenue are worthy of mention. Under construction at present are the Taylor Allderdice High School, a combined junior and senior school to serve the Squirrel Hill district, with an ultimate pupil capacity of 3,000; Taylor Allderdice High School, as in August, 1926. 12 PITTSBURGH. and the Henry Clay Frick Training School for Teachers near the University of Pittsburgh and Schenley High School. The Training School has a capacity of 300 teachers and 700 pupils. The picture of the Taylor Allderdice school, taken August 14, 1926, clearly shows the class of construction-steel frame and concrete, tile floors and walls and brick walls. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. A few notes on the technical education available follow: CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The Carnegie Institute of Technology, until 1912 the Carnegie Technical Schools, was founded by Andrew Carnegie. In November, 1900, Mr. Carnegie tendered to the City of Pittsburgh the money to establish a technical institute, upon the Science Building, College of Engineering, Carnegie Institute of Technology. condition that the City would provide a suitable site of ample size for future extensions. In December, 1900, he placed the Technical Schools under the direction of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Institute. In January, 1901, the City accepted the gift. In 1902 a site was selected and in 1903 a tract of 32 acres adjoining Schenley Park, near the Carnegie Institute, was approved and acquired. Building was started in April, 1905, and in October students were received. The first diploma was awarded in June, 1908, and in April, 1912, the school received its charter of incorporation with power to confer degrees. The annual enrollment of day students is close to 3000, and of night students more than 2000. The Carnegie Institute of Technology is concerned primarily with technical education. It offers courses in engineering, including mining and metallurgy, for men (the College of Engineering); courses in the fine and applied arts for men and CARNEGIE INSTITUTE. 13 women (the College of Fine Arts); courses in industries for men (the College of Industries); courses for women which combine the training for the home and for a profession (the Margaret Morrison Carnegie College for Women). The Division of Co-operative Research offers courses to post-graduate students and affords opportunities for research which lead to advanced degrees. CARNEGIE INSTITUTE The Carnegie Institute of Technology is a part of the Carnegie Institute, and the students have all the advantages of the Art Galleries, the Museum, the Library and the Department of Music. The main building of the Carnegie Institute is a massive structure which occupies more area than the Capitol at Washington. It was given to the City of Pittsburgh by Andrew Carnegie. It covers 6 acres, is of the Italian Renaissance Carnegie Institute. style of architecture, and contains the Library, the Art Galleries, the Museum, the Music Hall, and the Lecture Hall. The buildings of the Institute of Technology are entirely separate and are within 5 minutes' walk of the Institute. The Library contains 550,000 volumes, of which 60,000 are on technical and scientific subjects; the Art Galleries have a permanent collection of works of modern painters and holds each year an International Exhibition excelled by none in America; the Museum is one of the four great museums of this country and has noteworthy collections from the fields of paleontology, mineralogy, botany, entomology, ornithology, archeology, and ethnology; and the comfortable Music Hall contains a great organ on which public recitals are given twice a week in the season and here are also heard music recitals by the leading artists of the world. DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY Duquesne University was founded in 1878 by les Freres du Saint Esprit. Its charter entitles it to-maintain a college for youth in all branches of a thorough moral and secular educa 14 PITTSBURGH. tion, including languages, the liberal arts and sciences; and to confer the usual scholastic degrees as well as degrees in the sciences of Law, Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy. About 800 are enrolled at this college, which overlooks downtown Pittsburgh and the Monongahela River. PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE FOR WOMEN The College, founded in 1869 at the suggestion of Dr. W. T. Beatty, then pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church, for many years stood alone in Pittsburgh in equipping young women with an education equal to that afforded young men. There are about 300 students. The situation in the beautiful Woodland Road district of Pittsburgh combines the advantages of the city and country. The regular course in Liberal Arts leads to the degree of bachelor of arts. The course in Education provides for the teacher's certificate; and professional certificates are granted in the special Departments of Social Service, Music and Spoken English. UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH The University of Pittsburgh had its origin in the Pittsburgh Academy, which received its charter from the Pennsylvania Legislature on February 28, 1787. At that time Pittsburgh was a village of less than one thousand persons. The first degrees in engineering were granted in 1848. In 1866 the Allegheny Observatory, which is in Riverview Park, North Side, Pittsburgh, and has a 30-inch lens in its refractor, was established and shortly conveyed to the University. In 1907, the present site of the University of 48 acres was purchased and the name of the college changed from Western University of Pennsylvania to the University of Pittsburgh. The first of the new buildings were erected in 1909. In 1910 the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research and School of Specific Industries was established; this is described under Chemical Research. In 1921 the area of the campus was increased by 3 1 acres, and now the total is 81 acres with 27 buildings. On a block of 14 acres acquired in 1921 it is proposed to erect a high central building surrounded by a group of lower buildings. The faculty totals nearly 600 and the enrollment of students 9000. The organization of the University is made up of The College, School of Engineering, School of Mines, School of Business Administration, School of Education, The Graduate SCHOOLS OF UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH. 15 ~~~~~~1-._,_ _v State Hall, School of Mines, University of Pittsburgh. Thaw Hall, School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh. 16 PITTSBURGH. School, Allegheny University, Mellon Institute, Research Bureau for Retail Training, School of Medicine, School of Law, School of Dentistry, and School of Pharmacy. Some of these, particularly Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Medicine, are well known. OTHER EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES In addition to the City schools and technical colleges there are three theological seminaries, two academies, and a number of parochial schools. Then there are the main Carnegie Library with 9 branches, and technical libraries at the Universities, Bureau of Mines, and other institutions, all of which are more or less open to the public. RELIGION. It is conceded that Pittsburgh is a great religious center. And to prove that interest is being maintained one has only to note the new churches under construction-some new and others to replace old buildings-one in the heart of the downtown district. Several churches have been completed in recent years. There are 560 churches in the city and 1300 in Allegheny County. Many of these are beautiful structures as will be seen in the accompanying photographs. Third United Presbyterian Church. CHURCHES. 17 j First Baptist Church. 18 PITTSBURGH. Asbury Methodist Church. Calvary Church (Episcopal). Third Presbyterian Church. Main entrance to Sacred Heart Church (Roman Catholic). This edifice is tunder construction and is an example of perpendicular Gothic architecture. This front window is 45 feet high and 20 feet wide. When finished in 1927 the church will accommodate 1700 persons. 19 20 PITTSBURGH. BANKING AND FINANCE. Pittsburghers have always been proud of the financial strength of their city and of its captains of industry. The city ranks well ahead of several other cities of larger population. It is the most important financial center in the Fourth Federal Reserve District; its clearings are 50 per cent greater than those of Cleveland, although that city has the Federal Reserve Bank and Pittsburgh only a branch. In a locality where business generally and industry in particular is prosecuted on such a tremendous scale, as in greater Pittsburgh, it is natural to look for great financial strength. In the comparison of Pittsburgh's banking statistics with other cities it must be remembered that branch banks are not operated here and its institutions do not enjoy, to any great extent, the handling of the large amounts involved in imports and exports. First National Bank at Pittsburgh, and office building. TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. 21 Moreover, the City of Pittsburgh proper is small geographically and should not be compared with those whose territory occupies large stretches of surrounding territory, which would add to Pittsburgh many prosperous towns with important banks and trust companies. Among those that should be in the City are Wilkinsburg, Braddock, Homestead, Bellevue, Sewickley, and others. Were these towns a part of the City, Pittsburgh's banking figures would be much larger. As it is, statistics largely represent business actually done in the City. More than 40 per cent of the business of the Fourth Federal Reserve District and more than 2 per cent of the Nation's financial business is transacted in Pittsburgh and surrounding towns. This district's banking facilities comprise more than 300 banks and trust companies. Of these, 82 are within the City limits and possess an aggregate capital of $57,801,500, deposits of $925,000,000, surplus and undivided profits of $142,000,000, and total resources of $1,180,000,000. Total exchanges handled by the Pittsburgh Clearing House Association in 1925 were $8,856,572,090. Several of these banks are housed in handsome modern buildings, and all are in adequate edifices. TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES. RAILROADS. Pittsburgh is a major railroad center and is served by 25 railroads. Six of these are trunk lines, and over their own rails these roads reach almost three-quarters of the cities and towns of this country with populations over 50,000. There Pitcairn classification yards of Pennsylvania Railroad. 22 PITTSBURGH. are two other class 1 railroads and 17 industrial and terminalswitching railroads. The principal lines are the Baltimore Z Ohio; Bessemer E4 Lake Erie; Buffalo, Rochester 8 Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh 8 Lake Erie; and Pittsburgh Z West Virginia. Greater Pittsburgh's railroads transport more than 40,000,000 passengers yearly in the district; and to move the products of the district requires the services of 175 freight trains every day. The 5 electric railways of the district carry more than 360,000,000 passengers annually over 1,000 miles of single track serving 152 important communities within a 30 -mile radius. RIVERS. As will be seen from the map of Pittsburgh, the City proper lies at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, which then flow northwesterly and southeasterly as the Ohio River until it empties into the Mississippi River. The City has 54 miles of navigable water front and the district has 250 miles. The Corps of Engineers, United States Army, whose staff at Pittsburgh is conversant with everything connected with the three rivers, has kindly supplied the data following with photographs of river traffic. (For further details of the problems of waterways the reader is referred to "River Transportation," 26 pages in the Proceedings (1924) of the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania, by A. F. Crockett of Jones 1 Laughlin Steel Corporation). FREIGHT MOVEMENT Probably the densest river traffic in the world exists on the Monongahela, lower Allegheny, and upper Ohio rivers. The total commerce on the three rivers in the Pittsburgh Engineer District, which includes the watershed of the Ohio River above Beach Bottom Run, West Virginia, 77 miles below the head of the river, in the year 1925 was 29,000,000 tons. A considerable portion of this commerce was transported on more than one of the rivers, but in the above total, duplication of commodities beyond their movement on one stream are eliminated. While the accumulation of this enormous tonnage has progressed through a long period, the greatest increase has occurred during the past 10 years. At present there is a marked increase in tonnage on the upper Ohio River, which in 1925 was almost 50 per cent over that during the preceding year. The future seems certain to add materially to the present commerce. Statistics for the past 10 years on the three rivers are given in the table following: Freight movement on the three rivers during a period of ten years, tons. MONONGAHELA RIVER, from Fairmont, W. Va., to Pittsburgh, Pa. (127 miles), annually from 1916 to 1925. Commodity 1916i 1!917 19.18 1919. 19204 1921 1922 1923 1924 1.) 25 Coal............. 10,:391,,708 12,300,()7 12,92.,764 14,63:,409 20,717,535 13,46,233 11,608,146 1 S,709,084 17.749),15) 18,697,832 Coke................... 294,195 3539 1,849 398,71 16,27 1872,490 385,426 737,72 892,851 Sand and gravel... 2,287,957 3,158,129 3,061,273 2,239325 2,452,025 1,818,955 1,926,860 3,378,711 2,600,699 3,257,751 Iron and steel..... 159,457 159,68:3 135,227 148,094 535,627 126,320 542,785 706,175 371,675 548,840 Other commodities* 36,551 97,029 55,089 117,824 160,455 122,489 156,848 380,628 419,589 318,847 Total.........12,875,673 16,009,133 16,537,746 17.137,501 24,264,354 16,100,824 14,407,129 23,560,024 21,878,815 23,716,121 OHIO RIVER, from Pittsburgh, Pa., to Cairo, III. (969 miles), annually from 1916 to 1925. Commodity 1916 19)17 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 Coal............. 3,503,833 2,840,550 3,790),614 3,424,159 6,486,787 4,415,356 4,185,193 6,008.918 5,627,217 6,527,862 Coke............. 800 6,013 13,98 42,191 164,155 17,700 6,581 33,790 183,810 397,217 Sand and gravel... 2,011,320 1,202,374 1,687,813 1,037,541 1,216,749 1,624,237 895,996 1,201,926 3,746,883 6,854,475 Iron and steel.... 6,871 1,756 22,621 21,298 355,668 52,767 337,357 389,793 558,720 534,817 Other commodities* 522,090 548,182 565,379 479,189 1,159,105 1,197,820 866,699 646,093 750,052 1,422,644 Total......... 6,044,914 4,598,875 6,171,413 5,004,378 9,382,464 7,307,880 6,291,826 8,280,520 10,866,682 15,737,015 ALLEGHENY RIVER, from Natrona, Pa., to Pittsburgh, Pa. (24 miles), annually from 1916 to 1925. Commodity 1916 1917 1918 _ 1 9193 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 C, -3 C/) C/, 0 In -3 M 51 In 0 zr '5 '11i C C S I] C 'oal............. 847,030 956,697 942,956 722,078 1,604,393 494,917 954,850 1,329,681 841,923 915,225 'oke................... 15...... 3,675...... 59,150) 92,268 land and gravel... 1,375,655 1,201,515 1,233,337 1,191,379 3,127,340 3,140,953 2,901,305 3,118,500 3,357,365 3,669,244 ron and steel..... 131,112 126,031 96,7i)4 131,919 171,401 64,140 68,501 141,208 55,087 16,499 )ther commodities* 19,539 15,900 14,904 12,693 41,467 37,431 23,520 23,251 25,986 51,60)7 Total......... 2,373,336 2,300,143 2,287.916 2,058.069 4,948,276 3,737,441 3,948,176 4,612,640 4,339,511 4,744,843 *Includes cement, contractors' machinery, general merchandise, oil and gasoline, stone for dams and bridge piers, sulfur from Louisiana, and sulfuric acid made in the Pittsburgh district. 24 PITTSBURGH. The accumulation of so large a commerce has been made possible only by the establishment by the Federal Government of a dependable navigation system and its reliable maintenance and operation. The cost of the 27 completed locks and dams in the Pittsburgh Engineer District is estimated at approximately $50,000,000. For their upkeep and operation about $1,500,000 is expended annually. Excepting freshets and severe ice conditions, which as a rule do not long prevail, interruptions to navigation are rare and of short duration. The District is amply provided with plant and equipment of every kind to handle emergency breakdowns quickly. Lock No. 3, Monongahela River, with steamer and barges with 6,000 tons of coal. MEANS OF IMPROVING RIVERS The methods ordinarily employed for the improvement of rivers are regulation, dredging, and canalization. Regulation, sometimes termed "regularization," "normalization," or "standardization," trains the river to a greater uniformity of slope, cross section, and velocity than naturally obtains, through the direct influence of controlling structures such as longitudinal and spur dikes or training walls and bank protection by means of revetments or spurs. The purpose of the regulation method of improvement is to induce the rivers to develop regularity and stability of regimen, a condition that greatly facilitates their navigability. Dredging, although essentially temporary in character and somewhat allied to regulation, where adaptable is less expensive than the construction of permanent works of improvement and has in recent years developed into a conspicuous feature in the maintenance of the required navigable depth in the lower Misissippi River. Necessarily, channel dredging is an important operation in the establishment and maintenance of navigable channels generally. LOCKS AND DAMS ON RIVERS. 25 The canalization of rivers by means of locks and dams is adopted whenever the navigable depth required is considerably greater than that of the natural channel at low water or where the minimum volume of flow is so small that with the slope of surface encountered either the width or depth of regulated channel will be deficient for the traffic requirements. The formation of relatively quiet pools above the dams is often of great economic advantage at commercial centers affording, as they do, advantageous harbor facilities for industrial purposes. Pittsburgh Steel Co.'s barge with 1800 tons of coke. LOCKS AND DAMS The low-water discharge of the Monongahela River is 160 cubic feet per second and that of the Allegheny 1,440 second feet, hence the radical improvement of these rivers was best obtained only by the construction of locks and dams. The Monongahela River has been slackwatered throughout its entire length by means of 14 fixed dams. At each of dams No. 1 to 6, inclusive, there are twin locks, each 56 feet wide by 360 feet long in their usable dimensions, except at dam No. 3 where the river lock is 56 feet by 360 feet and the land chamber 56 feet by 720 feet. At each of new dams Nos. 7 and 8 (completed in 1926) which replaced old dams No. 7, 8 and 9, there is a single chamber 56 feet by 360 feet. The locks at the upper 6 dams are 56 feet by 182 feet. The depth on the sills of the locks between Pittsburgh and Morgantown varies from 9.1 feet to 12.4 feet, and between Morgantown and Fairmont there is a depth of 7 feet on the sills. On the Allegheny River, 3 locks and dams have been completed, establishing a least slackwater depth of 7 feet from the mouth to Natrona, 24 miles. Of these No. 1, at Pittsburgh, is a movable dam of the Chanoine wicket type; the others are fixed dams. Locks and dams No. 4 and 5 in this river are under construction and tearly completed, while No. 6, 7, and 8 have 26 PITTSBURGH. been authorized by Congress and remain to be built. The completed locks No. 1, 2 and 3 are 55 feet to 56 feet wide by approximately 290 feet long in their usable dimensions. From lock No. 4, going upstream, the locks are 56 feet by 360 feet. On the Ohio River, 42 locks and dams have been completed and 8 are under construction. Except the first structure at the head of the river, at Emsworth, Pa., the dams are movable, of Chanoine or Bebout wicket type, with beartrap regulating weirs. At the Emsworth fixed dam there are two locks, one 56 feet wide by 360 feet long and one 110 feet wide by 600 feet long. This structure replaced old movable dams No. 1 and 2. At each of the other dams there is one lock 100 feet wide by 600 feet long. A dependable 9-foot navigation is now an accomplished fact on the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and dam No. 44, a distance of 660 miles. A second fixed dam, similar to the one at Emsworth, is about to be constructed at Deadman Island, 13 miles below Pittsburgh, where it will replace movable dams No. 3 and 4. The slope on the uppermost 30 miles of the Ohio River is nearly 1 2 feet per mile. The purpose in replacing the movable dams with fixed structures on this reach of the river is that the latter type provides a much more satisfactory navigation where the gradient is steep than do movable dams. Sand dredge. Capacity 500 tons of sand and gravel an hour, from a depth of 65 feet. VALUE OF RIVER TRANSPORTATION. 27 Tow of 6861 tons of steel products from Jones ~ Laughlin's Steel Corp., to points on the Mississippi River and then on by rail. VALUE OF RIVER TRANSPORTATION The improvements in aid of navigation on these rivers have been very successful and generally satisfactory. On the Monongahela especially, and also to an important extent on the lower Allegheny, there exist along the banks abundant supplies of bituminous coal which can be cheaply handled in bulk and at the terminal of water haul can be economically transferred to industries operating on the banks of the rivers. In general, the river transportation possesses greater certainty and ease of control than rail movements and industrial plants can thus be maintained and operated without the necessity of providing for railroad yards of large area. Tow of 6,000 tons of pipe from Pittsburgh to points on the Mississippi River. 28 PITTSBURGH. In addition to obtaining their fuel by water, the steel manufacturers have in recent years been transporting large quantities of finished steel products to lower Ohio and Mississippi river points as far as New Orleans, a distance of 1,959 miles. These products have been moved on barges taken from the equipment of their long-established coal-transport service on the Monongahela River and converted temporarily to the new use. Already one company has constructed several new covered barges for the express purpose of shipping steel. The accompanying photographs show some of the dams, locks and river traffic. It is conservatively estimated that in the Pittsburgh District at least $40,000,000 has been invested by corporations and industrials in terminal facilities and river craft. In this district there are 80 steamboats, 60 smaller tow boats (with oil or gasoline engines, 2,000 barges, 24 sand dredges, 10 dipper dredges, 25 derrickboats, besides other auxiliary craft. These are continually being added to. While the saving to the people by means of water transportation can not be known with certainty, it is believed that $20,000,000 per annum to the various interests in the Pittsburgh district is a conservative estimate. The rate at which industrials are entering into the transportation of their fuel and products by water is in itself sufficient to indicate its value and promises much for the future navigation of our central rivers. BOAT-BUILDING ALONG THE OHIO RIVER. The building of river craft in the Pittsburgh district, along the Ohio River, is increasing each year. During 1925, four firms launched a total of 240 hulls which used 48,215 tons of steel. The indications are that the current year will witness a good increase on the tonnage for last year. The Pittsburgh district in 1925 actually launched 90 per cent of the river craft built in the Central West region. The local firms and their output are as follows: American Bridge Co., 85 barges of 15,000 tons; The Dravo Contracting Co., 77 barges, 1 mixer boat, 2 tow-boats and 1 tow-boat hull, 2 derrick boats, 1 quarterboat hull, and 1 ore barge, a total of 18,115 tons, also 7 caisson units of 533 tons; Jones and Laughlin Steel Corp., 51 barges of 7100 tons; and the Riter-Conley Co., 19 barges of 8000 tons. BOAT-BUILDING ALONG THE OHIO RIVER. 29 Dredge recently built by the Dravo Contracting Co. The hull is 155 feet long, 44 feet wide and 8 feet deep. Steam power is used. The digging buckets are of 6.6 cubic feet capacity and the actual capacity of the dredge is 4,000 to 5,000 tons of saleable material in 10 hours. As may be seen from the above, The Dravo Contracting Co. builds various types of steel river craft at its shops and ways on Neville Island. These include whirler or revolving crane boats, derrick boats, floating cranes, lighters, mixer boats, steam sand diggers, steam dredges( one of 1100 tons gross displacement was built for a platinum and gold company in Colombia, South America), steam and Diesel engine towboats, barges up to 2500 tons capacity, and dump scows; lock gates and emergency dams are also built. The force employed in the design and construction of steel floating equipment for inland waters has varied from a maximum of 1200 men to a minimum of about 600. Two of its craft recently built are shown in the accompanying half-tones. Type of towboat built by the Dravo Contracting Co. The overall length is 84 2 feet. The power is a 4-cylinder Fairbanks, Morse 100-h.p. crude oil engine. 30 PITTSBURGH. At Ambridge, the American Bridge Co. has an extensive plant for building barges. The accompanying illustration shows a coal barge, developed by this company, in conjunction with river transportation companies, which is generally accepted as the standard 1000-ton barge for river service. The principal dimensions are length, 175 feet; beam, 26 feet; and depth, 11 feet. The carrying capacity is 1000 net tons on a draft of 9 feet. Standard Coal Barge of American Bridge Co. The development of this barge has been very gradual and began with the first steel coal barge built by the American Bridge Co. in 1904. The one outstanding improvement was the introduction of the sloping steel hopper plates, which extend the entire length of cargo space and are framed into the transverse watertight bulkheads which form the ends of the cargo pocket. This eliminated the necessity of cross struts at the gunwale (these greatly interfered with the unloading of the barge), relieved the transverse floors from bending due to unbalanced side pressure, increased the longitudinal strength, and did away with the twisting in the barge through unsymetrical loadings. Some of the other improvements introduced by the Bridge Company were: 1. Special reinforcements at corners, headlog, foot of rake forward of transverse bulkhead and at other points where excessive wear or abuse was observed. 2. Roughing of handling deck plate by indenting to afford better foothold. STANDARD COAL BARGE. 31 3. Extending side and top of pump box to meet end bulkhead and handling deck, thus eliminating pocket between pump box and bulkhead, where coal would lie or have to be removed by hand shovel, and at the same time providing a safe working platform for the crew when handling lines at the corner bitts. 4. The reversing of the gunwale channel and placing the walking plank in bosom instead of on the back of channel, as was formerly done, has virtually eliminated the replacing of the walking plank due to destruction by being hit with unloading bucket. In short, 22 years' experience in building and observation in service have combined to make the barge economical and safe and to be well worthy of its designation, "The Standard Coal Barge." 32 THE MONONGAHELA RIVER AND ITS ACTIVITIES AND A BOAT TRIP TO CLAIRTON. THE Monongahela River, locally known as the "Mon," is one of the busiest rivers-the waterway and along its banksin the world. As already stated, the total volume of all commodities moved amounts to nearly 24,000,000 tons a year. On Thursday, October 7, the members of the A. I. M. E. are to spend all day on a boat trip up the Monongahela River as far as Clairton, about 20 miles from Pittsburgh. The accompanying six sketches, to scale, supplied by the U. S. Engineer Office, will act as a guide map and show all details such as locks and dams, bridges, industrial towns, coal mines, and the works along the river. The maps show as far as Elrama and Donora because at the first named is a large experimental artificial gas plant and at the latter place is the largest zinc smelter in the world, which probably will be visited on other inspection trips than this. The activity of the river is particularly apparent on boarding the steamer at Pittsburgh-tows and bridges, iron and steel works, and railroads line the banks. On the right bank, downtown and going upstream, are the Clinton furnace, the A. M. Byers wrought-iron tube works and the Jones & Laughlin South Side steel plant; the latter is shown in the accompanying picture. The first lock on the river is passed through at this point. South Side Works of Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation. 33 THE THREE RIVERS. 300M s6On+I I2 First four miles of the Monongahela River. 34 PITTSBURGH. On the left bank are one of the National Tube works and Jones ~ Laughlin rolling mill, Eliza blast furnaces, and coke ovens. Hot metal from these furnaces is hauled across the bridge to the South Side plant where it is bessemerized. At Hays, on the right bank, with a population of 2400, is the refractory brick plant of the Harbison-Walker Refractories Co. Here are made bauxite, chromite, fireclay, magnesite, and silica brick for all purposes. At West Homestead, with 3700 people, are the works of the Mesta Machine Co., Howard Axle Co., and American Car Wheel Co. The first named is a huge foundry and machine shop. At Homestead, with 22,000 people, the Homestead Valve B Mfg. Co. makes pumps and the Watt Car Wheel Co. makes cars and parts. At Munhall, with 7000 people, the Carnegie Steel Co. operates its great Homestead works which employs 9200 men. Great improvements have been and are being made to this plant, and the greatest rolling mill in existence, made by the United Engineering Co. of Pittsburgh, was recently erected. On the left bank are Swissvale, Rankin, and Braddock, with populations of 12,500, 8000, and 22,000, respectively. A picture taken from above Nine Mile Run (see Map 2) shows great activity at Homestead, Munhall, and Rankin. Unfortunately, it is impossible to reproduce the black smoke, red dust, and steam as seen at the time. At Swissvale the Union Switch & Signal Co. makes forgings, the Pittsburgh Lamp, Brass E Glass Co. makes fixtures, and the Benner Tool Co. makes oilwell supplies. At Rankin the Carnegie Steel Co. makes pig iron; American Steel 8 Wire Co., wire products: Copper Clad Steel Co., brass and bronze; McClintock-Marshall Construction Co., structural shapes for buildings and bridges; Consolidated Expanded Metal Co., iron and steel shapes; and the Wilson View from above Nine-Mile Run showing Homestead, Munhall, and Rankin. THE MONONGAHELA RIVER. 3 35 MON Ri/ VER 2 f SCALE Of MILE5 I A0 -., From 4 to 11 miles on the Monongahela River. 36 PITTSBURGH. Synder Mfg. Co., engines, etc., for oil wells. At Braddock the Acheson Mfg. Co. makes plumbers supplies; American Chain Co., chains; Carnegie Steel Co., iron and steel; and Sterling Steel Foundry Co., steel castings. The Carnegie Steel Co. has 11 blast furnaces, 14 open-hearth furnaces, 3 converters, power plant, and rolling mills of all types. Part of this plant is shown in the next picture which also shows the second lock through which the steamer passes. Lock No. 2, Monongahela River, at Braddock. Edgar Thomson Works in background. At Duquesne, on the right bank, population 21,000, the Carnegie Steel Co. has 4 blast furnaces and 32 open-hearths, and the Zeigler Lumber Co. has planing mills. Like Pittsburgh, McKeesport, on the left bank, is situated at the confluence of two rivers-the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny, locally termed the "Yock"-15 miles from Pittsburgh. The population of McKeesport is 52,000, of whom 14,000 are employed in the various works. The city was founded in about 1780 by John McKee. The city is the largest and most important of the industrial towns of the Pittsburgh district. It is a well-managed modern city of great activity, with rail and water transportation and in proximity to large supplies of coal, coke, and natural gas. The McKeesport Chamber of Commerce supplied the picture of the city here reproduced. Prominent among many industries are the works THE MONONGAHELA RIVER. 37,4_ 0 t3 CI z A L LE G H NY C 0. PENNSYLV A N IA SCAL L OF MILES 1* 1 I From 11 to 17 miles on the Monongahela River. 00 T-l Hi C):I: McKeesport, Pennsylvania. National Tube Works at the center. The reason for the airplane is because McKeesport has an aviation field. 3 9 THE MONONGAHELA RIVER. CQ/1O/5t Co. Ld57s' L VA N I A ~Gowr.Lt. 608 N. tG&,CU.0 A LL E G GQVYt1U 61/. I i I z I.., I — IL - -.. I From 17 to 24 miles on the Monongahela River. 40 PITTSBURGH. of the American Sheet ~ Tin Plate Co., Firth-Sterling Steel Co., McKeesport Tin Plate Co. (annual capacity 4,000,000 boxes), and the National Tube Co. which employs 8,200 men. At Glassport, between two and three miles from McKeesport, are 7500 people. Of these more than 600 are employed at the Allegheny By-Products Coke Co., Pittsburgh [ Lake Erie Railroad repair shops, Pittsburgh Steel Co., and United States Glass Co.'s works. Clairton, on the right bank of the river, is the objective of the river trip. The town has a population of 14,000, of whom 3800 are employed at the by-product coke plant and iron and steel works (furnaces and mills) of the Carnegie Steel Co. As the coking plant is to be visited, there is no need to say more than it is the greatest in the world and is being enlarged to an ultimate capacity of 22,000 tons of coke a day. A large proportion of the coal used at present comes from the mines of the H. C. Frick Coke Company at Scottdale, Pennsylvania. The coal is brought down the river in barges of 850 tons capacity, which are loaded from the storage-bin in 10 minutes. This storage-bin is filled by a 48-inch belt conveyor, 22,927 feet long, or 4 1/3 miles, from the loading station in the mines to the slope mouth near the river. The belt is in 20 sections and the total rise is 358 feet. More than 2000 horsepower is required to drive the system. Two more sections of the Monongahela River are shown. At Elrama, 4 miles from Clairton, the Equitable Gas Co. has an experimental gas-manufacturing plant of 45,000,000 cubic feet daily capacity. The water-gas plant makes 20,000,000 cubic feet daily and the producer-gas plant 25,000,000 cubic feet. The former is the more efficient. The whole plant is not operated regularly, only to take care of peak demand. This company realizes that it must prepare for the eventual shortage of natural gas, so it is already making gas from coal here and mixing it with the natural gas. Farther on, at Monongahela City, with 9200 people, are the Cyclops Foundry Co., Diamond Machine Co., Liggett Spring [ Axle Co., and Monon Clay Manufacturing Co. And 37 miles from Pittsburgh is Donora, with 16,500 people, of whom 4100 are employed with the American Steel [ Wire Co. in its extensive rolling mills and the largest zinc smelter in the world. This has 9000 retorts using concentrates from the Tri-State Region of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. THE MONONGAHELA RIVER. 41 C 0. Run Tipp e Lt. 6/5 BU NOL US DP C. ALLEG H ENY Of0d V 5st1o ~,o PENNS Y L V A N I A SCALE OF MILE5 1 a 0 1.... I...., I 2 From 24 to 31 miles on the Monongahela River. 42 PITTSBURGH. Large quantities of sulfuric acid are made, partly from fumes from the concentrates being roasted and partly from sulfur brought up by barge from Louisiana. Experimental Gas Manufacturing Plant of Equitable Gas Co. at Elrama, Pa. THE MONONGAHELA RIVER. 43 'R/V~f 6 _w-^ MONONGAI d U Pgh. CCo.Cat bury PEN z 0 Ir r( r: C. E/la 7Tipple -J CO.\ ", w i ES TMO R ELAND SCALE OF MILES i o0................ II From 31 to 35 miles on the Monongahela River. 44 BRIDGES AT PITTSBURGH AND IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY. ITTSBURGH has been termed "the most bridged city in the world," which is doubtless true. The three great riversthe Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio (see map)-and the many streams and creeks that flow into them have formed valleys, ravines, and gullies which had to be bridged to permit of proper communication. The rivers are wide (the Allegheny and Monongahela average 800 feet at Pittsburgh and the Ohio 1100 feet near the City) and many of the ravines are deep (100 feet or more). The result has been an enormous expenditure on the construction of bridges, their upkeep and renewal, and the construction of new spans to meet traffic demands. But bridges should not be considered merely a means of communication; in most cases, they are actually things of great architectural and engineering skill and beauty, and are designed with that end in view. And in this connection it may be added that the Art Commission, which consists of 9 members who serve without compensation, pass on the design of any City or County structures, particularly bridges, and two consulting architects advise on design so that it will harmonize as much as possible with the surroundings. It is worth recording here that in 1844, John A. Roebling's Sons Co., of Trenton, New Jersey, at Pittsburgh erected the first suspension bridge or aqueduct supported by parallel wire cables. The purpose of this bridge was to carry the water and boats of the Pennsylvania Canal across the Allegheny River. It consisted of 7 individual spans, each 162 feet long, supported by two cables 7 inches in diameter. In 1856, this firm built a suspension bridge across the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh. There were two spans of 344 feet each supported by two 7-inch and two 4-inch cables. In their "Graceful Spans: The Romance of Modern Bridge Building" in The Saturday Evening Post for July 17 and September 11, 1926, Howard C. Baird and Fitzhugh Green have this to say, in part: -/ \\ aty brd m\\* ' Rial bridge 3:t Under camturuo \ ---To be r pbmd \\ ' _; --- - - rs —r-, ".....I I, Types of bridges on the three 1 Cantilever. '! 3. Truss. 4. Plate girder and curved-top II chord truss. / ' 5. Truss. 6. Self-anchored 8. suspension. 10. Through bridge on with three arches above., ' 5 / 11. Truss. 13. Deck bridge with three, ' 16. Plate girder and curvedtop chord truss. 17T. Truss. / 18. Deck truss bridge on piers. 19. Plate gfrder and camel20. e-bar sp nsion (being replaced by curved-top chord cantilever). X 22. Lenticular truss. 28. Curved-top chord truss. 12. Deck antrilede r t.h (being built). 25. Truss. 26. Three-hinged arch. a ' 27. Truss. s. e. Plate girder and curved-top 28 o T russ. u. 29. Truss. 30. Camel-back truss. 81. Truspers. 82. Truss. 28. Thruehb. e h t 84. Truss. 28. Truss.^^\ 28. Truss. 8. Curved-top chord truss. 48. Truss. 89. TPree antlever. 0. Trusa. truss. 89 Trusss.. Catiever. -Map of te three river showin position of brid 28. rur. 29. Truss. dcp fb tr~riotrhwnppdio fi~dp CITY BRIDGES. 45 The future of bridge building is fairly obvious, at least for the next hundred years. There is bound to be an increasing number of bridges. Railways and automobiles, suburbs and recreation, will all demand them. Watersplit cities, such as New York and Philadelphia, and San Francisco [curiously, Pittsburgh is omitted], will have within their limits dozens of mighty spans to aid their millions hurrying from one zone to another. It won't be another case of modern buildings, which are built and torn down within the same generation. Bridges don't wear out. And as we are already building nearly the largest possible size of them, the next move will be simply to build a new one alongside the old one. Design will not change markedly. Basic principles of suspension, girdered or masonry spans, make material change impossible. Even change in size can not go far from what we have already. Graceful concrete arches will for generations likely be the form of most short bridges within a city's environs. Railways demanding economy will continue to resort to diversified spans made up of steel girders and, resting on masonry foundations. Waterways with big-ship traffic can be served only by high suspensions. One thing about which we may rest assured: For centuries America is going to lead the world in the beauty and the grandeur of her bridges. These conclusions fit the case of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, including the railroads. Most of the data and pictures following of bridges in this district were supplied by the City, County, and U. S. Engineer Office: CITY BRIDGES. Nearly all of the bridges within the confines of the City of Pittsburgh, which are in general used for highway purposes by the traveling public, are owned and maintained by the City when the structure crosses a railroad, street, ravine, or creek. The City also owns several of the highway bridges that cross main waterways, and there are additional highway structures across the rivers which are owned by the County of Allegheny. The City owns or maintains in whole or in part 112 bridges; of these, 27 are foot bridges and 85 are for vehicular traffic. The tables following give an idea as to the classification of these various structures in regard to their type and data on City river bridges. Manchester Bridge, from the Point to the North Side, Allegheny River. 46 PITTSBURGH. The bridges vary considerably in size and from small spans of 15 feet to major structures more than a half-mile in length and representing in some cases an investment of $1,000,000. Types of City Bridges. Type. Steel. concrete. Timber. Stone. Total. Trusses......................... 22.4. Arches.......................... I.. 4 21 Plate-girder s ans................ 27.... 27 Lattice-girder spans..................i Beam spans......................... 14 Plate-girder viaducts............. 7.... 7 Lattice-girder viaducts.................... Eye-beam viaducts............... 2..... Reinforced slabs..................... Suspension bridges............... 1...... 1 Total....................... 17 1 4 112 Data on City river bridges. Herrs Man- Point. Smithfiel,1 South South Island. chester. St. l!th St. 2:'nl St. River....... Allegheny Allegheny.Mononga- Mononga- Mononga- Monongahela hela hela hela Type........ Truss Truss Susoension Truss Truss Truss Material..... Steel Steel Steel Steel Steel Steel Year built... ls.)3 19 )14 1s77 l.S:: ll:9I 18!96 Cost...... $..},,,l(............. $:;4l.:i>.4.100> (approx.).. Length, feet: Main span. 24.:'.s (2)5:1 s)0 (2):36 45:;.S 520 Total..... 243.S:3257.75 1110t 11sl 1417 2234 Width, feet: Roadway.. 22.25:3 20) (1)21.3 32 27.6 (1)22.17 Sidewalks. (1)7 (2)!) (2)9 (1)10.6 (2)1o.IS (2)1 0.6 (1)10.5 The accompanying pictures show the Manchester, Point, and Smithfield Street bridges. The Point bridge is now being replaced by a cantilever type bridge. (/7 The New Point Bridge. Monongahela River, as of September 18. 1926. Fifty feet beyond is the old bridge, and in the distance is the Manchester Bridge. COUNTY BRIDGES. 47 Smithfield Street Bridge, Monongahela River. In the Spring of 1926, the people authorized certain funds for the construction and reconstruction of bridges. These funds, in conjunction with certain funds already available, will be used for replacing 6 bridges at a cost of $1,345,000, and building 5 new bridges at a cost of $1,522,000-all structures within the city and ranging from 65 to 1242 feet in length. In a majority of these proposed bridges, plans have not at this writing advanced sufficiently to permit of much information being given. COUNTY BRIDGES. The heavy burden of bridging the rivers falls on Allegheny County, also in spanning the many ravines and "runs" in the district. In the County there are approximately 350 bridges with a total length of 40,000 feet, of the following types: Types of bridges of Allegheny County. Class. Type. Number. Truss and girder 1 Truss 91 Metal Suspension 2 'late girder 135 Beam 7 _- 236 Masonry Stone 56 arch Concrete 35 Stone and concrete 11 Viaduct 1 Culvert 3 Beam and girder, -- 111 Wood Burr truss 1 Total 348 At the present time the County has a great bridge-building program on hand and in the bond issue approved by the people in 1924 for $29,207,000, $13,281,000 is for bridges within the City and $5,166,000 for bridges outside the City. Replacement within the City at present includes the 9th Street and Point bridges across the Allegheny River, and new structures include the Liberty bridge which is to connect the Liberty tunnels (see under Topography) and the Boulevard of the Allies, 48 PITTSBURGH. i - I, Fortieth Street Bridge, Allegheny Ricer. across the Monongahela River. Some details of bridges recently finished and under construction, shown in the accompanying pictures, are as under: Data on County bridqes. Length. Width of Name. Year. Type. feet. roadway. feet. Cost Allegheny Ricer. 40th St. 1924 Deck bridge, steel arch........ 2:(6i:', $2.,'9.70, 4 16th St. 1922 Through bridge, steel arch.... 1! 8:;, 1.6,1l,Slo 9th St. 1926 Self-anchored suspension......::!5 I 1.440,404 (building) 7th St. 1926 Self-anchored suspension...... l: 1.4:4,1000 6th St. 1927 Self-anchored suspension....... Il4" 1,223,3:14 (to be built) Monongahela Ricer. Point 1927 Through bridge, cantilever.... 112.::s 2.< 3,)4 (building) Liberty 1927 Deck bridge, cantilever....... 2775'::.771.(,)< (building) It will be noted that the 6th, 7th. and 9th Street bridges are almost of the same type, length, and cost. The 7th Street bridge, which was recently completed, is a graceful structure in its simple lines. The "cables" are of heat-treated eye-bars and the hangers from cables to stiffening girders are of annealed evebars. One tower rests on rockers to provide for expansion. Peculiar interest is attached to the present 6th Street bridge because shortly in sections it is to be floated down the Ohio River to Coraopolis and there re-erected. i I Sixteenth Street Bridge, Allegheny River. COUNTY BRIDGES. 49 Ninth Street Bridge under construction, Allegheny River. Sixth Street Bridge, Allegheny River Note the new piers ready for the new bridge. 50 PITTSBURGH. A graceful span-the Seventh Street Bridge, Allegheny River, recently completed. This is a self-anchored type of suspension bridge with eye-bars instead of cables. RAILROAD BRIDGES. Of course there are many railroad bridges crossing the rivers at Pittsburgh and at distant points. Three of these are shown in the accompanying pictures and others will be found mentioned in the titles to other illustrations. Bessemer Z Lake Erie Railroad Bridge, Allegheny River. This bridge is 2327 feet long and 161 feet above low water. During 1925, the freight over this bridge was as follows: Coal to Lakes, 1,338,534 tons; iron ore to furnaces at Pittsburgh, 9,646,264 tons. RAILROAD BRIDGES. 51 _ nI "I 0 1 - No. 3 is the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge entering downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny River. BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION. There is no need for Pittsburgh to go outside of its district for bridge builders; we have furnace plants, rolling mills, and fabricating plants right at hand, and such firms as the American Bridge Co., Independent Bridge Co., McClintic-Marshall Construction Co., and Pittsburgh Bridge [ Iron Works, can float the sections up the rivers to the points of construction; No. 2 is the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, Allegheny River; No. 6 is the Wabash Railroad Bridge (cantilever), Monongahela River; No. 8 is the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, Monongahela River. d' 52 PITTSBURGH. Ohio Connecting Bridge, Ohio River. and the Fort Pitt Bridge Co. delivers sections by rail. As to sand, gravel, rock, and cement for foundations and roadways, we have these in abundance-the two former from the rivers, the rock from quarries, and the cement from local works which partly use blast-furnace slag in its manufacture, as described later. I Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad Bridge, Ohio River. 53 River tipple at Isabella mine. COAL RESOURCES AND PRODUCTION PITTSBURGH BED. COAL, and that means the Pittsburgh coal bed and river transportation, are the foundation upon which rest the great industries of Pittsburgh. Beyond question the Pittsburgh coal bed is the most famous and the most remarkable occurrence of high-volatile gas and coking coal in the world. This bed is at Face of Pittsburgh coal bed showing draw-slate, cleavage, and bedding plane. 54 PITTSBURGH. A tow of 10.000 tons of coal. the base of the Monongahela group in the upper or Pittsburgh series of the Pennsylvania system of Carboniferous Age. It is the most important bituminous coal bed in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in northern West Virginia. It is remarkably persistent over large areas of these States, as shown by the accompanying map. It ranges in thickness from 16 feet down to 4 feet, generally thicker in the east and south and thins to the west and north; it averages about 7 feet of mineable coal. It is characteristically divided into the main bed and the overlying roof coal which generally is not mineable because of impurities. What are locally known as "bearing-in bands", is a double parting of slate about 20 inches from the bottom. Each parting, which averages T2 inch and is separated by 3 inches of coal, divides the main bed into bottom coal and breast coal. Underground pump station, Isabella mine. 1A sbu1;A/ EI2TE ~t~GW4~ER G A ROLO6FE WoP04ebourKo Eek..Ptbrh PITTSBURGH COAL BED. 55 -- Fan-hou-e at Tower mine. Original fame attaches to the Pittsburgh bed where in the Connellsville region it was early found to make a superior coke in beehive ovens, and along the Monongahela River to the west of the coking region where it outcropped at water level and was of superior quality as a gas coal for steel-making. The reserves of coal in the original Connellsville coking region are approaching exhaustion, but with the coming of the by-product coke oven the other and larger reserves of low-ash, low-sulfur coal Interior of fan-house, Coverdale mine. An auxiliary oil engine is available in case electric power is unavailable. 56 PITTSBURGH. in this bed have come into use for iron-making. Some of the Pittsburgh bed in northern West Virginia is of high quality, but in general the coal of this bed in the southern portion, in Ohio, and in the Panhandle district of West Virginia, as well as in Pennsylvania along the western boundary, ranks as a highgrade steam coal, not suitable for coking or gas-making largely because of higher ash and sulfur content. From east to west across the area underlain by the Pittsburhg bed the content of volatile matter ranges from 32 to 40 per cent, the ash content from 6 to 10 per cent, and sulfur from less than 1 to more than 3 per cent. The structure of the coal changes from soft and friable where the volatile matter is lowest in the eastern area to hard and lumpy in the western portion of the field. It is the harder coal from this bed that is largely used for household fuel. MINING METHODS. The greater portion of the coal so far mined from the Pittsburgh bed has been through drift mines; the deeper areas have as yet not been extensively developed. The average size Electric hoist at a Hillman mine. MINING METHODS. 57 Tipple at Coverdale mine, Pittsburgh bed. mine is less than 2,000 tons a day, although there are a number of 4,000-ton mines and a few projected to 10,000 tons a day or more. In the eastern section the operations are all "closedlight" mines because of gas. An overlying draw-slate which comes down with or immediately following the removal of the coal has influenced the method of mining, as has the presence of the bearing-in bands. The necessity for handling the drawslate, which varies from nothing to 5 feet or more in thickness, has made necessary narrow entries and narrow rooms which, in Ohio, together with tender overlying roof, have so far precluded pillar-drawing. In the Connellsville region, top coal is left in to hold up the draw-slate. For the most part the value of the coal in the ground in Pennsylvania has promoted conservation of coal and the recovery is usually around 85 per cent as compared with less than 60 per cent in the same bed in Ohio. The general plan of operation is the room-and-pillar system, using double entries from which the rooms are driven. In recent years there has been a tendency towards the adoption of the panel, room-and-pillar method, also the block system, which admits of concentrated mining within a relatively small section of the mine. 58 PITTSBURGH. PRODUCTION. The following figures give the production of coal from mines in Pennsylvania in the Pittsburgh rate district, which is bounded on the east by the Connellsville rate district, on the north by the Freeport rate district, and on the south and west by State boundaries. Virtually all of the tonnage thus shown is from the Pittsburgh bed. The figures include industrial and Screening plant in a tipple. "captive" mines, which are those owned by consuming interests. Approximately one-third of the tonnage shown is from nonunion mines: Production of coal in the Pittsburgh rate district in Pennsylvania. Year. Producing mines. Net tons. 1!,1-1 190 9! 261) 52.59S,693 1911) 263: 5;,!606,5,S2 1 )11 246 5).:1,9,3(61 1!12 251 62.,47,162 1!1:3 25.' 6S. 198,417 19)14 255 57.042,852 1015 24) 5.!,861,463 1916 255 61,55;0,6(02 1917:.S 61,,S:35.853 191iS:Si7 (i2,377,395 1!9: 351 51.9})1,268( 10201 3:73 54.190),513 1921 325:36.)14,257 1!922':37:1:.3S2,1(>7 192:3:354 5,444,500 11924 256 41,.i62,744 11925 Not available THICK FREEPORT COAL BED. 59 One of the notable features of coal history in this district has been the growth of consumer-owned production, what are now known as captive mines. In 1909, the captive tonnage represented 15 per cent of the total and in 1924 it was 26 per cent. The United States Steel Corporation is the largest owner and operator of non-commercial production; other steel companies owning mines are, Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and Pittsburgh Steel Co. Both large power companies-the Duquesne Light Co. and the West Penn Power Co.-have mine-mouth power plants along the Allegheny River, northwest of Pittsburgh, working the Freeport coal. Nowhere can one see so many river tipples as along the Monongahela River. At many of these mines there is no provision for shipping the coal other than by barges. The Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, and below Pittsburgh, the Ohio, have been improved with dams and locks, as already described, to permit the ready movement of large tonnage. MARKETS. Other and important markets for coal from the Pittsburgh district are the Northwest, by way of the lower Lake Erie ports and water transportation to Duluth, Milwaukee, and other ports, both American and Canadian; for railroad fuel; and to industries and householders in northeastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, northern New York, and to Canada. Formerly, millions of tons of coal from this district were shipped down the Mississippi River as far as New Orleans, but in the last 10 years this trade has been lost to southern coals and now no Pittsburgh coal is sold on the Ohio River south of Wheeling, West Virginia. THICK FREEPORT BED. Another important coal deposit in the Pittsburgh district is the Thick Freeport bed. It has an area of 115 square miles and outcrops on both sides of the Allegheny River for short distances. The field has been thoroughly prospected, its boundaries determined, and 16 companies have opened 14 shaft mines, 2 drift mines, and 3 slope mines. The estimate of coal available for extraction is 747,000,000 tons, less about 86,000,000 tons of high-ash coal. Transportation facilities by rail and river are excellent. 60 PITTSBURGH. The Freeport coal is used for domestic, by-product coking, and steaming purposes. An average analysis i0.84 per cent moisture, 31.05 per cent volatile matter, 60.31 per cent fixed carbon, 7.80 per cent ash, 1.36 per cent sulfur, and 0.011 per cent phosphorus. The heating value is 14,160 B.t.u. Most of the coal is used outside of the Pittsburgh district. The average thickness of the bed is 86 inches, with an 8-inch band of bone coal in the middle, as shown in the accompanying photograph. The floor is of fireclay and the roof of carbonaceous shale or cannel coal. Some notes on the mines working the Freeport bed may be added: The Harmar mine has the advantage of river, rail, and highway transportation. The Indianola mine is a wellorganized property with a daily capacity of 3000 tons, which goes to the Lake trade; so does the output from the Ford mines. At Glassmere the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.'s drift mine is Face of Thick Freeport Coal Bed. MINES IN THE THICK FREEPORT COAL BED. 61 Harmar mine, Thick Freeport Bed. I 1 Indianola mine, Thick Freeport Bed.. Miners' village, Ford Collieries Co., Curtisville, Thick Freeport Bed. 62 PITTSBURGH. right at the glass works. The Duquesne Light Co.'s powerplant at Colfax is supplied from its Harwick shaft mine by rail or river barge. And the West Penn Power Co.'s plant at Springdale has the mine shaft right at the power-plant. Its workings are at the other side of the Allegheny River and the coal is hauled through a tunnel under the river to a rotary tipple at the foot of the shaft and hoisted in 8-ton skips to the surface. (The Colfax and Springdale plants are shown under Power.) EXPERIMENTAL MINE OF THE 'U. S. BUREAU OF MINES. An important and interesting mine in the Pittsburgh district, 13 miles from the City, and one that will be inspected by visiting engineers, is the Experimental Mine and Explosives Testing Station of the U. S. Bureau of Mines. Its purpose is well known but a brief description is in order: When the Bureau of Mines was finally authorized by an Act of Congress in 1910, one of the important lines of investigation was centered on the explosion of coal dust which had wrecked so many mines and taken a toll of many hundred lives. In approaching this problem a study of foreign testing stations revealed that surface galleries were used exclusively, therefore to simulate actual mining conditions the first Director of the Bureau decided upon an actual coal mine for the conduct of tests on the explosibility of coal and the testing of means and appliances for the prevention and control of coal-dust explosions. A tract of land near Bruceton was found most suitable as it was underlaid with an undeveloped deposit of Pittsburgh coal bed and was so situated as to have natural barriers surrounding the proposed site for the mine, and was distant from public highways, railroads, and inhabited dwellings, and the surface contained a large number of matured trees, principally of a species of oak. On this tract of about 40 acres was developed the Experimental Mine. It consists of twin tunnels or entries driven in the coal for a distance of 1300 feet, from which at station 850 a pair of entries was driven to the left a distance of 550 feet and from these latter 8 rooms were driven. An "observatory" and other essential buildings were erected on the grounds, and formal testing was started in October, 1911. Since then, and up to July 27, 1926, 877 explosion tests have been conducted. The tests have shown that rock dust is the most reliable material when mixed with the coal dust for the prevention of BUREAU OF MINES EXPERIMENTAL MINE. 63 coal-dust explosions in mines and that rock-dust barriers require special features of construction in order to meet the requirements for stopping an explosion. In 1917, the Explosives Testing Station was removed from the Arsenal Grounds, Pittsburgh, to the grounds of the Experimental Mine. The work conducted at this station is the testing of explosives for their permissibility for use in coal mines. Other tests have been conducted in the mine; one was a series to determine the friction factors of mine ventilation; another was on the strength of mine stoppings; and a third the flow of heat in coal. It may be added that the method of ventilating the Holland Tunnels under the Hudson River, New York City to Jersey City, was determined in the Experimental Mine. 64 COKING INDUSTRY. OF the 50,702,000 tons of coke made in the United States during 1925, 39,988,000 tons were from by-product ovens and 10,714,000 tons were from beehive ovens. In 1924 the respective totals were 44,270,000 tons, 33,984,000 tons, and 10,286,000 tons. Pennsylvania produced 8,426,155 tons of by-product coke and 8,501,282 tons of beehive coke, a total equal to nearly 40 per cent of the country's production. By classes of coke, Pennsylvania made nearly 25 per cent of the by-product coke and 80 per cent of the beehive coke. Most of this State's coke is made in the Pittsburgh district or contiguous thereto. The two reviews following discuss the current coking situation and the future trend: BY-PRODUCT COKE. The Pittsburgh district, by reason of its pre-eminence as an iron and steel center, should naturally have been the center of the by-product coking industry. It is probable that the proximity of the beehive coking industry in the Connellsville district is largely responsible for the delay in the adoption of the by-product coke plant by the steel companies of the Pittsburgh district for the iron makers were for years of the opinion that the by-product oven would not make coke from these coals as suitable for blast furnaces as that produced in the beehive oven. Although the third by-product coke plant built in the United States was erected in Glassport, Pa., it was the only plant in the Pittsburgh district until 1916 when the first unit of the Clairton plant was built for the Carnegie Steel Company. Prior to 1917, the Chicago, Birmingham and Youngstown districts produced more by-product coke than the Pittsburgh district. Since that time the development has been rapid and today Pittsburgh is not only a large producer of by-product coke, but also, by reason of the fact that the largest firm of coke-oven builders makes its headquarters in Pittsburgh, it can be properly termed the center of the by-product coking industry in the United States. CLAIRTON BY-PRODUCT WORKS. 65 II II Clairton Plant. CLAIRTON PLANT The Carnegie Steel Company built its first plant at Clairton in 1916-'17. This consisted of 640 ovens with a daily coal capacity of 10,500 tons. Two batteries of 64 ovens each were added in 1918. In 1921 the plant was increased by 366 ovens. During the current year an addition of 348 ovens was contracted for and is now under construction. Although the first installation made the Clairton plant the largest in the world, it today surpasses in carbonizing capacity any plant ever contemplated. With the completion of the present addition the plant will have a daily carbonizing capacity of 30,000 net tons of coal. There will be produced each day ]X — 1 Pushing an oven. 66 PITTSBURGH. approximately 22,000 net tons of coke, 215,000,000 cubic feet of surplus coke-oven gas, 360,000 gallons of coal tar, 750,000 pounds of ammonium sulfate, and 90,000 gallons of benzol. When completed the plant will consist of 768 Koppers ovens and 714 Becker type Koppers ovens, making a total of 1482 ovens on one site operated as a single plant. The next Forty-inch main for carrying by-product gas to open-hearth furnaces. OTHER BY-PRODUCT WORKS. 67 largest plant is that of the United States Steel Corporation at Gary, Ind., consisting of 838 ovens with a daily capacity of 15,500 net tons of coal. The Clairton plant is on the banks of the Monongahela river about 20 miles upstream from Pittsburgh. Its daily coal supply is brought down the river from mines along the river. The movement of this coal is by means of 1,000-ton barges which are unloaded at several stations by means of grab-buckets of large capacity. The coke produced in this plant is distributed to the various furnaces of the Carnegie Steel Co.; the coke-oven gas is piped throughout the district for fuel in the steel plants and the tar is used as fuel in the various open-hearth operations. The ammonium sulfate and benzol are sold for general distribution. OTHER BY-PRODUCT PLANTS. Another plant in the Pittsburgh district is that of the Jones 8 Laughlin Steel Corporation at Hazelwood. This plant consists of 6 batteries of 60 ovens each and has a daily carbonizing capacity of 6,000 net tons of coal. There has also been completed this year for the same company, a plant of 122 Becker type Koppers ovens at Woodlawn, Pa. This plant has a daily capacity of 3,000 net tons of coal. The coal for both of these plants is delivered in barges and originates at mines of the company on the Monongahela River. The plants of the Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Co. at Midland, Pa., the Weirton Steel Co. at Weirton, W. Va., and Wheeling Steel Corporation at Follansbee, W. Va., may well be included in the Pittsburgh district. The first-mentioned plant consists of 100 Koppers ovens with a daily capacity of 1800 net tons of coal. That of the Weirton company consists of 37 Becker type Koppers ovens installed in 1923 and an addition of 49 similar ovens now under construction. When completed, the plant will have a daily capacity of 2250 net tons of coal. The plant of the Wheeling Steel Corporation consists of 94 Koppers ovens and 51 Becker type Koppers ovens now under construction. When the new ovens are completed the plant will have a daily carbonizing capacity of 2600 net tons of coal. The home offices of The Koppers Company are in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the Union Trust Building, and its laboratories are housed in the Mellon Institute. Since moving its offices to Pittsburgh from Chicago, this Company has built and has under 68 PITTSBURGH. construction a total of 6730 ovens with a yearly coal capacity of 47,000,000 net tons of coal. Of this total number of ovens, 4444 are of the old Koppers type and 2286 are of the new Becker type. BY-PRODUCT GAS FOR DOMESTIC USE. One of the newer phases of the by-product coking industry is the introduction of the by-product coke oven in the city gas business. A large number of plants are today producing coal gas for distribution through the local gas companies for domestic uses. A large proportion of the coke produced in these plants is distributed for domestic fuel. Plants of this type are operating in Boston and Lynn, Mass., Providence, R. I., Albany, Utica, Rochester, Syracuse, Geneva, Buffalo and New York City, N. Y., Chester, Pa., Jersey City, N. J., Camden, N. J., Painesville, Ohio, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute, Ind., Fairmont, W. Va., St. Louis, Mo., Chicago, Joliet and Waukegan, Ill., Milwaukee, Wis., St. Paul, Minn., Battle Creek, Saginaw, Jackson, and Detroit, Mich., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala. A total of 2552 by-product coke ovens is today devoted to the production of domestic gas and coke. BY-PRODUCT COKE OVENS AND PRODUCTION. To January 1, 1926, there had been built in the United States a total of 13,935 by-product coke ovens and during that period a total of 2,289 ovens were abandoned, leaving 11,646 by-product ovens in actual service on that date. During the present year a total of 749 new ovens have been contracted for and are under construction. The following table shows the rate of growth by number of by-product coke ovens since 1914: By-product coke ovens in United States. Abandoned Built Standing at Year. during year. during year. end of year. 1914.... 5692 1915 0 624 6316 1916 0 669 6985 1917 228 721 7478 1918 12 1770 9236 1919 174 1111 10,173 1920 118 873 10,828 1921 0 495 11,323 1922 272 55 11,106 1923 453 134 10,787 1924 372 509 10,924 1925 160 882 11,646 BEEHIVE OVENS. 69 The next table is a comparison of the production of beehive and by-product coke for the period 1915-1924, inclusive: Production of beehive and by-product coke in United States. Net tons of Coke. Percent. Year. Beehive. By-product. Total. Beehive. By-product. 1915 27,508,255 14,072,895 41,581,150 66.2 33.8 191;:35,464,224 19,069,361 54,533,585 65.1 34.9 1917 33,167,548 22,439,280 55,606,828 59.6 40. 4 191. 30.480,792 25.997,581) 56,478,372 54. 0 46. 0 11919 19,042,936 25,137,621 44,180,557 43.1 56.9 1920 20,511,092 30,833,951 51,345,043 40.0 60.( 1921 5,538,042 19.749,580 25,287,622 21.9 78.1 1922 s.573,467 28.550,545 37,124,012 23.1 76.9 19)2 17.960,001 37,527,000 55.487,000 32.4 67.6 1924 6.668,000( 33.795,000 43,463,000 22.2 77.8 1!)-25 10.714.000 39.988.00( 50,702.000 21. 1 78.9 BEEHIVE COKE. To a greater extent than the general public is aware has the supremacy of the Pittsburgh district as an iron and steel center been due to the birth and development of the beehive coking industry in the Connellsville region, whose center is only 55 miles distant from Pittsburgh's city hall. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT. Prior to the discovery that coal of the Pittsburgh bed which formed the deposits in Fayette and Westmoreland counties, in a relatively narrow strip paralleling the Allegheny mountains, would make what has since been conceded to be the standard metallurgical fuel of the world, the manufacture of pig iron in the United States depended upon charcoal and anthra A battery of coke ovens at Griffin No. 1 mine. 70 PITTSBURGH. cite for smelting purposes. These fuels had their limitations, as furnacemen early realized, particularly when efforts were made to increase furnace capacity and reduce the cost of manufacturing iron. Until a relatively short time before the development of beehive coking on a large scale in the Connellsville region, that part of the country lying contiguous to the western base of the Alleghenies, from the Conemaugh River on the north to the Cheat River on the south, lead Pittsburgh and immediate vicinity in the production of pig iron. It was within the confines of the Connellsville region that the first blast furnaces west of the Alleghenies were built and operated exclusively on charcoal, produced in the forests surrounding the furnace sites, and native ores obtained from open pits or "ore banks" nearby. These furnaces increased in number, together with forges, foundries and other iron-working establishments, until what later became known as the Connellsville region gave promise of assuming great importance as well as permanence as an ironproducing section. The products of the furnaces and iron-working plants were transported by wagon to the Conemaugh, Youghiogheny, Monongahela, and Cheat rivers and shipped by flat boats to Pittsburgh. Thus, for many years in the early history of the industry, and before Pittsburgh itself became a large maker of pig iron, were its foundries and other iron-working establishments supplied with their raw material by that section which subsequently sustained the relation and became still more famous as the source of Pittsburgh's metallurgical fuel. The charcoal ironmasters of those days in the Connellsville region-but then unknown as such-apparently were oblivious to the fact that, although they were laying the groundwork of an industry that was destined to bring western Pennsylvania world-wide distinction as an iron and steel center, the decline of their business would be marked by the development of another natural resource of their section that would surpass the wildest dreams they may have had of the future of ironmaking. Such, however, became true after tests in Pittsburgh had demonstrated the superiority of Connellsville coke over both charcoal and anthracite as the most efficient and economical furnace fuel. Thereafter the making of charcoal iron in Fayette and Westmoreland counties, under the handicap of small production per unit and heavy cost of transportation, began to become prohibitive and one by one the stacks, whose ruins exist FIRST BEEHIVE OVEN AND COKE FOR REDUCTION OF IRON. 71 today as mute reminders of the first industrial boom, were blown out, never to be relighted. Several were remodelled to use coke and they continued in operation for a few years but they, too, have been abandoned. FIRST BEEHIVE OVEN The construction and operation of the first beehive coke oven in Pennsylvania took place within what are now the limits of the City of Connellsville in the early 30's. Previous experiments had been made elsewhere by coking in "ricks" on the ground, but Herbert Norton was the first to construct the beehive oven and produce coke in it. The product was utilized in a local foundry and in a similar establishment at Brownsville. In 1841 another plant was built north of Connellsville and the coke shipped to Cincinnati by boat. Difficulty was experienecd in disposing of it to the foundrymen in that city, as they characterized it as "cinders." Two years later a larger oven plant was built near Dawson which was much more successful in building up a trade with foundrymen in Pittsburgh and down the Ohio River. FIRST USE OF COKE TO REDUCE IRON It was not until 1859, however, that an attempt was made to manufacture pig iron with coke as fuel. In that year the Clinton furnace in Pittsburgh was blown in on coke made from slack coal from a neighboring mine. It was not successful, but the furnace owners were later induced to make a test with coke from the Connellsville region. The trial run was made in 1860, with entirely satisfactory results and thereby established a market for Connellsville coke as a blast-furnace fuel, also ushered in a new era in the expansion of iron manufacture. Incidentally, Pittsburgh was started on its way to achieve its position of commanding importance in the realm of iron and steel. The successful adaptation of coke to iron-smelting made possible and soon was followed by improvements in furnace practice. Larger stacks were built, productive capacity made greater, and costs of manufacture were correspondingly reduced. These were some of the features essential to the growth of the industry which the ironmasters of Pittsburgh were quick to recognize and utilize to their advantage. The result was the rapid expansion of iron production in the territory to which the Connellsville region had convenient access for the product of its own newly developing industry. 72 PITTSBURGH. Coincident with the stimulus given iron-making, the manufacture of beehive coke assumed larger proportions. During the two decades immediately following the adoption of coke as a blast-furnace fuel, the growth of the industry was retarded only by the panic of 1873. The effects of that depression passed the building of new coking plants, during the succeeding thirty years, became a thriving business and reached high tide in 1910 with 39, 158 ovens in the Connellsville region and its extension into southwestern Fayette county. Meantime oven-building had been inaugurated in other parts of Pennsylvania and other States, by which new coke-making centers were established, each with its own market. Although keen competition resulted, the prestige of the Connellsville product was not lost. This had been won by reason of the outstanding characteristic of Connellsville coke, or its property of particularly well-developed cell structure which gives it superior burden-bearing qualities. The decline in the beehive industry in the Connellsville region and elsewhere has not been due to competition of rival districts. It has been the result of an evolution that has been in progress and which had its prototype in the iron industry during that period when charcoal and anthracite were being supplanted by the newcomer, coke. MAXIMUM OVEN CAPACITY AND PRODUCTION. In 1910 the beehive industry attained its maximum in oven equipment in the United States, when the number in each State for that year was as follows: Maximum number of beehive ovens. State. Ovens. State. Ovens. Alabama................... 9,852 Ohio....................... 322 Colorado................... 3,611 Oklahoma.................. 408 Georgia.................... 350 Pennsylvania............... 54,360 Illinois..................... 28 Tennessee.................. 2,792 Indiana.................... 40 Utah....................... 854 Kansas..................... 71 Virginia.................... 5,389 Kentucky.................. 495 Washington................ 285 M issouri.................... 4 W est Virginia............... 19,792 Montana................... 451 Wisconsin................. 228 New Mexico................. 1,030 -Total.................. 100,362 The peak in production was not reached, however, until 1916 when, under the influence of war conditions it reached a total of 35,464,224 net tons. Of the 27,158,438 tons produced in Pennsylvania in that year, 21,654,502 tons were made in the Connellsville region, which was almost 80 per cent of the total in the State and 61 per cent of the grand total in the United States-comparisons that are typical of the relative im EFFECT OF BY-PRODUCT OVENS ON BEEHIVE OVENS. 73 portance of the Connellsville region during each of the 50 or more years in which it has retained commanding leadership in the manufacture of beehive coke. The year 1916 established the highest production of beehive coke in all districts, when the individual State totals were as follows: Maximum production of beehive coke. State. Tons. State. Tons. Alabama................. 1,828,067 Pennsylvania............ 27,159,438 Colorado................. 1,053,553 Tennessee............... 329,702 Georgia.................. 47,127 Virginia............... 1,242,332 Kentucky................ 362,164 W est Virginia............. 2,327,502 New Mexico.............. 502,812 Utah and Washington.... 507,425 Ohio..................... 104,102 ---- Total................ 35,464,224 Since 1910 there has been a more or less steady decline in the beehive industry, with the exception of 1916, both in the number of ovens available and tonnage output. In the Connellsville region the reputedly serviceable ovens at the beginning of 1926 numbered 27,047, a decrease of 12,111, or 30 per cent, from the high-water mark of 39,158 in 1910. The precise figures of oven equipment in other States on January 1, 1926, are not yet available, but it is known that the rate of abandonment has, in many districts, been greater than in the Connellsville region. PRICES RULING. The average price of Connellsville coke has ranged from $1.00 in 1894 to $8.30 per net ton f.o.b. ovens in 1920. With a production 50 per cent greater in 1918, and an average price of $7.25, the largest gross income-$117,004,777 —in any single year in the history of the region, was realized. In 1921, production fell to 3,572,417 tons, the lowest in 35 years preceding. In 1922, production made a gain of more than 50 per cent, with still other gains in later years. Current (1926) production is at the rate of approximately 8,000,000 tons a year. or 34 per cent above 1925. EFFECT OF BY-PRODUCT OVENS ON BEEHIVE OVENS. The lessened demand for Connellsville and other beehive cokes has been coincident with the perfection of the by-product oven and the processes for the recovery of the volatile hydrocarbons in coal. Until 1893 the beehive ovens were producing 100 per cent of all the blast-furnace fuel used in the United States. In that year the by-product ovens first featured in the 74 PITTSBURGH. metallurgical fuel market, but only to the extent of supplying 0.1 per cent of the total. In each of the subsequent years the number of by-product ovens and plants has increased, slowly at first but with marked acceleration during the war years, and the proportion of coke made by the retort process in plants owned or controlled by the consumers, has gained rapidly over that made by the beehive process. It was not, however, until 1919 that the ascendancy of the beehive oven was lost; the by-product ovens in that year produced 56.9 per cent compared with 43.1 per cent by the beehive plants. Since this crossing of the respective production curves, the leadership of the by-product oven has steadily been made more secure; production for the current year is at the rate of 79.6 per cent by by-product plants against 20.4 per cent by the beehive plants. Notwithstanding considerable coke trade has been diverted from the Connellsville region in consequence of the by-product development, it still retains its preeminence as a producing center of metallurgical fuel. What it has lost as a producer of beehive coke during the evolution that has been in progress during the last third of a century, has been largely compensated through enlarged production of coal as high-grade raw material used in the manufacture of by-product coke at plants in the Lower Monongahela Valley and elsewhere in close proximity to the furnaces whose existence had been made possible by the discovery that Connellsville coke is the nearest approach to an ideal fuel for smelting purposes. THE CONNELLSVILLE COURIER. Since 1880, when the Connellsville region began to assume its importance as a coke-producing section, The Courier has published carefully prepared tabulations of weekly plant operation, production statistics, prices, market conditions and general coke-trade information. During the intervening 45 years The Courier has been the recognized authority on the trade of the Connellsville region and as such has been quoted by publications in all parts of the world, and its statistics are embodied in government and association reports. 75 NATURAL GAS RESOURCES AND USES. NATURAL GAS is a mixture of hydrocarbons and is obtained from the pore space in the rocks beneath the earth's surface by means of wells. It is a most economical fuel, both for domestic and industrial purposes; the gross heat value is about 1150 B.t.u. per cubic foot of gas. DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY. Pittsburgh has enjoyed the use of natural gas since 1874, when it was piped into the Spang-Chalfant plant from Butler County, Pennsylvania. In that year natural gas was used for the first time in iron-making. The famous Haymaker gas well at Murrysville, Westmoreland County, was drilled in 1878. This well produced gas from a sandstone at a depth of 1330 feet, which took the name of the "Murrysville Sand." In 1883, a 5 Y8 -inch pipeline was laid from Murrysville to Pittsburgh, a distance of about 18 miles. This line was used to deliver gas to the mills and had a daily capacity of about 5,000,000 cubic feet. At this time artificial gas and coal was the fuel being used in Pittsburgh for domestic purposes. The natural-gas operators first attempted to supply natural gas to domestic consumers in Pittsburgh in 1883, but an injunction was obtained by the Artificial Gas Co., which delayed for about one year the use of natural gas for domestic purposes. Pittsburgh is in the heart of the Great Appalachian oil and gas field, hence a rapid growth in the use of natural gas would be expected. Gas wells were driled in what is now Pittsburgh in the late eighties, and have been drilled within the City from time to time since that date-in fact, several wells are now being drilled within the City limits. The demands here for natural gas grew so rapidly that drilling for gas was extended over the western part of the State, which lies within the great oil and gas belt. PRODUCTION. Pennsylvania's maximum yearly production of natural gas was in 1906, when it amounted to 138,161,385,000 cubic feet. Notwithstanding that this State contributed 36 per cent of all 76 PITTSBURGH. the natural gas produced in the United States in 1906, the industries of Pittsburgh continued to demand more natural gas than the State could produce (the consumption was 162,095,173,000 cubic feet), so the deficit was supplied from adjoining States. From 1906 to the present time, production of natural gas in Pennsylvania has been declining more or less regularly, with a small "come-back" from 1915 on, for a few years. The consumption, however, has been increasing and reached its maximum in 1917 with a demand for 202,259,498,000 cubic feet. The table following gives the production from 1906 to 1925, inclusive, in Pennsylvania and in the United States, also the consumption in Pennsylvania: Production and consumption of natural gas, cubic feet, according to the U. S. Geological Survey. Consumption in Year. Pennsylvania. United States Pennsylvania. 1906 138,161,385,000( 388q,842,562,000) 162,095.173.000 1907 135,516,015,000 404,441.254,000 164,541,179,000 1908 130,476,237,000 402,140,730,000 147,790.097,000 1909 127,697,104,000 480,706,174,000 163,656,145,000 1910 126,866,729,000 509,155,309,000 168,875,559,000 1911 108,869,296,000 508,364,021,000 154,475,376,000( 1912 112,147,855,000 562,203,452,000 173,656,003,000 1913 118,860,269,000 581,898,239,000 177,463,230,000 1914 110,745,374,000 591,866,733,000 164,834,542,0()0 1915 113,691,690,000 628,578,842,000 176.367,235,0()(0 1916 130,483,705,000 753,170,253,000( 201,460,893,000 1917 133,397,206,000 795,110,376,0)0 202,259.498,000 1918 123,813,356,000 721,000,959,000 177,139,804,000 1919 113,489,000,000 745,916,)00,000( 146553,000,0)0 1920 125,787,000,000 798,210,000,)000 161,397,(000.000 1921 86,144,000,000 662,052,000,00() 100,615,000,0400 1922 101,276,000,000 762,546,000,000 130,733,000(4,000( 1923 112,562,000,000 1,006,976,0(00,00............ 1924 105,863,000,000 1.141,521,000,0) 0............ 1925............ 1.164,000,000,000............ DISTANCE TRANSPORTED. In order to keep the consumer, both domestic and industrial, supplied with natural gas in the Pittsburgh district, hundreds of miles of pipelines have been laid, some as large as 36 inches in diameter and the largest pump stations in the world have been installed to push this gas from the far-distant fields to the consumer. Gas is now being transported from southern West Virginia and Kentucky to the Pittsburgh district, a distance of 220 miles, through a 20-inch line. The gas is passed through 6 large compressing stations. FUTURE SUPPLY. Considering everything, the various companies are still unable to supply sufficient quantities of the much valued fuel for all purposes at all times. Many deep wells have been drilled with the hope of obtaining a greater supply of gas-in FUTURE GAS SUPPLY. 77 fact, the deepest well in the world was drilled within 45 miles of Pittsburgh, at McCance, Pa. This well was drilled to a depth of 7756 feet, or about 5 times as deep as the Haymaker well at Murrysville, which delivered gas to Pittsburgh in 1883. (A new well in California was recently reported as being 8000 feet deep). Considerable quantities of by-product and manufactured gas have been supplied to mills in the Pittsburgh district and thereby assist in carrying the natural-gas load. Deepening an old gas well at Murrysville, Pa. 78 PITTSBURGH. A few years ago the natural-gas companies realized that their supply of gas was gradually being depleted. They faced two major problems: one was to supply natural gas to both domestic and industrial users for such a period as their supply would last; the other was to curtail industrial consumers somewhat and thereby extend the life of natural gas for the domestic consumer. The shortage soon became so acute that the gas companies could not meet their requirements during a certain period of the year. This within itself made many of the industrial users seek an all-year fuel. In order to supply natural gas to domestic consumers for a great many years, the amount allotted to industrial consumers must be limited. This situation is now clearly recognized by the natural-gas companies in the Pittsburgh district, and they have attempted to bring about an economic situation whereby the price charged to domestic consumers shall be sufficient to permit them to maintain their large plants with only a minimum of industrial business. One day last winter these companies supplied the district with 560,000,000 cubic feet of gas. It is a question whether or not Pittsburgh would have attained its position in the industrial world, as it has, without the aid of an abundant supply of natural gas. A small gas-compressing station. - e -A 'M~S5C4~. Knoxville:L~, 440 OILr he, '57s'99Z6'c/ 0/4ao5. sP Ja' I 4 i I I I I 79 PITTSBURGH AND PETROLEUM. IN the word "Pittsburgh," the inital P stands for Petroleum, for Pittsburgh's connection with the oil industry began when that industry was born in America, and today the organizations, the mills, and the factories that center here are an integral, if, indeed, not an indispensable part of the great business of petroleum producing, refining, and marketing which many today believe to be the keystone upon which depends American industrial supremacy. FIRST REFINING PLANT IN AMERICA. One of the first Americans to attempt to make petroleum an article of commerce was Samuel Kier of Pittsburgh, who, 10 years before Edwin Drake in 1859 "broke the market" by drilling a well that would produce the demoralizing amount of about 25 barrels a day, bottled the oil skimmed from his father's brine wells in Allegheny County, and sold it as a panacea for all the ills that afflict the flesh. However, as he was unable to dispose of all his product, we find him working to make the people burn the surplus, and the refining industry of America was born. It was in 1854 that Samuel Kier built his refinery at the corner of Grant Street and Seventh Avenue, Pittsburgh. According to the Bradford Era for July 4, 1881, It was there the first carbon oil was refined for illuminating purposes. The still did not have a capacity exceeding five barrels. It occupied a onestory building, in size about 12 by 24 feet......... In the year 1876 or 1877 the still that was employed in this immense refinery was displayed at the exposition at Allegheny City, and was labeled the first still ever used to refine petroleum. In its day it supplied the world's demand for that kind of illumination. In this way and in this place was the seed planted that grew into America's refining industry. 80 PITTSBURGH. DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION AND REFINING METHODS. Following Drake's discovery at Titusville, Pennsylvania. in 1859, and the subsequent displacement of "coal oil" made by distilling cannel coal or oil shale by kerosene made from petroleum, northern Pennsylvania, which then comprised the American oilfields, was an oil-spouting whirlpool, where men struggled to win fortunes which were colossal for that day and served as the foundations for some of the even more colossal fortunes The first petroleum refining still in America. of today. There, a technique of well-drilling and oil-producing was evolved which persists unchanged in many respects to this day. There, men learned to shape and use drilling tools, to build derricks, to case wells to shut out the caving rocks, and to "shoot" the wells to increase production. There the tank-car was invented, and pipelines for carrying oil were successfully developed, overcoming ridicule on the one hand, and destructive attacks by the oil teamsters who saw their trade disappearing, OIL REFINERIES AT PITTSBURGH. 81 u, S 14 (9 0 clo.0 0 0 -0 0 -0 0 0 -0 0-E 00 -o 0 ~U 0P 0 0 0 -0 82 PITTSBURGH. on the other. In all this, Pittsburgh shared, for although the fields in the immediate vicinity of the city were not discovered until about 1885, this was a natural distributing point; and furthermore, many of the new fields lay on tributaries of the Allegheny, and the early outlet for their oil was by barge down the river to refineries that were in the city. Naturally, Pittsburgh became a refining center. At one time, before the rise of the Standard Oil Co. transferred the center of refining activities, there were 57 refineries actively operating here, and one of the most ambitious of the early pipeline projects linked Pittsburgh with the oilfields of the north. Great refineries are still controlled by Pittsburgh capital, with headquarters in this city, but only a few thousand barrels daily are refined in the city and environs. OIL AND GAS AREAS. All through the early years of the "Oil Age" the oilseekers concentrated on the region in northwestern Pennsylvania where the first discoveries had been made. The early wells were drilled in valleys, and the "practical" operators, ignoring the reasoning of Orton, of Winchell, and later of I. C. White, refused to "raise their eyes" and see the possibilities of the region as a whole. However, as always happens, some daring spirits risked ridicule and failure, and the fields climbed the valley sides, spread out over the hills, and also were extended farther and farther south. Finally, about 1885, Pittsburgh was not only a supply center, a source from which poured the capital and the equipment that made the search for oil effective, but it was actually an oilfield center. Rather, it stood on the dividing line between the oilfields and the gas fields, for though there were, and still are wells on every side, those to the north and the west yielded oil with minor quantities of gas, while those on the south and east yielded gas and a little oil. This dividing line between the oil province and the gas province, which passed through the city of Pittsburgh, extends in a gently curving line northeast to New York, and southwest to West Virginia, but nowhere is it more definitely established than right here. (See map of Appalachian Field.) A traveler who goes up the Allegheny valley to the northeast of the City will pass through one gas field after another until he reaches Mahoning and Redbank, where the valley swings northwest to cross the great oilfields of northwestern Pennsylvania. Similarly, a traveller up the Monongahela valley east and then due south of Pittsburgh, will see one cluster of wells after another, but al HIGH PRICE OF PENNSYLVANIA OIL. 83 most without exception they yield gas. The Ohio River, on the other hand, formed by the junction of the two rivers above named, runs northwesterly from Pittsburgh and from its beginning is in oil territory, cutting across the main belt of Pennsylvania's oil fields. EARLY IMPORTANCE OF PENNSYLVANIA OIL For the first 20 years after the discovery of Drake's well in 1859, the oil industry of Pennsylvania was virtually that of the United States, for during that period this single State produced more than 95 per cent of America's petroleum, and more than 85 per cent of the world's production. Now and then it supplied more oil than could be used, and at times when the market was glutted, oil was sold for as little as 10 cents a barrel. Gradually the search for oil successfully spread to other parts of the United States and finally, in 1895, Ohio took the lead among the oil-yielding States, and held first place until displaced by California in 1903. However, the high mark in yearly production of 33,009,236 barrels, reached by Pennsylvania in 1891, was never equalled by Ohio and stood as a record until 1.905 when it was surpassed by California and soon thereafter by Oklahoma and Illinois. It has now been exceeded by Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, and Wyoming as well. As new fields were discovered both in Pennsylvania and in other states, so also were new and increased uses found for the oil, so that in spite of the steadily increasing production of the United States, the oil maintained its value. This has been of critical importance for the Pennsylvania fields. When oil was selling for a few cents a barrel, only those who owned large flowing wells could hope to make a profit, but with increase in price it was economically possible to operate smaller wells. Were it not for this, Pennsylvania would virtually have no oil industry today, in spite of the fact that nowhere in the United States are oil wells so long-lived as in the fields of Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. Many wells today yielding oil were drilled 30 or even 40 years ago. Some of them produce a mere driblet of petroleum together with a large amount of water. This must be drained from the collecting tanks before the oil can be marketed, and the average daily yield of the 77,000 oil wells of the State is less than a third of a barrel a well. But this oil is economically produced and as it ranks first among the oils of the United States from a refining standpoint, it holds a corresponding market position. 84 PITTSBURGH. FUTURE PRODUCTION AND RECOVERY. This small daily yield per well might make it seem that Pennsylvania is about through as an oil producer; but this is not so. Prduction is now increasing-the output of 7,824,000 barrels in 1925 was an increase of 350,000 barrels over that in 1924-and it is confidently believed that the State will yield in the future hundreds of millions of barrels of oil-perhaps as much as the 788,000,000 barrels already produced. This belief is based in part on theory but also in part on experience. As long ago as 1880, through sheer accident, it was observed that when water was admitted to an oil sand after the sand was "exhausted" so far as the possibility of producing much oil from it by ordinary methods was concerned, additional recovery was, in some instances, possible. This observed fact has been actively put to work in the Bradford field, one of the largest of Pennsylvania's oilfields. However, this additional oil from a single field is not the most important result. The fact that more oil could be recovered in this way from some fields, while in others no advantage is apparently gained, lead to serious consideration of the reasons for the erratic behavior. A scientific attack, largely conducted by the U. S. Geological Survey and the U. S. Bureau of Mines, has left no doubt not only in Pennsylvania but in oilfields everywhere that the ordinary methods of pumping leave much more than half of the oil underground. tightly held by forces of adhesion, cohesion, and capillarity. It is not yet possible to say that all this oil, or even most of it, can be recovered, but laboratory experiments have conclusively proved that conditions can be set up on a small scale, so that, if they can be duplicated on a large scale, they are competent to break the bonds that hold the oil in the oil sand and thus permit its recovery. Oil operators in Pennsylvania are now trying methods proposed by the U. S. Geological Survey which, if they prove successful should mean almost as much to the oil industry as did the discovery of oil in the first well on Oil Creek, 67 years ago. In fact, they may mean more, for 67 years ago oil was a curiosity, to be peddled as a medicine, a poor lubricant, or a smoke- and odor-producing illuminant, while today it is indispensable if only for its use as a lubricant. It now seems that the second era in the history of oil production-the era of improved recovery-is getting well under way, and this second era, like the first, had its beginnings in Pennsylvania. MANUFACTURE OF OILFIELD EQUIPMENT. 85 OILFIELD EQUIPMENT MADE AT PITTSBURGH. Any discussion of the relation of Pennsylvania, and particularly Pittsburgh, to the oil industry would be incomplete without mention of the part played by the steel mills and the manufacturing concerns of the City and the State. It is safe to say that there is not an oilfield of major importance, not only in the United States but in the world that does not use products -drilling tools, drill-pipe, casing, pumps, tanks, engines, or other appliances-which originate here. The largest oilfield supply company (Oil-Well Supply Co.) in the world has its headquarters and works here, and the drill-pipe, casing, and other tubular goods that have been sent out from the Pittsburgh district would suffice to lay a pipeline from Pittsburgh to any oil-pool in the western hemisphere. This function of furnishing the materials for the search for oil, its storage, transportation, and refining, is undoubtedly the greatest contribution the Pittsburgh district is today making to the oil industry. - - A producing well in a residential section of Pittsburgh. 86 REFRACTORIES PRODUCTION AND USES. REFRACTORIES play an important role in the many reduction, refining, and manufacturing processes and power plants of the Pittsburgh district-in fact, no industrial process which requires high temperatures could be carried on without refractories. Many deteriorating agencies are at work on refractories as soon as they are placed in a furnace, and a great deal of investigation has been accomplished regarding these factors and in the manufacture of better refractories. PRODUCTION. Pittsburgh occupies a dominant position in the manufacture of face brick, firebrick, refractories for all purposes, and similar ceramic products, and the monthly capacity of the plants in this area has been estimated to be approximately 25,000,000 nine-inch bricks. A typical refractories plant is at Hays, near Homestead, which has a daily capacity of approximately 50,000 fireclay brick and 100,000 silica brick, most of which are used in the Pittsburgh district, which is by far the largest consumer in the United States. The refractories industry of the United States produces enormous tonnages, as can be seen from the following table of production of the year 1924, which is the latest available from the Department of Commerce: Refractories Production of United States in 1924. Type of brick. Number. Value. Fireclay. 940,.48,000 $4(),0;2),,)41 Silica 204.3:38,.( 10, 04,373 Magnesite s,18s.o.(o 2, (20, 12 Chrome 4.572.000 1,212.045 In 1923, according to the U. S. Bureau of Mines, a total of 1,134,223,000 firebrick were made, of a value of $46,676,637. TYPES OF CLAYS. The clays that are important to the fireclay brick industry may be divided into two general classes-namely, flint clays and plastic clays. Flint clays are very hard and dense and, when broken, usually break with smooth surfaces and sharp, irregular edges. Flint clays are very slightly plastic and as a FIRECLAY BRICK. 87 rule do no slake down when acted upon by water. Theoretically pure clay or the mineral kaolin, has the composition A1,0 3.2SiO,,.HO, corresponding to 39.8 per cent alumina, 46.3'per cent silica, and 13.9 per cent water. Absolutely pure clay never occurs in nature but contains impurities in varying amounts. These impurities are chiefly the alkalies and basic oxides, such as iron oxide, lime, and magnesia. The best flint clays are low in impurities; they have high-fusion points and therefore withstand very high temperatures. The plastic clays contain slightly higher percentages of impurities than the flint clays and therefore fuse at slightly lower temperatures. They are acted upon by water and slake down readily and form a plastic, sticky mass. It is their property of good plasticity that makes the plastic clays useful in bonding the flint clay particles in making fireclay brick. FIRECLAY BRICK. Fireclay brick are made from flint clay and plastic clay; the former constitutes the larger amount in proportion. For some types of firebrick, some of the flint clay is pre-calcined and mixed with the clays; pre-calcined clay used in this manner is called "grog." In the most refractory fireclay brick the amount of plastic clay used is kept as low as practicable, as only enough of this clay is desired to make the batch workable and to bond the flint clay and grog particles. Mining Pennsylvania flint clay. 88 PITTSBURGH. Fireclay brick are manufactured by several processes: The oldest process, and it is still used to a large extent, is the handmade process. By this method the proper quantities of clay are ground together in a large mill called a wet-pan, water is added and the whole mulled together into a plastic mass. A molder throws by hand an amount of clay in excess of that needed into a wooden brick mold which is the shape of the brick desired. The excess clay is struck off the top and the molded brick is turned out to dry, either on a warm floor or a car which is pushed into a drying oven. In most cases, hand-made brick are dried for a few hours and then re-molded by pressing in a mold operated by hand levers. This operation is termed repressing. Large fireclay brick shapes are molded perfectly the first time and are dried without repressing. Boyd presses making brick by semi-dry process. There are several different methods by which fireclay brick are made by machinery. In the so called steam-press method, the clays are ground in a dry pan, mixed and tempered in a pug mill, extruded through a die of a plunger or auger machine, and cut and pressed in a power repress. The brick then go to a dryer and thence to the kilns for burning. In the power-press or semi-dry process, the clays are ground in a dry pan, mixed and tempered with a small quantity of water, and molded in a pressing machine which molds 4 or 6 bricks at one time with great pressure. Brick made by this method are usually dried in a tunnel drier, but sometimes they are set directly in the kiln without preliminary drying. OPERATION OF KILNS. 89 Brick made by any of the above methods are dried until the water which has been mixed with the clay is almost entirely driven off and the brick are hard, so that they may be handled for setting. After the brick are dry they are set in the kiln for burning. A kiln is a large rectangular or circular oven with fireboxes so arranged as to produce a high, even temperature within the kiln. Kilns may be fired by either coal, oil, or gas. Most fireclay brick kilns are fired with coal. The brick are set in the kiln according to a definite plan so that drafts may circulate around them and throughout the kiln. Small holes in the floor of the kiln lead to flues which lead to a stack out of which pass the smoke, water, and products of combustion. When the kiln is filled with dried brick, a low fire is used until all the water in Setting fireclay brick shapes in kiln for burning. the clay is driven off. The temperature is then brought up rapidly and the brick burned to the temperature desired. which is established by the ultimate use to which the brick are to be put. It takes from 3 to 6 days to bring the temperature up to the required point; this depends upon the type of clay used and the product desired. The fires are then withdrawn and the kiln allowed to cool. The cooling is also carried out by schedule so 90 PITTSBURGH. that the brick do not cool too quickly and become cracked. After complete cooling, the brick are removed and are ready for the market. SILICA BRICK. The refractory which stands second both in tonnage and value is silica brick. This brick is manufactured from quartzite or ganister of where there are large deposits in central Pennsylvania. Ganister is a silica rock, running low in impurities and has a silica content of from 96 to 98 per cent. The manufacture of silica brick is carried out somewhat similarly to that of hand-made fireclay brick. The ganister rock is crushed, ground in a wet pan and 2 per cent of calcium A battery of rectangular, down-draft kilns. oxide added in the form of milk of lime. The brick are molded by hand or by machinery, dried bone dry in tunnel dryers and burned in coal-fired, circular, down-draft kilns. Silica brick are very refractory and have the important property of withstanding heavy loads at high temperatures. This property enables them to be used to good advantage in long-span arches such as roofs of open-hearth furnaces, arches of glass tanks, etc. MAGNESIA BRICK. Magnesite brick, or magnesia brick as more properly called, is another type of refractory which is very important to the steel industry in particular. This refractory is manufactured MAGNESIA AND CHROME BRICKS. 91 from the mineral magnesite, which is magnesium carbonate, and is found chiefly in the northwestern part of the United States and Czecho-Slovakia or as it was formerly, Austria. Magnesite is mixed with a small quantity of iron oxide, if it does not have enough naturally, and calcined at a very high temperature in upright or rotary kilns. The calcined product is known as dead-burned magnesite. This product is then crushed, ground, and mixed with a small quantity of water and molded into brick in a similar manner to the other refractories. The brick are set and burned in rectangular, down-draft kilns in the usual way to a very high temperature. On account of their excellent resistance to the slagging of basic oxides, magnesite brick find extensive use in open-hearth furnaces and electric furnaces. They are also used in some chemical operations of a basic nature, as magnesite brick are the most basic of all refractories. CHROME BRICK. Chrome brick is a neutral refractory and is manufactured from the mineral chromite, FeO.Cr,O3, which theoretically contains 67.9 per cent chromic oxide and 32.1 per cent ferrous oxide. However, the purest chrome ores rarely contain more than 60 per cent chromic oxide and the ore which is best suited for refractory purposes, on account of its physical characteristics, contains from 33 to 45 per cent chromic oxide. Chrome brick are manufactured in exactly the same way as magnesite brick. Chrome refractories are used to a large extent in the steel industry and to some extent in the paper industry and for other special uses. Perhaps the best known use of chrome brick is for the separating courses between the magnesite and silica brick in the sidewalls of open-hearth furnaces. 92 POWER FOR THE PITTSBURGH DISTRICT. THE installed power facilities of the Pittsburgh district approximate 1,500,000 horsepower. Of this, the iron and steel industry has 60 per cent, much of which is derived from steam generated in boilers burning blast-furnace gas, by-product gas, and natural gas, or from waste heat from other furnaces. Some other industries, including coal mines, have their own power plants, but the trend is towards the purchase of electric power from central plants. The district enjoys an abundant supply of reliable and cheap electric power from these plants and this ample supply relieves new industries of the expense to erect their own power plants. There are three large central power plants in the district, two operated by the Duquesne Light Co. and one by the West Penn Power Co. (The former company also operates an 8800-hp. plant in downtown Pittsburgh, mainly for heating purposes). The plants and distributing systems are shown in the accompanying map and a description of the plants follow: DUQUESNE LIGHT COMPANY. COLFAX POWER STATION. The Colfax power station of the Duquesne Light Co., which was first operated December 18, 1920, at present has a rated capacity of 180,000 kilowatts. The station is advantageously situated on the Allegheny River about 16 miles from Pittsburgh. Condensing water is available sufficient for the ultimate capacity of 300,000 kw. The plant is within 1 2 miles of a company-owned coal mine, electrically equipped, capable of a production of 3000 tons per day, and with 4000 acres of coal land adjoining. A private railroad connects the mine and power station. ENGINES The station is arranged on the unit plan; the original design was to advance in steps of 60,000 kw. and the first three units are of this size. Units 1 and 2 are 3-cylinder cross-compound machines, consisting of one high-pressure and two low DISTRIBUTING SYSTEMS. 93 pressure elements each. Unit 3 consists of two 30,000-kw., single-shaft machines, feeding into a common transformer bank. All units, together with condensers and auxiliaries, are of Westinghouse manufacture. Unit 4, which is now under construction, will be of 80,000-kw. capacity, in two 40,000-kw. singleshaft elements similar to unit 3. Steam conditions at the throttle are approximately 275 pounds and 600~ F. CONDENSERS Surface condensers are used on all main units. For each of the first two units there are four 25,000-sq. ft. 2-pass shells, two on each low-pressure element; each shell is divided into two Distributing systems in the Pittsburgh district of the power companies described. 94 PITTSBURGH. sections to permit cleaning while in operation. Each 30,000 -kw. element of unit 3 has one 55,000-sq. ft., 2-pass condenser shell, similarly arranged for cleaning. Condensing water is circulated by motor-driven pumps, three of 46,000 g.p.m. for each of the first two units, and two of 44,000 g.p.m. for each element of unit 3. The condensing water is cleaned of debris by racks and revolving screens; a feature of this installation is Colfax Power Plant, Duquesne Light Co. Coal storage behind stack at left. the arrangement of the driving motors for 2-speed operation. A coarse- and fine-mesh screen in series are provided for unit 3; a single-screen arrangement is used for the first two units. Air removal from the condensers is by Le Blanc pumps and steam-jet air ejectors; air ejectors are used on the later installations. Hot-well pumps are all motor-driven. Units 1 and 2 are bled at the exhaust of the high-pressure element for heating feed water; each element of unit 3 is bled at 4 points. BOILERS The boiler plant includes 14 stoker-fired boilers and 5 fired with pulverized coal. The boilers range in size from 2087.6 to 2768 hp., as follows: USE OF PULVERIZED COAL. 95 Details of boilers at Colfax power station. Heating Superficial Type of Number No. of Units. surface, surface, superheaters. of tubes. cir. Size of tubes. sq. ft. sq. ft. 7 20,876 S,828 Foster 918-18x51 102 20 ft. by 4 inch. 6 22,914 2,919 Babcock & Wilcox 1020-20x51 102 20 ft. by 4 inch. 1 22,914 3,446 Babcock & Wilcox 1020-20x51 102 20 ft. by 4 inch. 5 27.680 5,657 Babcock & Wilcox 940-20x47 141 24 ft. by 4 inch. Air preheaters are installed on three stoker-fired boilers and on all boilers burning pulverized coal. The 14 boilers first installed are equipped with Westinghouse underfeed stokers with clinker grinders, stoker and grinder being driven by variable speed d. c. motors. Forced draft for these boilers is supplied by four fans of 250,000 cu. ft. per min. driven by steam turbines through reduction gears. USE OF PULVERIZED COAL For each of the 5 boilers using pulverized coal there are two 6-ton Raymond roll mills, each with exhauster and cyclone separator, discharging to a bunker from which the burner feeders take their supply. The burning equipment for each boiler consists of two 7-element Lopulco feeders and fantail burners; the burners are set at a slight inclination through a suspended arch. The furnaces are protected by fin tubes on the rear and side walls, and have a water-tube screen across the bottom of the furnace, just above the ash-pit. The boilers are served by 5 brick-lined, self-supporting steel stacks mounted on the building structure. The first 4 stacks are 375 feet above the grates and 21 feet internal diameter. The last stack is 400 feet above the boiler-room floor and 19 92 feet internal diameter. Make-up water is supplied by evaporators, using the exhaust from the boiler-feed pumps and forced-draft fan turbines for evaporating river water. The boiler-feed water is handled by six 1500 g. p. m., 5-stage pumps; four are direct turbinedriven and two motor-driven. VALVE CONTROL All important valves are motor-operated with remote control stations. A feature of the boiler room is the emergency control board on which an auxiliary control station for each of the important valves is mounted and from which the valves can be operated in case an emergency prevents the use of the regular control station. This board is laid out with a mimic piping 96 PITTSBURGH. arrangement to facilitate operation of the controls, in much the same manner as a mimic bus is used with modern electrical control panels. COAL DELIVERY AND STORAGE Coal may be delivered by rail or river; a hoist of 400 tons per hour capacity is provided to unload coal from barges. Rail coal is dropped into hoppers at the boiler-room floor level (these also receive river coal by belt conveyor from the hoist), passes through either of the duplicate crushers of a capacity of 200 tons an hour and is carried by bucket elevator to the bunker above the boilers where it is deposited by belt conveyor. Coal for the stoker boilers is distributed by weighing larry. Reserve coal storage of 250,000 tons maximum capacity is provided, and is equipped with a 300-foot span, 250-ton per hour Gantry crane for stocking and reclaiming. For house-service energy supply, there are two 2000-kilowatt turbines, and two 1250-kw. generators on the shafts of the third unit generators. There is also a station service transformer bank from each unit. For each of the first two units there is a heat-balance set which provides a flexible connection between the house-turbine bus and the transformer bus; this permits of variation of load on the turbines for control of feed-water temperature. VOLTAGE AND TIE-LINE WITH ANOTHER SYSTEM The main generators operate at 12,000 volts, feeding to duplicate 12,000-volt busses in the station; these busses connect to the main transformers. The high-tension leads from the transformers go via cable bus on the station roof to the outdoor switching station which contains the switching equipment and lightning arresters for the transmission lines. There are 8 of these at present, 4 feeding north and 4 south, into the 66,000 -volt transmission ring surrounding the Pittsburgh district. In addition, there is a 132,000-volt, 30,000-kw. tie-line to the Springdale power station of the West Penn Power Co., about 1 Y2 miles above Colfax. This tie-line is equipped with a special regulator arranged for varying the voltage 10 per cent, while the line is in service, from the Colfax control room. HEAT RECLAMATION A feature of the Colfax station is the system for heat reclamation arranged in connection with provision of clean cooling water supply for the transformers and for lubricating oil. This system permits recovery of heat ordinarily lost from such BRUNOT ISLAND POWER PLANT. 97 equipment, and includes also the third unit generators and the air-ejector condensers. The heat is ordinarily recovered by the circulating medium, except under extreme summer conditions which necessitate the use of river water to cool some of the equipment. Other features of the Colfax station include well-equipped blacksmith, machine, electrical repair and instrument repair shops, coal-sample preparation room, coal and water field-testing laboratory, and plant hospital with attendant nurse. BRUNOT ISLAND POWER STATION. Prior to the erection of Colfax, the principal generating station of the Duquesne Light Co. was Brunot Island, on an island of that name in the Ohio River, about 1 2 miles below the junction of the Monongahela River with the Allegheny River at Pittsburgh. ENGINES The present capacity of the station is 119,500 kw., all turbo-generators. It includes five 15,300-kw. single-cylinder Brunot Island (Ohio River) Power Plant of Duquesne Light Co. Coal storage in foreground. 98 PITTSBURGH. Westinghouse impulse-reaction, semi-double flow units: and one 40,000-kw. 2-cylinder, cross-compound Westinghouse straight-reaction unit. These six machines are the main units, and generate current at 12,000 volts. They are supplemented by a 3,000 kw. turbo-generator wound for 2,300 volts and connected to operate either as a synchronous condenser or for emergency house-service supply. The electric auxiliaries are on separate individual drive, either turbine or motor. Steam conditions at the turbine throttle are approximately 175 pounds gage and 500~ F. CONDENSERS All units, except the 3,000-kw. machine, are equipped with surface condensers. Air is removed by means of reciprocating dry vacuum pump, except for one of the 15,000-kw. units and the 40,000-kw. unit, which are equipped with Le Blanc air pumps. Condensing water is circulated by duplicate pumps for each unit (3 on the 40,000-kw. unit); one is motordriven and the other turbine driven. The condensate pumps are turbine-driven. BOILERS The boiler plant includes 56 boilers, ranging in size from 500 to 822 hp. The original boilers are twenty 500-hp. Babcock & Wilcox longitudinal drum, equipped with double-furnace Murphy stokers; one of these boilers was subsequently removed. During the rapid growth of the power system in recent years, the following were successively added: Ten 600-hp. Babcock Z Wilcox longitudinal drum boilers with Roney stokers, later rebuilt and raised, replacing the Roney stokers with Westinghouse underfeeds; twenty 822-hp. Stirling boilers with Green chain grates; and seven 822-hp. Stirling boilers with Westinghouse underfeed stokers. USE OF PULVERIZED COAL Ten of the Green chain grates have been removed since 1922 for installations for pulverized coal; the last 8 changes were made in 1925. The present equipment for pulverized coal includes: One storage type with Raymond roll mill, Bailey feeders, and Lopulco burners; six Combustion Engineering Corp.'s unit mill installation (2 mills per boiler); two Furnace Engineering Co.'s unit mill installation; and one Fuller-Lehigh well furnace with unit mill. COAL STORAGE. 99 WATER SUPPLY Make-up water is supplied by treating river water with lime and soda ash; the equipment for this includes two 60,000 -gallon settling tanks, reagent mixing tank, filter, and clear-well. The make-up water is introduced into three open feed-water heaters which use exhaust steam from the turbine-driven auxiliaries. The boiler feed pumps are all turbine-driven. The forced-draft fans for the under-feed and chain-grate stokers are driven either direct by motor or by turbine through reduction gears. COAL DELIVERY AND STORAGE At present, the coal is delivered by barge, although provision is made for delivery by rail as well. Larry cars transfer the coal from the river hoists to the station or to storage. When going to the station, the coal is passed through either of the duplicate crushers, each of a capacity of 200 tons per hour, discharges to a bucket elevator which hoists the crushed coal to the bunkers along which it is distributed by belt conveyors. Magnetic separators are included in the conveyor circuit to remove tramp iron. For reserve coal there is a 100,000-ton concrete basin for storage under water, constructed as a result of experience with destructive fires in ground storage. A valve arrangement protects the basin against flotation during high river stages. Stocking and reclaiming is done by means of clam-shell hoist. VOLTAGE All main units generate current at 12,000 volts and feed directly into the station bus, which is of the sectionalized ring type with current-limiting reactors between sections and between the operating bus and reserve bus. Local service for the nearby downtown district of Pittsburgh is supplied through submarine and underground cables at bus voltage. A few overhead lines operate at 22,000 volts, and the balance of the station output is fed through step-up transformer banks to four 66,000-volt lines connecting to the transmission ring encircling the Pittsburgh district and fed by Colfax at its north end. During 1925 the two power plants described generated 1,227,967,150 kilowatt-hours. This was an increase of 14 per cent over the output of 1924. Sales totaled 1,033,884,164 kw.-hr. at 5 Y2 cents per kw.-hr. to domestic consumers and an 100 PITTSBURGH. average of 2.16 cents to all customers. This is the second lowest rate of 8 great steam-generated plants in the United States; the lowest is the Commonwealth Edison Co. at Chicago, at 2.12 cents a kilowatt-hour. HEATING DOIWNTOWN PITTSBURGH. As to the heating of the downtown area, it may be stated that more than half of this is done by the Duquesne Light Co.'s subsidiary, the Allegheny County Steam Heating Co. The steam pipelines, of which there is more than a mile, each of 10 to 15-inch and 16 inches and larger in diameter, total 17,743 feet. Among the boilers is one, a Babcock 8 Wilcox, that is the largest in the world. It is the first of four units. It has 1,173 four-inch tubes, and has a normal evaporating capacity of 103,100 pounds of water an hour. Pulverized coal is used in this and other boilers which have a total capacity of 8,829 horsepower. The consumption of pulverized coal in 1925 was 107 pounds per 1,000 pounds of steam produced, compared with 134T2 and 163 2 pounds in 1924 and 1923, respectively. In 1925, sales of steam amounted to 767,869,300 pounds; this was sold at 82.7 cents a 1,000 pounds. WEST PENN POWER COMPANY. TERRITORY SERVED. The West Penn System supplies electric light, power, and railway service in an area of approximately 22,000 square miles. This extends from within 25 miles of the City of Baltimore, Maryland, across Maryland and northern West Virginia to the Ohio River, and northward in the important industrial sections of Western Pennsylvania, with the exception of the City of Pittsburgh and its immediate environs, to north-central Pennsylvania. The total population served by the System is approximately 1,500,000. GENERATING STATIONS. The West Penn System has 5 main steam-generating stations and 1 water-power plant. The capacity of these stations after completion of extensions now under way will be as follows: Plant. Capacity, kilowatts. Springdale................................ 16(0,000 W indsor...................................... 9(),000 Rivesville..................................... 40,0(00 W illiamsport.................................. 15, Connellsville.................................. 55,500 Small stations (approximate)................... 5,0() Cheat Haven hydro station..................... 50,000 Total..................................... 4610,500) STEAM AND WATER PLANTS. 101 Springdale Power Plant of West Penn Power Co. The mine shaft is at the left foreground and the mine workings on the opposite side of the Allegheny River. Of the above total capacity, more than 50 per cent has been placed in operation since January, 1923. Of the steam stations, Springdale, Windsor, and Rivesville are mine-mouth plants; the mines at the first two named are operated by companies affiliated with the West Penn System. The first 4 plants in the above table are all steam stations of modern design. The Springdale station includes powdered-coal equipment for part of the boiler room, forced and induced draft and turbo-generators. The hydro-electric plant at Cheat Haven is the first of a series of stations planned ultimately to utilize the full power resources of the Cheat River. Cheat Haven, W. Va., hydro-electric plant of the West Penn Power Co. 102 PITTSBURGH. MAJOR TRANSMISSION LINES. That portion of the System lying to the west of the State of Maryland is inter-connected by high-voltage transmission lines so as to permit of the most economical operation of generating stations. The interconnecting transmission lines are of large capacity; those in Pennsylvania where the amounts of power to be transmitted are greatest, are all of 132,000-volt and mostly of double-circuit steel-tower construction. In West Virginia, on account of the smaller loads and the greater distances to be covered, a single circuit "H" type of structure built of wood poles and designed for operation at 66,000 volts is most generally used. The system includes more than 328 circuit miles of 132,000-volt construction, nearly all of which is in Pennsylvania, and approximately 250 circuit miles of 66,000-volt construction, most of which is in West Virginia and Maryland. The size of conductor for both 66,000 and 132,000-volt service is the equivalent of 4/0 copper wire. INTERCONNECTION WITH OTHER SYSTEMS In addition to having nearly all of its own generating stations interconnected, the West Penn transmission system is interconnected with all of its large neighbors except those to the extreme east. Companies with whose systems interconnections have been established include the Penn Central Light E Power Co., Penn Public Service Corp., Duquesne Light Co., and American Gas 8 Electric Co. Most of these companies have interconnections with other neighboring utilities so that the West Penn System is tied into a network of high-capacity transmission lines which permits of operation in parallel with systems that have in the aggregate several times its own generating capacity. The first important tie-lines were constructed about 10 years ago, and the advantages of these interconnections justified the strengthening of them as the systems grew and the construction of interconnections with other utilities. Operation in parallel with them has greatly decreased the probability of interruption from generating-station troubles, in addition to affecting economies by lessening the amount of spare capacity which must be provided and kept in operation to take care of emergencies. INDUSTRIAL LOAD. 103 TYPE OF LOAD SUPPLIED. The West Penn System sells approximately 40 per cent of its output to mines, and about 15 per cent to each of the following three groups: Glass industry, iron and steel industry, electric railways and other electric utilities. In addition, the System serves a large and constantly growing domestic and industrial lighting load. The System supplies power to more than 700 coal mines, most of which are in Western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia. Glass and steel plants that use West Penn service include some of the largest and finest in the country; many huge new factories and mills recently constructed in the greater Pittsburgh district obtain their entire energy requirements from the System's lines. 104 PITTSBURGH. IRON AND STEEL: PRODUCTION, MANUFACTURE, AND METALLURGY. BRIEF HISTORY. AS MENTIONED in the section on the history of Pittsburgh, iron ore was discovered on the western slope of the Allegheny Mountains and, while the first furnace in Pittsburgh, built by George Anshutz in the Shady Side district in 1792, failed 2 years later, the early discovery of the ore in 1780 and the construction of furnaces and forges in close proximity gave considerable impetus to the town, incorporated as a borough in 1794. For more than 50 years the counties of Western Pennsylvania supplied Pittsburgh with most of its iron ore. By 1865 there were 46 iron factories, 7 steel manufactories, and 31 rolling mills. Andrew Carnegie was making a personal study of the workshops, and he began with the purchase of an interest in the Iron City Forge Co., and a little later with the organization of the Keystone Bridge Co. Jones & Laughlin's American Iron Works were an established industry, and in 1860 and 1861 they built the Eliza furnaces, the third in Allegheny County; the Clinton furnace in 1859 was the second, and that of George Anshutz in 1792 the first. The table following shows the consumption of raw materials and production of iron and steel during the last 10 years (1916-1925): Production of iron and steel in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh District), from 1916 to 1925, gross tons.' )etails. 191l;') 1)17' 1918b 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 Furnaces built and building........ 47 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 445 Consumption ofIron ore......... 13.350,113 11,316,103 11,768,29 10,493,440 11,119,175 5,946,259 8,424,267 11,997,580 9,189,324 10,259,140 Mill cinder, scale, etc....... 788,9)4) 713,534 704,052 450,535 549,455 324,070 497,780 550,616 446,798 493.367 Limestone...... 3,489,768 2,943,542 3,073,418 2,912,418 3,172,281 1,682,262 2,401,268 3,360,353 2,604,200 2,813,473 Production of pig > iron............ 7.2,13,226,601 6,357,660 5,719,842 6,170,881 3,371,517 4,857,585 6,605,541 5,036,270 5,602,512 ' Rolling mills and steel works...... 60 64 64 64 67 67 68 66 62 58 Production ofOpen-hearth steel 7,270,060 7,019,703 6,607,777 5,888,774 6,500,793 3,249,164 5,432,192 6,605,308 5,721,792 6,263,174 Bessemer steel.. 1,956,608 1,72,144 1,813,773 1,670,940 1,982,445 1,041,583 1,397,892 1,819,617 1,280,854 1,351,62) All other steel... 46,328 78,506 94,434 61,778 69,797 18,291 23,270 35,006 36,658 50,421 > Total steel ingots and castings... 9,272,996,,53 8,5,9s84 7,621,4 8,553,035 4,309,038 6,853,354 8,459,931 7,039,304 7,665,215 ) Production ofAll kinds of rails 327,001 370,536 461,525 305,818 403,516 346,592 267,920 373,695 325,377 349,529 Structural shapes 1,162,861 1,111,134 959,551 918,788 1,026,498 378,732 791,496 1,078,036 888,681 880,385 Plates and sheets 1,643,20)5 1,738,299 2,040,390 1,668,591 1,765,051 839,770 1,396,919 1,736,723 1,441,027 1,562,363 n Merchant bars'.. 1,6!7,674 1,617,756( 1.385,401 1,318,913 1,600,128 435,258 1,042,233 1,330,543 947,613 1,132,257 0 Skel.......... 850,293 743,781 741,054 744,457 816,500 560,180 726,612 815,207 695,517 761,573 C (ther rolled Z products'.....1,563,371 1,353,321 1,293,208 903,142 1,042,993 423,372 790,516 966,036 714,628 775,693 Total rolled products... 7,244,405 6,934,827 6,881,129 5,859,709 6,654,686 2,983,904 5,015,696 6,300,240 5,012,843 5,461,800 aData supplied by American Iron and Steel Institute. bWar period. cConcrete bars not included. 'Includes semi-finished forms rolled for export. o <-n 106 PITTSBURGH. MANUFACTURING PROCESSES. Although the processes employed in the manufacture of iron and steel are understood by most engineers in a general way, a brief description, mostly abstracted from Speller's "Corrosion: Causes and Prevention," of these processes may be in order: REDUCTION OF ORE IN THE BLAST FURNACE. The blast furnace is a cylindrical stack-shaped structure from 90 to 100 feet high, with an inside diameter at the middle of 22 to 24 feet. It is lined with refractory firebrick and is strongly constructed to carry the heavy burden with which it is charged. The lower portion of the furnace wall is kept from getting hot by a large number of water-cooled castings built into the brickwork. Eliza blast furnace of Jones 1 Laughlin Steel Corporation. The smelting operations are continuous and are as follows: Weighed quantities of ore, coke, and limestone are fed at regular intervals into the top of the furnace by a means of skips which are dumped automatically. The production of 1 ton of pig iron requires about 2 tons of ore, Y2 ton of limestone, 1 ton of coke, and 42 tons of air. Combustion in the blast furnace is supported by means of a hot-air blast forced into the furnaces through tuyeres just above the hearth. The air is supplied by blowing engines or turbo-blowers at a rate of 45,000 to 60,000 cubic feet a minute BLAST FURNACE OPERATION. 107 at a pressure of 15 to 30 pounds a square inch. Between the furnace and engines the air passes through one of a series of four stoves for each furnace, almost as high as a blast furnace. The stoves are filled with checkerwork of firebrick. The air that passes through the stove is heated to 1,200 or 1,400~ F. (649 to 760~C.). When one stove is heating cold air under pressure en route to the tuyeres, the other stoves are being heated by combustion of the hot gases drawn from the top of the blast furnace. The direction of flow of the gases or air through the stoves is reversed hourly by suitable valves. The ore is gradually reduced and the molten iron finally collects in a pool on the hearth at the bottom of the furnace from which it is drawn or cast at intervals of 4 to 6 hours. The liquid slag floats on top of the molten metal and is drawn off at intervals as it collects at the cinder notch. The metal is run from the blast furnace into ladle cars, hauled in a molten condition to the steel works, and poured into a mixer. This is a large steel cylinder lined with firebrick i i Tapping one of the Carnegie Steel Co.'s blast furnaces. and holds from 600 to 1,200 tons of molten iron. The mixer can be tilted and emptied into car-ladles which are hauled to the steel works as required. This molten metal contains about 94 per cent iron, 4 per cent of carbon, a variable amount of silicon, phosphorus, and manganese, and a smaller amount of sulphur. 108 PITTSBURGH. Pouring a mixer. REFINING PIG IRON FOR PRODUCTION OF IRON AND STEEL. Five processes are employed in the Pittsburgh district in the refining of pig iron and production of wrought iron and steel. A brief description of each follows: BESSEMER PROCESS. The metal from the mixer is poured into ladle cars which hold just enough metal for one charge of a Bessemer converter. The converter is a pear-shaped vessel, about 12 feet in diameter and half as high, thickly lined with acid refractory material and with a capacity of 10 to 20 tons of metal. The molten iron is poured into the converter, and then air at about 25-pound pressure is forced through tuyeres in the double bottom. The carbon, silicon, and manganese either oxidize and separate from CONVERTER AND OPEN-HEARTH PROCESSES. 109 the metal as a slag or are discharged as gases from the mouth of the converter. The "blow" lasts 12 to 15 minutes; the end of the reaction is indicated by a decrease in luminosity of the flame. The steel at the end is 500~F. hotter than at the start of the blow, but the temperature may be regulated by adding cold steel scrap or by blowing steam through the molten bath. Ferromanganese is added to de-oxidize the bath and supply the manganese desired in the finished steel. OPEN-HEARTH PROCESS The open-hearth process was invented a few years after the Bessemer process. The furnace works on the regenerative principle and consists of a rectangular brick structure, heavily braced, and completely lined with refractory brick. The hearth is shaped like a hollow pan, and will hold a pool of metal perhaps 15 feet wide, 30 feet long, and 18 to 24 inches deep. At both ends are openings or ports for hot air and fuel-gas, tar, or oil. From one end a torch-like flame spreads out from each port and fills the furnace. Waste gases escape through the ports at the other end to checkerwork chambers, where much of their A converter blowing. 110 PITTSBURGH. sensible heat is extracted before they enter the stack. The direction of the flow of gas is reversed every 20 minutes. The charging doors are water-cooled. Ordinary open-hearth steel is made essentially as follows: Fluxing material, scrap metal, and ore are charged onto the hearth, and after 2 hours, molten iron from the mixer is poured in. When the temperature has been raised sufficiently, a vigorous reaction takes place and results in the elimination of carbon. The bath of relatively pure molten iron which is finally obtained is rather high in oxides, but these may be reduced by adding ferro-manganese in the furnace or ladle and allowing the steel to rest quietly for 15 minutes or more. The carbon, manganese, and any other products required in the finished steel are added to the steel as it is being tapped into the ladle. Tapping a Carnegie Steel Co.'s open-hearth furnace. PUDDLING PROCESS. In the manufacture of wrought iron, hand-charged reverberatory furnaces are used with a rather small hearth and relatively large firebox immediately joining. The bottom and sides of the hearth are lined with iron ore or slag which is rich in iron oxide. The fuel is a long-flame bituminous coal burned, without preheating the air, by the draft from a short chimney. This gives heat enough to melt pig iron readily, although the temperature is below the melting point of pure iron. About ELECTRIC FURNACES AND CRUCIBLES. 111 600 pounds of a mixture of selected pig iron is charged into the hot furnace with some old slag, which floats on top of the bath after the charge is melted. The slag blankets the molten iron and also serves as an oxidizing agent. Eventually the metallic bath slowly stiffens and is converted into a pasty mass which consists of innumerable white-hot globules of pure iron intermixed with 6 or 7 per cent of liquid cinder (slag). This pasty material is rolled up into a "ball" by the puddler and removed from the furnace in this form by means of long tongs. The ball is carried to the "squeezer" and is then rolled out into "muckbar." Subsequent squeezing, rolling, heating to welding temperature, and re-rolling produce wrought iron. It is the slag present which gives wrought iron its characteristic fibrous appearance on fracture, but microscopic examination shows the metal to consist of granular crystals of ferrite, like steel and other ferrous metals. ELECTRIC-FURNACE PROCESS. Production of steel from electric furnaces in America during 1925 totaled 615,512 tons, but the quantity produced fluctuates from year to year, yet the production curve is upward. The field of the electric furnace seems to be in foundry and toolsteel units of 4 to 3 tons capacity which produce steel for castings up to 500 pounds or more in weight, and some preparation of steel for subsequent melting in crucibles. There is a marked tendency as the power supply increases for large furnaces (15 to 25 tons) for rolling mills for the production of alloy and forging steel, also for cast-iron and malleable-iron work. There are 25 electric furnaces in operation in this district. CRUCIBLE PROCESS. The crucible process consists in melting pieces of wrought iron in a closed crucible of 100 pounds capacity, with or without the addition of carbon or other material. It is essentially a melting operation, but the metal is held in quiet molten condition or dead melt for an hour or so to eliminate gases and oxides. A high quality of steel is made by this process. In the Pittsburgh district are more than 30 crucible furnaces with more than 1,300 pots. Crucibles are made here by three firms, one probably the largest in the country. 112 PITTSBURGH. METALLURGICAL PRACTICE AND TREND The notes under this head were prepared by John S. Unger of the Carnegie Steel Co.: BLAST FURNACES. As shown by the accompanying map, there are 57 blast furnaces in the Pittsburgh district. The ore used is principally from the Lake Superior region, and the annual consumption of iron ore is about 11,000,000 tons. A small quantity of mill scale and cinder is also smelted. The average daily production per furnace is about 375 tons, but the newer remodelled stacks produce 700 tons a day. Seven furnaces make ferro-alloys, as spiegeleisen, ferro-manganese, or ferro-silicon. Most of the manganese ores come from Brazil. One furnace makes merchant iron only. Cast-iron scrap, such as runner and ladle scrap, produced around furnaces is re-charged into the furnaces. The waste gases from all furnaces are burned under boilers for the generation of steam for the blowing engines. At some plants, steam is used in turbines for generating electric power or for blowinig furnaces. * Blast furnace Blast furnaces in the Pittsburgh district. TREND IN BLAST FURNACE OPERATION. 1 13 All furnaces are equipped with dust-catching devices to retain the coarser particles of dust. At the larger plants, wet washing of the gas is practiced when the gas is used in stoves with small checker openings, or for gas engines used for blowing furnaces or for generating electric current. Pig-casting machines are installed to take care of surplus metal produced during a shut-down of the steel works, such as on Sundays or holidays. The metal mixers are filled to capacity and only the excess iron is cast in the casting machines. Hot metal bridges across the Monongahela River. The Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (upper) and Carnegie Steel Co. (lower) haul molten iron from the blast furnaces on one side of the river to converters and openhearth furnaces on the other side. The present trend in design of blast furnaces and auxiliary equipment is toward larger hearth and bosh, more nearly approaching a cylinder in shape, ample blowing capacity, about 360,000 square feet of heating surface in stoves, and quick-acting, large-capacity charging equipment. The present average life of the lining is 750,000 tons of pig iron. OP'EN-HEARTH FURNACES. There are about 245 open-hearth furnaces in the Pittsburgh district. Their capacities vary from 15 to 120 tons for the stationary type and up to 300 tons for the Talbot rolling or tilting type, of which there are 13. Several of the smaller furnaces are acid furnaces used in making steel castings. Steel scrap, mostly croppings from ingots and finished rolled material, is re-charged into the furnaces. Excepting the small furnaces, all charging of scrap is done mechanically. Pig iron is charged 114 PITTSBURGH. molten from the mixer, or sometimes direct from the blast furnace, which has resulted in economy in fuel. An average of 60 per cent of pig iron is used in the charge for open hearths. Silica brick is used for the roof, ports, and uptakes; firebrick for regenerator chambers, flues, and checkers; magnesite brick for hearths of basic furnaces; and calcined, crushed dolomite for repairs to hearths and banks after each heat. The average life of a roof of a 100-ton furnace is 250 heats of 10 to 12 hours each. The trend in design is for basic stationary furnaces of 100 to 120 tons capacity built to burn one of three fuels-producer gas, tar, or coke-oven gas. CONVERTERS. There are 14 Bessemer converters in the Pittsburgh district; about four are used in the duplex process. The duration of the blow is 12 to 15 minutes. The trend in use of converters may be summed up this way: BUTLER A MORADO O,Wgne4rMTON * P Rn WML DE CAROPAK WOOOLA~< * ^RACKEMRR BRA EVILE N-6UK OE MUES ROCKS:STEEL WORKS ECAR.- ON.3 *ROLLN6 MRLS CARN6 ^WE j *TRArrORO ASTCELWORKS AND ABUREVUL e L r ES ROLLHS ILLS COINro ^ *XLASSPORT'- VUE CUULRTON e e GREENSBUROI 0CANONSOURG MONONS4AZ ASO DONORAX < WASMTONt eSSEN CHARLCNPO Rolling mills in the Pittsburgh district. ROLLING MILLS. 115 Owing to the difficulty of obtaining low-phosphorus iron ores for the production of Bessemer pig iron, the production of Bessemer steel is becoming much less. About 85 per cent of all the steel now made in the United States is from the basic openhearth furnace. ROLLING MILLS. There are about 55 works in the district engaged in rolling steel. These mills roll almost all of the sections used in the wire, sheet, tube, bar, and heavy materials trades. The Pittsburgh district makes about 16 per cent of all the steel made in the United States, but its capacity is higher than this. Most of this steel is rolled to finished forms in Pittsburgh; as a matter of fact, the rolling capacity of the local mills is so great that ingots and slabs are sometimes absorbed from nearby districts to maintain production schedules. The largest plate mill here is the 140-inch mill at the Homestead works of the Carnegie Steel Co. This same works has a 48-inch universal plate mill which is one of Stripping molds from steel ingots. 116 PITTSBURGH. the largest mills of its kind. When the improvements are completed at this plant, it will be able to roll the large universal structural materials required by fabricators. Several electricallydriven mills are being installed in this plant. Rolling steel plate. UTILIZATION OF BLAST-FURNACE SLAG. Millions of tons of slag is made by blast furnaces in the Pittsburgh district and its disposal is one of the heavy items in transportation charged against the cost of producing pig ironin fact, it has been stated that this cost averages 45 cents per ton of pig iron produced. Slag is either granulated with water or dumped in molten condition onto slag-piles. It is used for several purposes according to condition (granulated or lump) for railroad ballast, for foundations for highways or in the concrete therefor, as "gravel" for pathways, for making concrete blocks, and in the manufacture of cement. As the last-mentioned operation consumes a large tonnage of Pittsburgh slag every day, a brief description of one of the largest cement plants in America will be given: CEMENT FROM SLAG. 117 CEMENT-MAKING IN PITTSBURGH FROM SLAG. Just as the available supply of limestone and coal required to convert iron ore into pig iron for the manufacture of steel has contributed toward making the Pittsburgh district the world's largest steel center, so has the available supply of the same materials enabled Pennsylvania to take a leading position in the manufacture of cement. In the 90's it was discovered that blastfurnace slag, which contains lime, silica, and alumina, the principal chemical ingredients required in the manufacture of portland cement, could be used to make this material, and today large quantities of granulated slag are used by the Universal Portland Cement Co. at its plants in the steel centers of Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Duluth. CHTEMICALLY CONTROLLED OPERATIONS. Samples of the raw materials and cement are automatically taken every 8 seconds. Chemists analyze the materials, determine the amount of each to be used, set and seal interlocking automatic scales which in turn feed the materials to the mills for grinding. Before mixing, the limestone and slag or other raw material must be crushed, dried, and ground. At the same time, coal crushers, driers, and pulverizers prepare coal dust as finely ground as the rock dust. The cement industry is the largest user of powdered coal in the world; an average of half a ton of coal is required to make a ton of cement. CALCINING. After the materials are ground, proportioned, and mixed, they pass into rotary kilns. A modern cement kiln is a steel tube lined with firebrick, and set on a slight angle from the horizontal. It is as long as a residence lot and more than large enough in diameter for a man to walk through. There are 20 such kilns in the Universal plant at Pittsburgh, set side by side in a building as long as an average city block. Into the far end of each kiln goes a constant stream of powdered mixed materials while into the other, carried along by compressed air, goes a stream of coal dust. Upon entering the kiln the powdered coal is ignited and travels through it, producing a temperature of about 2800~ F. This calcines the materials to the point of incipient fusion and combines them into new chemical compounds. In this process the powdered materials are burned into clinker, which has no setting or binding qualities and can be 118 PITTSBURGH. kept indefinitely. To make it useful as cement it again must be ground, this time so fine that more than 78 per cent will pass a 200-mesh sieve-that is, a sieve containing 200 openings per linear inch or 40,000 openings per square inch. A small proportion of gypsum is added to regulate the setting time of cement. SACKING CEMENT. Cement is not shipped in barrels; it is sacked, and the sacking of cement is an interesting process. The bags themselves are out of the ordinary in that the tops are tightly wired before being filled and the filling is done through a self-closing vent in the bottom. This vent is slipped over a spout or nozzle, a lever is pulled, cement flows into the sack, and it quickly swells much as a toy balloon. When exactly 94 pounds of cement has entered the bag, a scale automatically shuts off the flow. The bags are filled just as fast as the operator can slip them on and off the spout. The Universal Company maintains more than 20,000,000 cloth sacks in which to ship cement, and its storage capacity exceeds 10,000,000 sacks. Expert operators repair 2 sacks a minute, and other experts will tie 1,000 sacks an hour. OPERATIONS AND PRICE. An average of about 1 2 tons of raw materials and nearly Y2 ton of coal, a total of about 2 tons, are required to make a ton of cement. These materials must be assembled, dried, ground, proportioned, mixed, burned at about 2,800T. to a LSTONE G i i /U!1 12 1 GRAPHIC OUTLINE OF THE MANUFACTURE OF UNIVERSAL PORTLAND CEMENT RAW MATERIALS REQUIRED AND NUMBER OF OPERATIONS. 119 hard clinker, and then re-ground to an impalpable powder. In this finished state, the cement must be handled carefully to guard against moisture, packed in cloth or paper sacks or handled in bulk and loaded into cars with provision for protection while being shipped. In 1925, this plant shipped 84 per cent in cloth sacks, 14 per cent in paper sacks, and 2 per cent in bulk. That nearly 2 tons of raw materials are required to pass through these stages (80 operations in all) to obtain a ton of cement and that cement, including the cost of packing but excluding cost of the package itself, still sells f.o.b. cars at the mill for about $8.50 a ton, is another measure of the contribution that science has made to industrial progress. UNIVERSAL CEMENT UNIVERSALLY USED. Shipments of Universal cement have grown from a rate of a few thousand sacks in 1900 to 60,000,000 sacks in 1926. During this period it has been used extensively in many of the country's largest construction projects, many of which-foundations, bridges, buildings, river dams, highways, and the likeare in the Pittsburgh district. 120 NON-FERROUS METAL PRODUCTION AND USE. Iron and steel are not the only metals produced in the Pittsburgh district. Although aluminum is not actually reduced here it is the greatest center, at New Kensington and Arnold, for rolling and fabricating that metal and gives employment to several thousand persons. Copper was once reduced at Natrona from ores and pyrites in the manufacture of sulfuric acid, and is now produced in Pittsburgh as secondary metal, but the working of the metal here is extensive. Lead is produced at Carnegie and worked at a number of plants. Tin is used by thousands of tons in the tin-plating mills, particularly at McKeesport. On Neville Island is a detinning plant, but this does not make tin metal, only tin salts. A secondary metals plant in Pittsburgh makes tin oxide. Vanadium is reduced from Peruvian ore and converted into ferro-vanadium at Bridgeville. Zinc is reduced at two of the largest smelters in the world at Donora and Langeloth and is consumed in zinc-coating plants at Donora, Pa., Weirton, W. Va., and other centers. In addition, a large business is done in alloying metals and casting and working them. It is interesting to note that no ores of these metals (including iron) are mined here; they are all imported from distant States and countries. Following are short reviews of the production and working of non-ferrous metals in the Pittsburgh district: ALUMINUM. Pittsburgh was the birthplace of the American aluminum industry. From modest beginnings in this city in 1889, the production of aluminum has grown to be one of the major industries, and the affairs of the largest company in the business are directed from the Oliver Building in downtown Pittsburgh. In 1886, Charles M. Hall of Oberlin, Ohio, devised a process for the reduction of aluminum from ores which was destined to become the basis for the subsequent great development of aluminum. This process was new in principle, as it involved the electrolysis of aluminum oxide in a fused bath of aluminum sodium DEVELOPMENT OF ALUMINUM INDUSTRY. 121 fluoride or cryolite. In 1888, Pittsburgh capital became interested in the possibilities of the metal, and the Pittsburgh Reduction Co. was organized with a capital of $20,000 for the purpose of experimenting with the Hall process. Hall's patents were issued in 1889. The first reduction works was built at New Kensington, Pa., 18 miles from Pittsburgh. This plant produced about 75 pounds of metal per day in 1889, and the selling price was around $4.50 a pound. Many difficulties were encountered in the early days of the industry, as the metal was little known and its possible applications highly problematical, and the cost of production made the price almost prohibitive for industrial uses. ALUMINUM COMPANY OF AMERICA. In 1907, the name of the original company was changed to the Aluminum Company of America, which has subsequently become the largest and most important aluminum-producing and fabricating concern in the world. Although the first reduction plant of the company was situated in the Pittsburgh district, on account of the necessity for large quantities of cheap electric power in the manufacture of the metal, the reduction plants have been built at places advantageous with respect to hydro-electric power, as at Niagara Falls, N.Y., Massena, N.Y., in North Carolina, and in Tennessee. Through operating subsidiaries, the original Pittsburgh Reduction Co. has expanded until it covers the entire aluminum field from the mining and refining of bauxite (aluminum ore) to the fabrication of the metal, with operations extending into many foreign countries and with sales in all corners of the world. All of the undertakings of the Aluminum Company of America have been remarkably successful, due in part to the financial genius of the Pittsburgh bankers A.W. and R. B. Mellon, who have been directors of the company. This company now occupies the dominant position in the domestic industry because it is the only concern in the United States that produces pig aluminum. Most of the half million tons of bauxite mined in America comes from Arkansas; Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee produce the remainder. PRODUCTION AND USES. Aluminum is the latest of the metals to come into common and general use, and it is now in strong demand by many of the major industries of the country. The metal is valued for its 122 PITTSBURGH. light weight, ductility, malleability, and ease of alloying. Exceptionally rapid growth of the industry here has placed the United States in the lead of all the producing countries, and now about half the world's supply of metal is reduced in this country. In 1887, the output of aluminum in the United States was 18,000 pounds; in 1900 it had risen to 7,150,000 pounds; in 19'0 about 48,000,000 pounds; in 1918 about 225,000,000 pounds; and in 1925 about 200,000,000 pounds. The present price of the metal is 27 cents a pound. The uses of aluminum have grown by leaps and bounds, and the present principal uses include the following: (1) As the substantially pure metal in wrought and fabricated formthat is, as sheet, rods, wire, bars, tubes, molding, and special shapes; (2) in the form of light aluminum alloys for the production of castings and for forging and other working; (3) as powder in the manufacture of paint and for calorizing; (4) in the aluminothermic process; and (5) as a deoidizer in the metallurgy of steel. The automotive industry is a regular and large consumer o f aluminum, while important amounts are consumed in the manufacture of cooking utensils, aircraft, vacuum cleaners, washing machines, electrical machinery, and for many engineering purposes. It has been predicted that the consumption of aluminum will equal that of copper by 1940. Aluminum is now a strong competitor of copper for high-tension electrical transmission lines. At the present time, the principal fabricating plant of the Aluminum Company of America is situated at New Kensington, and is operated by one of its chief subsidiaries, the United States Aluminum Co. The main products made at this plant include aluminum sheet, cooking utensils, parts for motor cars, foil, rods, tubing, and powder for paint. The products of this plant are shipped all over the United States and to foreign countries. The rolling mill at New Kensington has a capacity of about 15,000,000 pounds of finished sheet per annum. Another rolling mill at Arnold, Pa., not far from New Kensington, has an annual capacity of 12,000,000 pounds of sheet. The plant of the Aluminum Cooking Utensil Co., manufacturers of Wear-Ever brand utensils, is also at New Kensington, and that of the Aluminum Seal Co. is at Arnold. Both concerns are subsidiaries of the Aluminum Company of America. MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS. Aluminum is rolled into sheet by the usual methods of mill practice. The metal is first poured into rolling ingots which WORKING ALUMINUM. 123 are subsequently broken down hot in mills and finally rolled cold to the desired thickness. Sheet is used for the manufacture of cooking utensils, vats, tanks, cookers, special apparatus for the diversified chemical industry, automobile bodies, stampings, Breaking-down rolls for aluminum. and many other purposes. Foil is simply very thin aluminum sheet made by rolling on fine foil mills to thicknesses of 0.002 to 0.0005 inch. Aluminum foil is used extensively for wrapping tobacco, candy, food, soap, and the like, and this use has greatly increased in recent years. Foil is made plain, colored, Reducing rolls for aluminum. printed, and embossed. Aluminum powder for paint is made by stamping sheet into very thin, small flakes, and these are sized to yield uniform powders. The powder is suspended in a suitable vehicle whose nature depends upon the specific application 124 PITTSBURGH. of the paint. Aluminum paint has high reflectivity for radiant energy which falls upon it, and hence finds extensive use in painting oil storage tanks. This paint is being used widely at the present time both as a heat-protecting and corrosion-resisting covering. Aluminum cooking utensils are made by stamping and spinning aluminum sheet, and some cast utensils are made from aluminum alloys. Aluminum utensils are greatly favored in the home for their lightness and pleasing appearance, ~I Shaping a kettle on a spinning lathe. and the rapidity with which food may be cooked in them without danger of burning. While there is a fair amount of casting work done in aluminum alloys in the Pittsburgh district, the total output of castings here does not bulk large. The main centers of the aluminum-alloy casting industry are Detroit, Michigan, and Cleveland, Ohio. The Aluminum Company of America, through its subsidiary, the Aluminum Manufactures, Inc., operates foundries in these cities. LEAD. Lead smelting and refining business has been carried on at Carnegie, near Pittsburgh, by the Pennsylvania Smelting Co., continuously since 1872. The present plant has been in operation since 1900. The material smelted at present comprises ores from the States of Washington, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Virginia, and secondary lead products of all kinds, mainly old battery plates. The initial smelting is performed in the regular type of blast furnaces and reverberatory furnaces. All metal is desilverized and refined by the Parke's process. The plant has a capacity of 100 tons a day of refined and antimonial LEAD AND ZINC. 125 lead. The by-product is small quantities of lead-copper matte which is shipped to the Atlantic seaboard. The fuel used is soft coal and coke. Lead smelter at Carnegie, Pa. ZINC. SMELTER AT DONOR.A, PENNSYLVANIA. At Donora, Pa., the American Steel E4 Wire Co. operates wire mills, sulphuric acid plants, and zinc works. As the last named is the largest in the world, some general notes are of interest: HISTORY AND PRODUCTS. On June 15, 1915, engineering work was started in the field for the construction of the Donora zinc and acid works; on September 21 the first refractories were made in the pottery; on October 20 the first zinc was produced; and on December 23, sulfuric acid (60~) was produced. Following the construction of the main plant, the muriatic acid and 66~ sulfuric acid concentrating plants were built. The first muriatic acid was produced on April 27, 1916, and the first 66~ sulfuric acid on June 22, 1918. On April 6, 1919, the recovery of zinc from zinc dross was begun. By this operation, all zinc dross made by United States Steel Corporation plants is shipped to the Donora zinc works for treatment. 126 PITTSBURGH. Zinc skimmings, the oxide formed on the surface of coating or galvanizing baths, and also shipped to this plant and mixed with the furnace charges, thus converting the skimmings back to zinc. The products for disposition from this plant are: (1) zinc from zinc ores and skimmings; (2) zinc from zinc dross; (3) 60~ sulfuric acid; and (4) muriatic acid. These products are produced exclusively for the plants of the United States Steel Corporation; the zinc for coating wire, sheets, tubes, and castings. POTTERY. The pottery consists of 2 units with 24 dry rooms and 1 coal-fired condenser kiln. Special fireclay and adobe are used in making the retorts and condensers. The retorts are for holding the charge of ore and coal in the zinc furnaces, and the condensers are for condensing into liquid metal the zinc vapors that are set free in the retorts. The large end of the condenser fits in the mouth of the retort when in position in the furnace. MATERIALS USED AND PREPARATION. The material used in production of zinc is concentrates and slimes from the Joplin district, Missouri; it contains about 60 per cent zinc and 20 per cent sulphur. It is sampled and placed in 10 concrete storage bins of 2,000 tons capacity each, from which it is drawn as needed, screened, crushed, and placed in other storage bins ready for delivery to the roasting furnaces. The crushing department consists of 2 units, with a furnace, rotary drier, screens, and crusher in each unit. The 6 roasting furnaces are of the gas-fired Hegeler type. Each is a double 7 ore-hearth furnace with a gas chamber under each of the three lower hearths, and each furnace has a Hughes mechanical gas producer. The roasted concentrate is mixed in 2 Hegeler-type mixers with fine anthracite (culm or buckwheat); these materials are drawn from 11 concrete and 10 steel bins. The charge for the zinc furnaces is prepared and loaded into special charging cars for distribution to the furnaces each day. ZINC FURNACES. The furnaces consist of the following: One 4-row high dross furnace with 608 retorts, three 4-row high ore furnaces with 608 retorts each, and six 6-row high ore furnaces with 912 retorts each. With all furnaces in operation the daily output of zinc is 135 tons. SULFURIC AND MURIATIC ACIDS. 127 There are also 20 coal-fired retort kilns, 20 Hughes mechanical gas producers, and ten 588-h.p. Rust type waste-heat boilers. There are 2 gas producers and 1 boiler to each furnace. SULFURIC ACID PLANT. The sulfuric acid plant consists of 6 units producing about 400 tons of 60~ acid a day. This acid is used for cleaning (pickling) wire, sheets, and tubes; and for conversion of ammonia, a by-product of coking plants, into ammonium sulphate. The acid is shipped by barge to the Clairton coking plant of the Carnegie Steel Co., also to plants of the American Sheet ~ Tin Plate Co. and American Steel 8 Wire Co. which are on the Monongahela River. The materials used are sulfurous gases from the roasting furnaces, sulfur from Louisiana, and sodium nitrate. Each of the acid units consists of 1 niter furnace, 1 lead Glover tower, 3 lead Gay-Lussac towers, and 10 lead chambers. Gases are drawn from the roasting furnaces through the niter furnaces, Glover towers, and chambers by lead fans. MURIATIC ACID PLANT. The muriatic acid plant makes 18~ Be. muriatic or hydrochloric acid, which is used principally in cleaning steel wire before it is zinc-coated, and sodium sulphate (salt cake), which is used by glass manufacturers. The materials used are fine salt and 60~ Be. sulfuric acid. The plant consists of 5 units each with 1 large cast-iron fan and coal-fired muffle furnace. The gases driven off by the heat from the mixture of salt and sulfuric acid pass through a system of towers and are absorbed in water from sprays, forming muriatic acid. SMELTER AT LANGELOTH, PENNSYLVANIA. At Langeloth, 30 miles west of Pittsburgh, on the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the American Zinc ~ Chemical Co., a subsidiary of the American Metal Co., Ltd., of New York, has a zinc smelter and sulfuric acid plant. RAW MATERIALS. The raw materials consist of zinc concentrates from the Missouri-Oklahoma and Wisconsin districts, bituminous coal from the mine near Langeloth (450,000 tons a year is used), culm from the anthracite region, coke breeze from by-product coke ovens, and fireclay from the St. Louis district. Retorts and condensers are made as required in the pottery. 128 PITTSBURGH. PROCESSES. Zinc is reduced from the concentrates in 4,864 retorts in 8 blocks. The retort furnace is of the Hegeler type, heated with gas from Wood heavy-duty type producers. Waste-heat boilers are connected with each retort furnace. Sulfuric acid is made by the chamber process from the gases of 4 Mathiessen and Hegeler furnaces. Ore-drying, crushing, mixing, and handling equipment is part of the plant; also a power house with 2 steam turbo-generators which furnish power for the works, mine, and town. PRODUCTS. The works has a capacity of 200 tons of zinc concentrates a day or 70,000 tons a year, producing 35,000 tons of slab zinc (Prime Western and Brass Special grades) and 70,000 tons of 60~ Be. sulfuric acid a year; also, 3,000 tons of zinc sulfate and 1,200 tons of niter cake a year. VANADIUM. At Bridgeville, 12 miles from Pittsburgh, the Vanadium Corporation of America reduces ore from Peru and produces ferro-vanadium. Reduction by carbon is accomplished in electric furnaces, where there is a localized zone of extreme high temperature with which the mixture of ore, reducing agents, and fluxes is fed. This mixture reacts instantaneously, owing to the high temperature, is converted into slag and alloy, and passes out of the reacting zone to make room for the next portion of mixture arriving in the high-temperature zone. The high degree of heat is obtained by the employment of high voltage and high-current density, combined with close spacing of electrodes, producing more or less a blowpipe effect. The mixture is fed continuously into the hottest part between the electrodes. The 4,000-kw. furnaces used at Bridgeville are of 3 -phase rectangular type with water-cooled cover, furnished with water-cooled bushings for three 12-inch graphite electrodes. The metal and slag are tapped off by means of appropriate spouts. SECONDARY NON-FERROUS METALS. The refining of secondary non-ferrous metals has been carried on by the Duquesne Reduction Co. in its plant on Gross Street, Pittsburgh, since 1893. Since June, 1924, it has been the Pittsburgh plant of the Federated Metals Corporation which has several works in large cities throughout the country. The material refined consists of tin drosses, tin ores, tin SMELTING SECONDARY METALS. 129 residues, red and yellow secondary metals, and secondary white metals and residues. The plant is the largest smelter of tin dross and tin residues in the country. The capacity of this plant is from 50,000,000 to 60,000,000 pounds of high-grade metal and alloys annually. Every operation is chemically controlled. The finished products are red-metal ingot (brass, bronze, and composition metals), copper ingot, white metals, tin oxide, and zinc sulphate. The red-metal ingot is all made according to the specifications of customers and includes almost every practical composition. The tin smelting is performed in 4 reverberatory furnaces with capacities of 1 ~/ to 6 tons, the red-metal refining in a 25 -ton reverberatory furnace, and the copper in a 30-ton reverberatory furnace with suspended roof. Natural gas and oil are used as fuel. A Cottrell electrical precipitator has been in operation since 1914 to recover metallic oxides from the smoke. 130 MANUFACTURE OF MACHINERY. THE manufacture of machinery and machines in the Pittsburgh district is a major industry. About 80 different classes of machinery and 30 classes of machines are made. This review, however, will be confined to machinery made for the major industries here and in foreign countries; it is impossible to give any space to the many other important operations. The use of superlatives in presenting this subject is justified by actual shop records. This district has produced the largest blooming mills in the world, the largest rolls, the largest motors, and the most powerful electric locomotives. Carbonated beverages in all parts of the world are largely bottled by machinery made in Pittsburgh. The production of industrial machinery runs considerably in excess of $100,000,000 annually and represents invested capital is nearly $181,300,000. The Chamber of Commerce of Pittsburgh has supplied the following data regarding the output of machinery and machines for 1923, the latest figures obtainable: Production of Machinery in Allegheny County in 1923. Em- Value Shipped ployes. Wages Salaries., Capital. of Product. Out. Elevators. 103 $ 185,500 $ 1,946,500 $ 428,900 $ 595,000 $ 60,000 Railroad engines 746 1,336,600 533,400 4,158,000 3,573,300 3,140,300 Machinery & parts. 4261 6,865,300 3,022,700 25,273,700 25,474,900 14,923,600 Machinery repairs.. 261 390,300 286,400 1,181,700 2,106,300 124,400 Meters... 527 583,000 180,400 1,866,500 2,290,300 1,610,000 Electric machinery. 14,909 21,246,100 11,988,200 141,051,900 74,739,600 61,660,200 Pumps,etc. 281 432,000 380,500 2,860,000 1,813,300 1,514,400 Electrical supplies. 868 937,900 516,300 3,464,600 10,618,300 5,585,300 Automobile parts... 58 83,200 52,100 188,700 337,900 40,300 Pulleys and bearings 35 52,900 17,600 122,800 176,700 93,000 Machine tools.... 74 92.800 63.,300 613.900 1.227,700 20.00( Total..22,123 $32,205.600 $17.0)87.400 $181.210.700 $122.'953,3100 $88,771,50,) ROLLING MILLS. 131 The value of the annual production of finished and semifinished commodities is as follows: Pig iron, $171,942,000; tubing, $154,650,000; and machinery, $122,953,300. Pig iron is included in this classification because it represents only a part of the raw material for finished steel, but ingots and billets, blooms and slabs are excluded, although they exceed in value the output of machinery, in order to avoid duplication. PRINCIPAL MANUFACTURERS AND THEIR PRODUCTS. The United Engineering 8 Foundry Co. is pre-eminent in its field as builder of complete machinery equipment for iron, Section of a tube mill, built by United Engineering 1 Foundry Co. steel, and tube works. These products comprise blooming mills, universal, plate, slabbing, sheet, tin, guide, structural, skelp, muck-bar and cold-strip mills; shears, high-speed forging presses; sand, chilled, steel, and "Adamite" rolls; iron and steel castings, saws, gears, and other miscellaneous machinery. This company normally produces 3,000 tons a month of iron rolls. 2,200 tons a month of steel castings, and an annual output of machinery varying from $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. 132 PITTSBURGH. Section of Westinghouse works, East Pittsburgh. United activities cover a total floor space of 700,000 square feet. The main office is in Pittsburgh, and there are plants at Pittsburgh and Vandergrift, Pa., and at Youngstown and Canton, Ohio. Fifteen hundred people are employed. The Westinghouse Electric 1 Manufacturing Co. produces machinery for the production, transmission, and utilization of electric power. Its products have reached every known country on the globe. More than 850 carloads of finished product each Westinghouse electric locomotive of 7,125 hp., 152 ft. long, and 645 tons. Operates from 11,000-volt, single-phase trolley. ROLI.S. 133 month are shipped from the East Pittsburgh works. Westinghouse apparatus embraces motors from 1/100 horsepower to 150,000 horsepower, and generators from 1/10 horsepower to 100,000 horsepower capacity, and transformers from 34 ampere to 23,000 kilovolt-amperes. Activities occupy a total floor area of nearly 14,000,000 square feet, and 50,000 people are employed in its various works and offices. The Mesta Machine Co. manufactures equipment for the iron and steel industry. Mesta products include gas and steam engines, condensers, compressors, forging apparatus, pickling machinery, shears, saws, and gears. The annual production of Rolls made by Mesta Machine Co. this company normally is 50,000 tons of rolling-mill machinery, rolls and castings. A total plant area of 20 acres is occupied and 16,000 workers are employed. The general office and works are at West Homestead. The Mackintosh-Hemphill Co., makers of machinery for iron and steel mills, is a pioneer in the industry. The beginning of its operations dates back to the year 1803. Eight-inch cannon balls for the use of Perry's fleet in the war of 1812 were cast in this company's foundries. Its products embrace steel, iron, chilled, Adamite and alloyed steel mills; Adamite, iron and steel castings; and rolling-mill and seamless-tube mill 134 PITTSBURGH. equipment. This company maintains a capacity of approximately 50,000 tons a year. Activities cover 84 acres of ground with 12 acres under roof. There are four plants; the Fort Pitt works, Pittsburgh; Garrison Foundry, South Side; Midland, Pa., steel foundry, and the Wooster, Ohio, plant. The company has 1,500 employes on the pay-roll. The McKenna Brass & Manufacturing Co. makes automatic machinery for the bottling industry. About 120,000 square feet of floor space is devoted to the activities of this com Universal plate mill built by Mackintosh-Hemphill Co. pany's three plants in Pittsburgh. Its automatic bottle-filling machines for carbonated beverages are known over the world. Other McKenna products are automatic bottle washers and sterilizers; automatic carbonators, and automatic fillers for bottled products for the table-catsup, olive oil, vinegar, etc. Heyl 8 Patterson, Inc., manufacture equipment and machinery for coal mining and coke by-product plants. Offices and plants occupy a total floor area of 900,000 square feet devoted to the production of equipment for the preparation of coal and coke for by-product coke ovens, coal and ore-storage bridges, CARS, LOCOMOTIVES, AND PIPES. 135 pig-iron casting machines, pulverized coal apparatus, coal tipples and equipment, unloading towers, wharf and cargo cranes, coal-haulage systems, and other machinery for conveying purposes. The principal business is done within a radius of 500 miles of Pittsburgh. The Pressed Steel Car Co. and its subsidiary companies, the Koppel Industrial Car ~d Equipment Co. and Koppel Car Repair Co., have 3 plants in the Pittsburgh district at McKees Rocks, North Side, Pittsburgh, and Koppel, Pa. These plants are equipped with latest machinery for manufacturing all classes of railroad, freight, and passenger cars, automatic air-dump cars and hand-dump cars, tank cars, miscellaneous cars for industrial plants and contractors, sugar-cane cars, mine cars, narrow-gage track equipment, switches, turntables, etc., as well as rebuilding and repairing cars. Included in these plants are foundries for making steel and malleable castings and cast-iron wheels, forge shops, etc. The company's 3 properties in this district comprise a total of approximately 750 acres, and when the plants are operating normally they employ about 6,500 to 7,000 men. This company also has a plant at Hegewisch, Chicago, Illinois, for the manufacture of cars used in the western portion of the country. The H. K. Porter Co. builds steam locomotives, compressed-air and fireless-steam locomotives. The last mentioned has neither boiler nor firebox; in place of a boiler, the fireless locomotive carries a tank containing water which is heated by steam from a suitable stationary boiler. The annual capacity of this plant is 600 locomotives, including engines as light as 3 tons and as heavy, including tender, as 190 tons. The last Porter catalog describes 695 different types of locomotives. Although pipes and tubes are not classed as machinery, reference may be made here to the world-famed makers of pipe in Pittsburgh-namely, A. M. Byers Co., Jones ~ Laughlin Steel Corp., National Tube Co., and Spang-Chalfant Co. Pipe was first made in the district in 1870, at McKeesport. Since then the National works at that place have grown to occupy 104 acres and employ 8,000 men, and is self-contained, from the iron ore to the finished pipe. The company's products embrace steel tubular goods, made by butt, lap, and hammer-welding in diameters of ~s-inch to 96 inches. 136 PITTSBURGH. Fabrication of steel also can hardly be classed as machinery, but at this point mention may be made of the large production of fabricated material by such firms as the American Bridge Co., Blaw-Knox Construction Co., Jones 1 Laughlin Steel Corp., and McClintic-Marshall Construction Co. The products are used in bridges, houses, buildings, railroad cars, and barges. 137 GLASS INDUSTRY. GLASS largely depends upon the mining industry, because the most important factors in its manufacture are glass sand and coal, or natural gas. Both of these are readily accessible in the Pittsburgh district, and it is for this reason that greater Pittsburgh is an undisputed leader of the glass industry of the country. Sand of the finest quality constitutes about three-fourths of the material used in the manufacture of glass; the other ingredients are sodium sulphate (salt cake), sodium carbonate (soda ash), and sometimes burned lime of magnesia. Manganese and arsenic trioxide are used as decolorizers. Small quantities of other materials are added either for the purpose of producing color or some other special effect. The proportions vary fairly widely for different kinds of glass. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT. It is interesting to note that the making of glass was the first manufacturing industry in the United States. Our first settlers at Jamestown, Virginia, built a factory for beads and bottles. Major Isaac Craig and James O'Hara erected in Pittsburgh the first glass plant west of the Allegheny Mountains. This was the first glass plant to burn coal in the United States. The original factories erected by Craig and O'Hara produced window glass and bottles. These were successful from the first and at the end of 20 years there were 8 plants operating in this district. The impetus to the manufacture of glass in this district was accelerated by the discovery of natural gas, which quickly proved its value over coal because it was free from dust. Since 1883, until very recently, natural gas has been the predominating fuel in the glass industry. Producer gas has been used with great success in recent years in many of the larger plants. Glass products naturally fall into three classes: building glass which includes window glass and plate glass; bottles and 138 PITTSBURGH. jars, embracing containers of every description; and pressed or blown ware, which includes table and decorative objects. The following important developments in glass technology have originated in the Pittsburgh district: The first regenerative pot furnace was built at the O'Hara Glass Works in 1865 by J. B. Lyon; natural gas was first used in melting glass in 1882 by the Bradford Window Glass Co., and two years later it was employed for melting flint glass at Wellsburg, W. Va.; the pre-pressed blank was invented by Philip Arbogast of Pittsburgh, in 1882, and marked a fundamental step in the evolution of the automatic bottle-making machine; selenium-ruby glass was first manufactured by Nicholas Kopp of Pittsburgh in 1894; flint glass was first melted in a tank furnace by C. H. Runyon in the factory of the Keystone Glass Co., Rochester, Pa.; machine-drawn window glass was first made in 1900 in the Arnold, Pa., plant of the American Window Glass Co., by the machine invented by J. J. Lubbers; and machine-drawn sheet glass was first produced successfully at Franklin, Pa., by the invention of I. W. Colburn (now the Libbey-Owens sheetglass machine). Hygroscopic glass for lighthouses was first produced here. *':-Glt. l palt MIDONALD O *BROECVK.LE 0 0tt-3* Glass plants in the Pittsburgh district. MACHINE-MADE GLASS. 139 Astronomical glasses, lenses, mirrors for telescopes, glass for spectroscopes and other optical instruments have been made in this district for some of the world's most famous observatories and laboratories. VALUE AND DIVERSITY OF PRODUCTION. Today the value of the output of manufactured glass in greater Pittsburgh ranks third in the value of its manufactured products and is exceeded only by that of iron and steel and electrical equipment. The annual output of the glass factories of the Pittsburgh district is valued at $52,000,000. This is distributed approximately as follows: window glass, $14,000,000; plate glass, $10,000,000; bottles and jars, $13,000,000; decorative and table ware, $15,000,000. This represents respectively 20, 20, 12, and 17 per cent of the glass of the country. The accompanying map shows the situation of the 46 glass works in this district-5 window, 7 plate, 10 bottle, and 24 table and decorative plants. HAND LABOR REPLACED BY MACHINES. Around the growth of the glass industry in Pittsburgh lies one of the most interesting developments of modern civilization. Originally the labor in all glass manufactured, whether for window glass, bottles, tableware, or other types, was entirely by hand. The unions were the closest organizations of labor or guilds in existence. Only the sons or nephews of glassworkers were admitted as apprentices and the apprenticeship term was long and arduous. The demands of the men became greater and more exacting. Their pay was high, even under modern standards. This led, as it always does, to the development of machines to replace the hand labor. Thus, we see, in the Pittsburgh district, the development of the automatic bottle-making machine, the window-glass machine, and various other important accessories to the manufacture of glass articles, until today the manufacture of all kinds of glass is largely a mechanical process. TYPES OF GLASS-MAKING MACHINES. The first of these machines to revolutionize an industry was the window-glass machine. By the use of this machine, large hollow cylinders 40 feet or more long and from 30 to 40 inches in diameter are drawn from a pot of molten glass. The glass is melted in continuous "tanks" of which the largest in the world are in use in Pittsburgh. Each one holds 1,800 tons of molten glass. The cylinders, after being drawn, are cut to proper lengths, then split lengthwise and reheated and flattened, forming the standard flat window glass. 140 PITTSBURGH. Shortly after the development of the window-glass machine came the automatic bottle-making machine. These machines have been so highly developed recently that they make 25 ordinary bottles or more a minute, depending upon the size of the article produced. These are some of the things an automatic bottle-making machine does: It gathers its molten glass from a tank furnace, forms its blanks, transfers the blank from the gathering to the blow mold with a finished lip and ring, blows the bottle, and delivers the finished bottle automatically without any human labor. The machine also puts the same amount of glass into every bottle, makes every bottle the same exact length, finish, weight, shape, and capacity. It also wastes no glass. Pouring molten glass before rolling into plate. Polished plate glass is formed by pouring molten glass on a table where heavy cylinders roll the glass into a smooth sheet of uniform thickness, as shown. This must be ground and polished, which process involves a large waste. More than 60 pounds of raw materials are needed to produce one square foot weighing only 3 14 pounds. Recent inventions have perfected a continuous process for the manufacture of the relatively smaller sizes of plate glass. These and other inventions have not only lowered the cost of manufacture but greatly increased the output, thus increasing the demand for the raw materials which enter into the manufacture of glass. The mining of sand and coal, and the production of natural gas for this industry, are in themselves great industries. 141 CHEMICAL INDUSTRY AND RESEARCH. MANUFACTURE. THE fundamental importance of chemistry in the development and control of Pittsburgh's industries was early recognized. Chemicals were manufactured here at the beginning of the 19th century, and today what are termed "industrial chemicals" and largely used in local manufactures, are made in 28 works and are valued at $10,000,000 a year. The use of heavy chemicals is characteristic of basic industries. As the commodities produced at Pittsburgh are largely of this nature, the extensive consumption of such chemicals favored the establishment of local chemical plants, therefore the district has become essentially independent in respect to the preparation of industrial chemicals. Sulfuric acid is the principal chemical made, at the rate of about 1,000 tons a day. It is mainly used in the processing of iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, fertilizers, gasoline, and lubricating oils, and for the annual production of 75,000 tons of ammonium sulphate from by-product coking plants. Hydrochloric, nitric, and hydrofluoric acids are also made for use in local industries. Other important chemicals made and used in the Pittsburgh district include sodium sulphate for glass manufacture; iron sulphate for polishing purposes: and gold and other metallic preparations for decorating glass; mineral oxides and other coloring agents for glass and enamel ware; borax for enameling; tin oxides and salts for use in metallurgy and enameling; zinc sulfate for use in glue and wet zinc-coating works; oxides of lead and zinc for paints; sulfate of lead for the rubber industry: lead oxides for the electrical industry, oil refining, and glazes; prepared bauxite for the manufacture of certain aluminum compounds and other uses. The accompanying map, prepared by the Commercial Department of the Philadelphia Company, shows the centers that produce industrial chemicals or coal-tar products and those centers that consume these chemicals or employ chemical methods. 142 PITTSBURGH. CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL RESEARCH. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT. The history of chemical research in the Pittsburgh district is an informative demonstration of the material value of chemistry. There has been a live interest in chemistry in Pittsburgh ever since the days when it was a frontier town. In 181 1, F. Aigster, an honorary member of the Columbian Chemical Society of Philadelphia, delivered a series of lectures on the application of chemistry to industry, and two years later the Pittsburgh Chemical and Physiological Society, the third society in the United States, was formed under the presidency of B. Troost, a well-known early scientist. Indeed, chemical research carried out in the Pittsburgh district has given new industries of economic importance as several illustrations will show. Jt LYR*. BUTLER0 LYNDORA o ofrw a & Industries producing and industries consuming industrial chemicals. DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMICAL INDUSTRY. 143 Ammonium sulfate plant at Clairton by-product coking works of Carnegie Steel Co. The manufacture of bromine was begun in the United States in 1845 by David Alter of Freeport, Pa., in partnership with Edward and James Gillespie. The pioneer work of S. M. Kier, a pharmacist of Pittsburgh, in distilling crude petroleum also deserves brief notice. In 1859 there were six "coal oil" plants near Pittsburgh, but most of them were converted into petroleum refineries soon after Drake demonstrated that petroleum could be obtained by drilling. The development of the Hall process of making aluminum was begun in 1888 on Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, and the manufacture of aluminum became a business success at New Kensington, Pa. E. G. Acheson first produced carborundum in March, 1891, at Monongahela City, Pa., and began its manufacture in a small way, and in 1894 industrial operations were transferred to Niagara Falls. The production of radium preparations was begun in the United States by the Standard Chemical Co. of Pittsburgh in 1913. This company, organized by the late J. M. Flannery, an enthusiastic supporter of scientific research, has depended upon the radio-chemical ingenuity of C. H. Viol since the inception of its activities in 1912. The dry air blast for furnaces was developed by James Gayley between 1885 and 1904 at the Edgar Thomson and 144 PITTSBURGH. Isabella furnaces at Pittsburgh, and between 1894 and 1911 he received 15 successive patents in this country. LABORATORIES. RESEARCH ON IRON AND STEEL PRODUCTS. The Carnegie Steel Co. has modern analytical and control laboratories in all its plants, but it does not operate a special research laboratory. All investigations of the Central Research Bureau are carried out at the works of the company, with the facilities of the plants and the assistance of their chemical personnel. The Jones ~ Laughlin Steel Corp. follows a similar plan. This organization does not maintain a research laboratory, but chemists are detailed from the analytical laboratories of the South Side and Aliquippa works to handle the relatively simple problems which arise in the plants from time to time. The A. M. Byers Co.'s laboratory at Pittsburgh is engaged in the study of corrosion problems and problems incidental to the improvement of the quality of wrought iron, and in the development of processes for increased production of wrought iron; wrought-iron welded pipe is the product of manufacture. In addition to general equipment for chemical and metallographic work and for physical testing, the laboratory has special apparatus for the study of corrosion and an electric furnace and accessories for research on the production of special grades of wrought iron. Steel tubes and pipe, seamless and welded high-pressure cylinders, and trolley poles are the principal products of manufacture of the National Tube Co., and accordingly its McKeesport laboratory is concerned especially with research on protective coatings and the control of corrosion in water where unprotected pipe is used, although mill materials and the improvement of products also receive attention. The work of F. N. Speller, whose new book "Corrosion: Causes and Prevention," appeared in mid-1926, is well known. This company is to erect a new laboratory near the Bureau of Mines Experiment Station. The research laboratory of the American Sheet & Tin Plate Co. at Pittsburgh carries out investigations of chemicalengineering problems in the manufacture of sheet steel, tin plate, and zinc-coated sheets for the company's 17 mills. TOOL STEELS AND RADIUM. 145 RESEARCH ON FERRO-ALLOY METALS. Vanadium, tungsten, and molybdenum and their alloys are manufactured at Bridgeville, Pa., by the Vanadium Corporation of America. Research has had and is enacting a most essential role in the success of this firm. Among the accomplishments of its laboratory is a new system of electric-furnace control, a process of reducing vanadium oxides by carbon in the electric furnace, producing low-carbon alloy, and the recovery of vanadium alloys from waste materials, such as slag, containing low percentages of vanadium. RESEARCH ON TOOL STEELS. Research looking toward improvements in the composition and manufacture of tool and cutlery steels, and the development of better processes of heat treatment, is under way in several laboratories in this district. The Firth Sterling Steel Co. at McKeesport, has a laboratory provided with experimental melting and heat-treating furnaces, testing machines, and metallographic equipment. The Vanadium-Alloys Steel Co. at Latrobe also supports a research laboratory. The Latrobe Electric Steel Co. is not conducting research, although it has a works laboratory for control work. The research achievements in the laboratory of the Crucible Steel Company of America at Pittsburgh constitute important additions to ferrous metallurgy. Mention should be made of the publication of a comprehensive 500-page treatise on methods of analyzing special steels, many of which originated in the "Crucible Steel" laboratory. RADIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH. The Standard Chemical Co. of Pittsburgh was the first (1913) commercial producer of radium in the United States. All the processes in use by this organization are the result of scientific inquiries carried out in the laboratory of the Flannery Building, where improvements in methods for the extraction of radium, uranium, and vanadium from carnotite, and in the procedures for preparing radium for therapeutic and other purposes are being sought; the metallurgical applications of uranium are also receiving study. This notable laboratory has apparatus for the analytical determination of radium and for the refining of radium salts, and photomicrographic apparatus for metallographic work. RESEARCH IN THE COKE INDUSTRY. As half of the coke in the United States comes from the Pittsburgh district it is natural that considerable research is con 146 PITTSBURGH. ducted here. The research laboratory of the Koppers Company is in the Mellon Institute. It is well equipped with apparatus for coal carbonization at high and low temperatures, coal washing, coke research, gas purification by dry and liquid processes, furnaces for the investigation of refractory materials at high temperatures, laboratories and experimental plant fully equipped for semi-industrial tests, and plants available for largescale tests in relation to coke and gas manufacture and byproduct recovery. Members of this organization have about 60 United States patents issued or favorably acted upon. RESEARCH IN THE GLASS INDUSTRY. The glass industry is one of the most important in the Pittsburgh district. Factories produce window glass, plate glass, lighting glass, and numerous other forms of glassware. Though American contributions to the advance of the glass industry have been largely from the engineering standpoint, it is not to be supposed that the chemist and the physicist have entirely neglected this great field. In fact, the part of these scientists has been of greater importance than is usually acknowledged. The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. has a research laboratory at Creighton, Pa. The American Window Glass Co. conducts experiments as problems arise. The Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. has research laboratories at Washington, Pa., and Clarksburg, W. Va., where research is centered on the improvement of the physical and chemical properties of glass and on the development of technical control. Raw materials are purchased entirely by specifications, and control tests of operation are almost entirely under technical supervision. The Macbeth-Evans Glass Co. maintains a research laboratory at its Charleroi factory. The H. C. Fry Glass Co. and the Beaver Valley Glass Co. of Rochester, Pa., have derived many benefits from chemical research. RESEARCH IN THE BRICK AND FIRE-CLAY PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES. Pittsburgh occupies a dominant position in the manufacture of face brick, refractories, and similar ceramic products. The Refractories Manufacturers' Association, an organization ELECTRICITY. 147 of 98 companies, has. been conducting research in cooperation with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research for several years. The problems studied may be divided into three distinct classes, dealing with the manufacture, use, and testing of refractories. In the research laboratory of the Harbison-Walker Refractories Co. at Hays several chemists are engaged in the development of refractories and the study of special problems pertaining to uses of refractories-fireclay, silica, bauxite, magnesite, and chrome. The Beaver Falls Art Tile Co. of Beaver Falls maintains a laboratory where attention is given to improvement of the product and the minimizing of losses. RESEARCH IN THE ELECTRICAL INDUSTRY. The Research Department of the Westinghouse Electric ~ Manufacturing Co. near East Pittsburgh investigates the manufacture of electrical apparatus of all classes for power generation, distribution, and utilization. The Materials and Processes Department of this company has a million-volt laboratory for Research Laboratory of the Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co. power work and much special equipment for the investigation of chemical, physical, and electrical problems. The Department of Standards of this company is also of interest, although strictly electrical in the nature of work. All of these departments have a record of prominent achievements, as is well known. The research laboratory of the Union Switch [ Signal Co. is engaged entirely in the study of physical and engineering problems. 148 PITTSBURGH. OTHER INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES. The work of other industrial research laboratories may be summarized as follows: Aluminum Company of America-aluminum, including ingot, sheet, wire, foil, and other fabricated forms; bronze powder and collapsible tubes. Armstrong Cork Co.-cork products, cork compositions, linoleum and other floor coverings, and insulation. Duquesne Reduction Co. —copper and non-ferrous alloys made from secondary metals. Electrolabs Company-oxygen and hydrogen generating plants; acetylene apparatus. Philadelphia Company-manufactured (and natural) gas. Rodman Chemical Co.-carburizing materials and special carbons. Vulcan Detinning Co.-tetrachloride and bichloride of tin, tin crystals, fused caustic soda, and detinned steel scrap. Waverly Oil Works Co.-petroleum products. The research work of several Pittsburgh industries is conducted in other centers, where the operators have larger interests. CONSULTING RESEARCH LABORATORIES AT PITTSBURGH. The R. H. Brownlee Laboratory, Inc., is specializing in petroleum refining, the design and installation of special refinery equipment, the preparation of utilizable products from natural gas, and rubber technology. The Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory is engaged in research on refractories, glass, and enamels, and on general chemical and metallurgical problems. Here, the metallurgical researches of J. O. Handy have been technically important. The Mine Safety Appliances Co., which makes and handles everything for mine and industrial safety, maintains a research laboratory for such devices as breathing apparatus, gas masks, detectors, and recorders which use chemicals. The Hall Laboratories, Inc., is concerned solely in the investigation of boiler-water conditioning or treatment and corrosion problems of the boiler. PITTSBURGH EXPERIMENT STATION OF THE 1-. S. BUREAU OF MINES. Among the important research and educational organizations of Pittsburgh is the Experiment Station of the United States Bureau of Mines. The handsome building, which cost BUREAU OF MINES EXPERIMENT STATION. 149 $500,000 in 1917, and grounds which were deeded to the Federal Government by the city in exchange for other land, are adjacent to Carnegie Institute of Technology, Carnegie Institute, Mellon Institute, and University of Pittsburgh, and close contact is maintained with these institutions. This Experiment Station employs 100 technical men and 165 others; in addition, a number of field engineers are directed from this Station. It is the largest of this Bureau's 12 stations scattered throughout the country, and the largest experiment station of its kind in the world. A coal mine near Bruceton, 13 miles from Pittsburgh, where all manner of tests on mining hazards, ventilation, and explosives are carried out every day, is part of the station. Public demonstrations are given of these tests when desired. As the principal functions of the Bureau of Mines are safety and the most efficient methods in mining, metallurgy, and related industries, the work of the Pittsburgh Experiment Station is devoted to these problems. In part of this work, the Station has the cooperation of the local industries and those of other mining States and industrial corporations, also civic organizations of Pittsburgh and the State of Pennsylvania. Cooperation and contact is maintained with foreign countries on certain problems. Some of the investigations of the Bureau are conducted largely in operating plants, and even the laboratory investigations, to be properly rounded out, should be proved on a large scale. Most of the industrial concerns have shown a spirit of progress and a gratifying willingness to cooperate. In this Experiment Station are 20 well-equipped laboratories with specialists to investigate problems arising from the following: Accident prevention, artificial gas, boiler water, chemical analyses, coal and coal products, dusts of all kinds, electricity in mines, explosives, first aid, fuels, gases of all kinds (including helium), heating and ventilating, metallurgy of iron and steel, microscopy, mine-rescue work, physical testing of instruments, and physiological effects of gases and atmospheres, etc. on workmen. Actually, 85 per cent of the research is in coal mining and utilization of coal. In addition, the Experiment Station is equipped with its own power plant, machine and wood-working shops, glass-blowing and instrument shops, drafting and photographic departments, cafeteria, and auditorium to seat 250 persons, where scientific societies hold some of their meetings. Each collegiate year, Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Bureau of Mines arrange to assign Fellows to work on research problems suggested by the official Mining and Metallurgical Boards which represent the industries of the district. The results are promptly published in bulletin form. 150 PITTSBURGH. As the many investigations undertaken and completed by this Experiment Station are so well known it is unnecessary to repeat them here. CHEMICAL RESEARCH IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. UNIVEISITY OF PITTSBURGH. Chemistry in the University of Pittsburgh was placed on a high plane by the late F. C. Phillips, distinguished generally for his investigations on natural gas, petroleum, and iron and steel, and the present staff of the Department of Chemistry has been able to enlarge the facilities for research and to elevate the standards in accordance with the best practice in chemical pedBureau of Mines Experiment Station, Pittsburgh, with Carnegie Institute of Technology and Schenley Park behind. This view is on the opposite side to that shown on page 8. agogy. The departmental laboratories, while small, are well equipped for research in organic and physical chemistry and in glass. The Departments of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of the University have several advantageous cooperative arrangements with the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research, also a part of the University. MELLON INSTITUTE. The Mellon Institute of Industrial Research (see photo) was established by A. W. Mellon and R. B. Mellon as a memorial to their father, Judge Thomas Mellon, also an alumnus of the University. Its mode of function is as follows: A company or group of manufacturers having chemical problems that require investigation, donates a sum sufficient to maintain one or more fellowships for at least one year, with all necessary equipment. The Fellow devotes his full time to the problem, and any results he may obtain are the property of the donor. The Institute has demonstrated to more than 3,000 American manufac MELLON INSTITUTE. 151 turers that industrial research is profitable. Eighty-five per cent of all the problems accepted for study have been solved. In 1925, a staff of 91 chemists worked continuously on 54 fellowships for which $473,000 was subscribed. Many of the problems investigated have been notable studies. The total amount of money donated by industrial firms and associations to the Institute, for the 14 years ended February 28, 1925, was $3,192,353. During the same period the - Mellon Institute of Industrial Research and School of Specific Industries. Institute itself expended approximately $500,000 in defraying certain overhead expenses in the operation of the fellowships. In addition, the Institute has invested in a building and permanent equipment for research on all types of techno-chemical problems. The total contributions to literature for the 13 years ended January 1, 1925, have been as follows: 12 books, 36 bulletins, 340 research reports, 509 other articles, and 260 United States patents. 152 PITTSBURGH. CARNEGIE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The Carnegie Institute of Technology maintains a Division of Cooperative Research whose function is to encourage research throughout the institution and to establish research connections with industrial concerns. The Chemical Research Section has laboratories in each of three of the colleges of the Institute. Chief of these are the laboratories of chemistry and chemical engineering. These laboratories are in the Science Building of the College of Engineering. Related laboratories for research in pure and applied science are maintained by the Departments of Physics, Metallurgy, Mining, Mechanical Engineering, Machine Design, Electrical Engineering, and Civil Engineering. The problems studied are characteristic of Pittsburgh industries. The Department of Mining and Metallurgy has the cooperation of the staff of the Pittsburgh Experiment Station of the Bureau of Mines, in directing research on problems of engineering in bituminous coal mining. The Bureau of Metallurgical Research is carrying on a series of investigations which, it is hoped, will yield results of fundamental value to the science of metallurgy. These investigations include metallographic studies of the effect of heat treatment and of the phenomena of secondary recrystallization, the use of X-rays for the study of the structure of metals and spectrographic methods for the determination of impurities. CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH. An essential in all scientific research is a library which may be consulted for review of current and past literature. It has been mentioned that there are several good libraries, some of them specialized, at Pittsburgh, but some notes on the most important one are in order. The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh was the first Public Library to establish a department devoted to technical literature and now has 60,000 volumes. This Technology Department is especially strong in journals (600 received regularly) and trade catalogs or house organs (400 received regularly). Examination of United States patents is expedited by lists of actual numbers of patents in the classes and sub-classes concerned with chemistry and metallurgy-a service not available in any other library outside the United States Patent Office. For many years the Technology Department has compiled and published annual reviews of "Iron and Steel Literature" and "Literature of the Coal Industry." It publishes a quarterly "Technical Book Review Index" which is the only existing guide to current reviews of scientific and technical SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 153 books. Published bibliographies include "Case-Hardening," "Lamp-black," "Pickling of Iron and Steel," "Stainless Steel," and "Water-Glass;" unpublished lists (available for reference), include "Chromium Plating," "Cold-Drawn Steel," "Cold Rolling of Steel," "Manganese Steel," and "Manufacture and Testing of Springs." SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. It may be mentioned that many of the scientific societies of the country have branches or sections or chapters at Pittsburgh and one, the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania, has its headquarters here, in the William Penn Hotel. These societies have regular meetings and occasionally make trips of inspection to works. Their names follow: American Chemical Society. American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. American Institute of Electrical Engineers. American Shovel Institute. American Society for Steel Treating. American Society of Civil Engineers. American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers. American Society of Mechanical Engineers. American Welding Society. Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers. Coal Mining Institute of America. National Electric Light Association. National Safety Council. Pittsburgh Coal Mining Institute. Pittsburgh Railway Club. Pitt Engineering Association. Society for Promotion of Engineering Education. Society of Industrial Engineers. 154 MANUFACTURE OF FOOD PRODUCTS THE mining of coal and other minerals and the manufacture of iron and steel and other products are not the only things done in the Pittsburgh district; the manufacture and distribution of food products is a large industry, with firms of national repute. We have, to mention only the major food producers, three bread and biscuit makers, four firms handling dairy products, five meat and packing firms, a central distributing system for fresh fruit and vegetables, five candy makers, and three firms putting up pickles and preserves. These and the many small firms employ a total of 13,000 persons and produce $110,000,000 of foodstuffs a year. And to keep much of this food fresh during the process of manufacture, a number of these plants make their own ice, and other plants make and deliver ice for current consumption in homes. I CRAMER PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY CRAFTON, PENNSYLVANIA. , A lb.7.,v ). 4 i..,. 10 t 4. 6 I 1..-. 1; q I A -, i %,. 't.. 16 I A - -- 3 9015 01208 6412 DO NO EMV ORI. MU1iATECAR .4