The Works Of Messrs. Schneider And Co.

VII. THE BLAST FURNACE DEPARTMENT. General Arrangement.—The arrangement of the blast- furnace department at Creusot is shown on the general plan, Fig. 43 ; at the present time it consists of : Five furnaces in biast. Twenty Cowper stoves. Thirty tubulär gas-fired boilers. Six horizontal biowing engines, Corliss type. One battery of 168 horizontal coke ovens. Eight tubular boilers fired by the waste gases from the coke ovens. w One shop for cleaning and grinding coal ; this shop is placed at one end of the long line of coke ovens. Two Briquette-making installations containing three double-action presses, Couffinhall system. The references to the letters on the plan, Fig. 43, are as follows : A, A. Blast-furnaces. K. 168 Horizontal coke ovens. B, B. Briquette shops, Nos. 1 L. Battery of six gas - fired and 2. (coke oven) boilers. C, C. Hydraulic presses. M. Old vertical biowing engines. D. 'Lime stores. N. Battery of ten gas - fired E, E, E. Raised platforms. (furnace) boilers. F. Battery of 18 gas-fired 0. Repair shops. (furnace) boilers. P. Stores. G. Biowing engine-house. Q. Offices. H. Three coal-fired boilers. R. Water reservoir. I. Coal-handling yard. S. Steel works. T. Pumps and accumulators. Blast Furnaces.—Figs. 44 and 45, Plates IX. and X., illustrate the furnaces with their Cowper apparatus and Fig. 43. Plan of Blast-Furnace Plant and Coke Ovens. One repairing shop for the maintenance and current repairs of blast-furnace plant, and auxiliary material. Offices and stores. All tlie blast-furnaces, which are served eacb by a separate hydraulic charging lift, are built in front of a platform half the height of the furnaces ; this platform is used for stacking ore, and for the varions installations connected with the work, excepting the Cowper stoves, and a battery of 18 gas-fired boilers which are mounted on the ground level. In the compressing shops, briquettes are manufactured from pyrites refuse, obtained from outsicle sources, and from the refuse of roasted spathic carbonaceous iron ore obtained from the mines of Allevard (Isère), which have already been described. hoists, the chimneys for the escape of the products of combustion, and the pig beds. The furnace on the right (Fig. 45), has been lately remodelled in its outer shell. The blast-furnace plant at Creusot was originally insignificant in size, and of imperfect construction, but changes have been made from time to time which have kept the plant well up to modern practice; in the folio wing pages only the latest appliances will be dealt with, especially those which have relation to the biowing engines and tlie utilisation of waste gases. The type of blast-furnaces in use has not been modified for some years, tlie form established by experience being well adaptée! for the production of the special qualities of iron required by the works. The height in all cases is 20 metres (65 ft. 7 in.) ; it has been found that this height