Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume III

ORE HANDLING PLANT MOVING ORE FROM SHIP TO STOCK-PILE. Two Hulett conveyor bridges are shown in this picture. The nearer one has its front cantilever raised ; the other has just dumped a load from its 5-ton bucket. REMARKABLE MACHINERY USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL. I BY FRED. G. SMITH. THE number and complexity of the mechanisms to be found in a modern steel works is a surprise to most people who visit such a place for the first time. The Steel-Works’ Machinery. old-fashioned methods of hand- ling material have been super- seded by machinery. The dominant word in the steel works of to-day is speed. Managers for ever cry out, “ Faster, faster,” and the engineer racks his brains to respond. A glance at the high-speed and almost automatic machinery to be seen in the steel works of to-day convinces one that the engineer has replied most effectively. Some of the large works turn out as much as 2,000,000 tons a (1,408) year, and the handling of so vast an amount of material through the works demands some special types of machines. In the United States it has been found necessary to transport the iron ore across the Great Lakes to the steel manufacturing dis- tricts of Michigan and Penn- sylvania ; and as navigation Hulett . T , , , . Ore Unloader. on the Lakes is suspended in the winter months, it becomes necessary to create large ore reserves during the open season. This stocking of material near the quay must be carried out very expeditiously, so that the boats may be delayed as little as possible, and so enabled to make a maximum 17 VOL. ITT.