Pouring side of open hearth furnaces. Instead of making pig iron, the molten iron is carried in the ladles to furnaces.
This early 1900s photo shows the pouring side of open hearth furnaces. Instead of making pig iron, the molten iron is generally carried in the ladles, direct to the open hearth furnaces. On one side of the row of furnaces is the charging floor. A huge overload charging machine travels the length of it. A quantity of limestone is spread on the floor of the furnace; then come the ladles carrying the seething mass of red hot iron from the blast furnace. The lower door of the furnace is closed and this molten mass is poured in through the upper door provided for the purpose. In this very hot furnace, which reaches 4000 degrees of heat, the iron ore is freed from its carbon, phosphorus, and sulfur. Then, since steel must have carbon in it, just the right amount of carbon is added to the melt. The photo was taken at the Inland Steel Company, whose business was reducing iron ore to steel. Its only steel mill was located in East Chicago, Indiana, on the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal and a large landfill protruding out into Lake Michigan.
Size: 4499px × 2793px
Location: East Chicago, Indiana
Photo credit: © Ivy Close Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1900s, casting, company, early, furnace, hearth, history, industrial, industrialization, inland, iron, lake, machine, making, michigan, open, ore, plant, revolution, steel, working
