into an ingot sufficiently heavy to make four rails; this ingot is taken from its mold while it is red-hot on its outside and still liquid internally, and put into a "soaking pit"* or a reheating furnace to prevent loss of heat, and as soon as possible, it is sent to the "blooming train" and rolled into a bloom; this is at once. automatically conveyed to the "rail-train" and rolled into a continuous rail about one hundred and twenty-three feet in length, which is carried on rollers driven by power to the "cutting-off saws," which divide it into four rails of thirty feet in length, and the two extreme ends of the original rail, called "crop ends," are about eighteen inches long. The four rails, while still red-hot, are carried by machinery to the "cambering machine," and thence to the "hot-bed." They are next taken to the "cold straightening presses," and any crookedness is removed by powerful pressure; the bolt-holes for "fish-plates" are then drilled in their ends, after which the rails are turned over to the "inspectors" representing the railway for which the rails are intended.

Fig. 65 is a very spirited night view of a scene outside the casting-house of one of the furnaces of the Illinois Steel Company. A portion of the furnace itself and one of its supporting columns are seen through the left-hand arch. In the left foreground are two "slag-buggies" being filled with liquid slag; on the right is a locomotive ready to pull them to the dump. In the center of the picture are two large "ladles" (numbered 14 and 10) capable of holding ten tons each of fluid metal, which is conveyed to them by the "runners" or "gutters" whose ends are seen projecting over the "ladles"; these gutters receive the molten metal direct from the "blast-furnace," and as soon as the "ladles" are filled they are drawn away by a locomotive which takes them up an inclined plane on to an iron bridge or platform, which extends across the converter-house in front of the converters. This bridge is plainly shown in Fig. 66, and a small locomotive is seen on the left-hand end of it.

Beyond this bridge, and between it and the back wall of the building, are the three converters, each intended for the conversion of ten tons of iron into steel at one operation. The left-hand

*This is a pit but little wider than the ingot, lined with fire-brick. The lining prevents the heat of the steel from radiating into space, and hence the internal heat of the ingot is diffused uniformly through its mass; and after being in the "pit" a certain time the ingot is apparently hotter than when it was put in; it is then taken out and rolled immediately. The soaking-pit process," invented by John Gjers, is the most important improvement in the manufacture of steel that has been brought forward in the last eight years.

"

This term is the reverse of descriptive. The "hot-bed" is a huge gridiron, on which the rails are placed to cool.

I am under obligations to E. C. Potter, Esq., late Vice-President of the Illinois Steel Company for the very effective views from which this and the three following engravings have been reduced.

converter is shown "turned down," pouring its contents of liquid steel into a casting-ladle; the central converter is upright, and a

dazzling white volcanic flame issues roaring from its mouth, discharging itself though the open archway in the wall of the build

ing-a "blow" is evidently under full headway. The third converter is seen on the extreme right of the picture, with its mouth downward, its bottom having been removed for repairs.

In front of this bridge are a number of cranes, all operated hydraulically, but, unlike the ordinary "hydraulic press," whose

FIG. 67.-A STEEL BLOOMING-MILL.

movement is usually very slow, these cranes are very rapid in their action, more so than any other form of crane; were this not the fact, it would be impossible to handle the vast quantity of hot materials-" ingots," and their "molds "-that must be disposed of with great promptness in a modern steel-works. These cranes are veritable giant arms, lifting and conveying with a tireless strength, insensible alike to heat and weight, such masses of steel as have only come to the knowledge of man since the invention of the Bessemer process.

The various operations of the "converting-house," embracing the turning of the converter, the regulation of the blast, and the movement of the cranes, are all directed and controlled by means of proper "hand-gear" located upon the platform called "the pulpit" represented in the foreground of the picture.

The general aspect of the interior of a converting-house at night is at once startling and grandly impressive. Here heat, flame, and liquid metal are ever present; locomotives whistle and puff, dragging with clatter and clang huge ladles of molten iron; the lurid light, flashing and flaming, that illuminates the scene, throws shadows so intensely black that they suggest the "black fire" of Milton, for in such a place it is impossible for a shadow to be cool; half-naked, muscular men, begrimed with sweat and dust, flit about; clouds of steam arise from attempts to cool in some degree the roasting earth of the floor; converters roar, vibrate, and vomit flames mingled with splashes of metal from their white-hot throats; at intervals the scorching air is filled with a rain of coruscating burning iron; ingot molds lift mouths parched with a thirst that can only be appeased for a short time by streams of liquid steel that run gurgling into them; the stalwart cranes rise, swing, and fall, loading scores of tons of red-hot steel upon cars of iron: all these conditions and circumstances combine to make an igneous total more suggestive of the realms of Pluto than any other in the whole range of the metallurgic arts.

The ingots of steel are taken from the "converting-house" as promptly as possible after they are cast, and carried on iron cars to the "blooming-mill" (Fig. 67), where they are put into gas-fired furnaces (the end of one is seen on the right of Fig. 67), where their heat is maintained, and thence they are taken to the "blooming train" and rolled into blooms. The steel-rail bloom is a rectangular bar of steel, long enough to produce four or even six rails.

In the cut (Fig. 67) on the left is seen a white-hot ingot of steel being carried on an iron “buggy" to the rolls of the blooming train, which occupies nearly the center of the picture. On the right of this train is seen a bloom about to pass through the