TARANAKI IRONWORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1917, Page 6

TARANAKI IRONWORKS.

THE BIG FURNACE NOW RUNNING. A start was made with the big blast furnace at the Taranaki Ironsand Works on Tuesday night last, at 10 o'clock. The furnace was charged partly with scrap from previous runs nnd partly with the sand-charged coke, the first'tap being made at 2 a.m. yesterday, when the run amounted to 52 pigs, totalling about 55 cwt. The iron was of very good quality, but a decided improvement was noticeable in the outflow from the second run of a like amount at 7 a.m. The blast was then cut off for three-quarters of an hour, not on account of any defect in the furnace, but because it was found that the metal smelted faster than it could be handled. Even, with this interval the furnace was again ready to tap half an hour before the moulds could be prepared for the metal. After a week or two of running, when the men have become aeeustofticd to their places, delays of this sort—which, after all, .are a healthy sign—Will not occur.. Rims were made throughout the day at intervals of four or five hours, and'the smelting will continue as long as the present supply of prepared material lasts. The run iu the forenoon''was'made, in the presence of a large number of shareholders, sightseers, and a party of senior hoys from the High School hoys, whose science course includes the study of elementary metallurgy. About two and a half tons were run off, and the visitors, apart from first-hand evidence that the scheme shows every promise of success, were accorded an interesting spectacle. The slag is now run. direct into tipbucket trucks, which are babied to the water's :dge, aiid the contents tipped out in a solid mass. The iron port, plugged with a mixture of clay and sand which solidifies With the tremendous heat, is then opened, and the molten metal pours out in a stream, and runs from mould to mould, its progress being regulated by barriers of sand, which are broken away as each row tills. Tile old trouble of cooling no longer crops up, for the new furnace has a highly oliicient water jacket and watercooled tuyres, and even the base of the furnace is not so hot that the hand cannot be laid on it. Looking through a heavy blue glass in. the tuyrea, which are the four openings at the base of the furnace through which a tremendous draught is forced, a wonderful sight meets the eye of molten ore and slag trickling down through the incandescent mass, clearly showing how freely the furnace works. The blower which supplies the blast is of American manufacture, and delivers 11,000 cubic, feet of air per minute at a pressurr of "0 ounces. This machine alone is a large one. fifteen tons in weight. It stands on « solid concrete base, and is driven by a 75-h.p. electric motor with a steam plant as a stand-by. Three centrifugal pumps supply the 10,009 gallons of water per hour that is required for the cooling system. Sec. water in used, and is pumped to a reservoir some 70' feet above the works. At present the mixing, coal crushing and elevating machinery are not working. Very extensive additions will he made to the plant shortly, and larger beehive retorts are now being constructed. An eggetting machine, which is designed to handle 120 tons of sand per day, will arrive in a few days' time. With these additions, a sufficient quantity of the No. 2 compound will he turned out to keep the furnace in continuous commission. Extra pumping plant is also required, and the company will probably go in for a locomotive, crane, grab anil trucks for handling the ironsand. At present the work is carried out with the help of the Harbor Board's and gram, but these cannot always be had, With a grab two men can load 40 tons into the trucks an hour. The coking plant will be practically duplicated by the end of the year, and eventually the question of procuring another furnace will have to be considered, as the company's operations expand, arid the quality of the iron becomes known and wins a wider market."