This great reduction is the cumulative result of a number of
concurrent improvements, partly in the conversion of the iron, and
partly in the subsequent treatment of the ingot steel. In most of the
great steelworks the iron is no longer remelted, but is transferred
direct from the blast furnace to the converter, a practice which
originated at Terre-Noire, and was long considered in this country to
be incompatible with uniformity in the quality of the steel produced.
The turn-out of the converter plant has been gradually increased in
this country to more than four times that of fourteen years ago, while
the practice of the United States is stated by a recent visitor to
have reached such an astounding figure that I am afraid to quote it
without confirmation; but the greatest economy arises no doubt in the
labor and fuel employed in the mill.
Cogging has taken the place of hammering. Even wash-heating will be,
if it is not already, generally dispensed with by the soaking process
of our colleague, Mr. Gjers, which permits of the ingot, as it leaves
the pit, being directly converted into a rail.