What a Blast Furnace Is and How It Works
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VOLUME II SATURDAY, NOVEMBER I, 1902 NUMBER 18 What a Blast Furnace Is and How It Works Popular Article for the Scientifically Uneducated on the Parts of a Furnace and How Pig Iron Is Made. 1 HE following article on the construc- may be accepted as an accurate statement of how tion and operations of blast furnaces pig iron is made. The editor wishes to take this was written especially for Camp and opportunity to thank these gentlemen for their Plant Mr. A of the by Harry Deuel, painstaking and careful work. Engineering Department of the Min- have articles nequa Works. It was afterwards Arrangements been madefor other carefully revised, and approved in all in "popular," though accurate, form, descriptive details by Mr R. H. Lee, superin- of other departments of the coal, coke, iron and tendent of the Blast Furnace Department, and steel industry. " Boiler House. Engine House. Furnace Stack. Stoves. Blast furnace B. Blast Furnace "A," Minnequa Steel Works, Pueblo. This view well illustrates the different external parts of "A" Furnace of which, except for minor modifica- tions, "D," "E" and "F" are duplicates Each of these furnaces is 20 feet x 95 feet, is fitted with automatic skip hoists and with the very b st and most modern equipment. This vi-w was taken, however, before the ore. coke and limestone bins, from which the skip is now automatically loaded, were installed. There are four stoves to each furnace. 21 feet in diameter by 106 feet high. Each of the tall draft stacks is 12 feet 6 inches in diameter in the clear, by 210 feet high. 4J8 CAMP AND PLANT. is in tech- it does is I HE man who not educated attended by some loss of life and nical matters, and who makes a tour great damage to property, due to the water of inspection of the Minnequa Works being flashed into steam, generating a force of The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company car- as great, if not greater, than that of explod- ries away a lasting impression of the mag- ing dynamite. nitude of the blast furnaces, and the com- The bottom of the hearth consists of tile plicated and to him incomprehensible nature made of the best fire clay, and in a special of their operations. The object of this paper form. This is several feet in thickness. The is, accordingly, to try and make clear the bottom extends up in the "Hearth Jacket" various appliances of a blast furnace and a foot or so. The "Hearth Jacket," which is 1 their method of operation. constructed of boiler plate about l /^ inches We have excluded technicalities and minor thick, completely surrounds the hearth. details so that the "layman" may be able to Tnis jacket has holes cut in it on different comprehend the workings of one of the radii to admit of tapping the slag and iron. "miniature volcanoes," as the daily papers The holes are called notches; thus the lower sometimes call them. one is called the "Iron Notch," and the upper Foundations. one is called the "Cinder Notch." The iron Being designed for permanency, a blast notch is at the bottom and is arranged to furnace has to have a solid foundation, and draw off all the molten iron in the furnace. for this purpose the ground is excavated in The cinder notch is three to four feet higher this region to a depth of about fifteen feet, and taps the slag. where what is practically bed rock is found. The hearth has a concentric area out- The foundation is built of stone, concrete side of the jacket that is always filled with and brick, a cement mortar being used running water. On the inside of the jacket, throughout, so that, when finally hardened, pipes extend down seven feet in the brick the whole has the consistency of solid rock. work, and are capped at the ends. These The retaining walls that support the cast pipes are connected with others of smaller house and the runways for the molten iron diameter open at the ends and nearly the and slag are run up about fifteen feet above same length that act as feed pipes. The the general yard level, and the interior is water, entering through the small pipes, filled with sand. Sand is used for the rea- passes up through the large pipe and over- son that it is readily shaped for runways, flows into the concentric space mentioned; and any iron which may form along the this in turn flows over a dam and thence sides can easily be removed, which is neces- to the sump. This arrangement keeps the sary after every '"cast," that is, every time hearth from burning out, which it would the hot metal is withdrawn from the fur- otherwise do in a short time. nace. The Bosh. Parts of the Blast Furnace Proper. The "Bosh" runs from the hearth up to a The furnace proper may be divided into height of about 25 feet, or as far as the four sections: 1, The "Hearth or Cruci- "mantle," which rests on top of the columns, ble;" 2, the "Bosh;" 3, the Stack," and, and, is attached to and supports the "shell" 4, the "Top" or "Head Frame and Bells." or "stack" so that the bosh and stack are The Hearth. independent of each other.* The hearth, which is directly above the The bosh is built of the best quality of foundations, is. about 8 feet high and 21 feet fire brick, liberally interspersed with cool- in diameter, and is lined with 4% .feet of ing plates. The cooling plates are made of fire brick on each side, making the well 12 bronze and arranged so water circulating feet in diameter. This is where all the passes through prescribed channels. molten iron is collected and the refuse slag Beginning at the hearth there is one row is drawn off. The construction is so ar- of cooling plates, and directly above come ranged that the hearth is constantly cooled the "tuyeres," ten in number, arranged by running water. At the same time every about the same center, but with different precaution is taken that there may be no radii. These are the openings where the possibility of the iron and water getting air blast is introduced into the furnace. together. This rarely happens, but when They are well protected from the intense CAMP AND PLANT. 419 Vertical Cross-Section of Bosh of Blast Furnace. 1. Cooling Plate. 2. Iron Notch. 3. Bnstle Pipe. 420 CAMP AND PLANT. Gas Main Hot Blast Mam Stoves Bustle Pif. Cold Blast Mam "1;^{"1-^Fr"t-~"-^ Blowing Encjines. Plan of Furnace A. CAMP AND PLANT. 42 J heat by circular cooling cones, one fitting bridge, the cars being called skips. Each against another, and the last or smaller one car has a separate track, one directly over entering the furnace six inches or so, which the other, the lower end of the bridge ter- is the tuyere proper. minating in a pit enabling the cars to pass Above the tuyeres come alternate courses below the ground level and be loaded con- of cooling plates and brick work. The veniently. brick are encircled by iron bands that bind The cars are operated by an electric the brick and support the enormous load hoist, so arranged that one car acts as a exerted by the stock or charge. These ex- counterbalance to the other. The engineer tend as .far as the mantle, and above the who runs the hoist also operates the bells. mantle are two rows, so constructed that By means of an indicator he can tell in ex- they can remain till the furnace is "re- actly what position the bells are and con- lined," which in some cases may not be for sequently the charge or stock. several years. The charge is carried to the skip cars by The Stack or Shell. means of an electric scale car, which runs The stack or shell begins at the mantle along parallel to the bins. Everything that and extends upward to the top. This is goes into the furnace being weighed, the made of riveted boiler plate. Inside the product bears a definite relation to the stack a lining is built of first-class fire brick charge. for about two-thirds of the distance up, and The Down-Comer and Gas Washer. the remaining third of second-class Directly below the top of the furnace are fire brick. Common brick is used for the two openings that connect with a "Y" "backing" between the fire brick and the shaped pipe callled the "Down-Comer." This shell. The lining extends to the hopper at pipe runs to the dust catcher, a tank-shaped the top of the furnace. affair, where the dust in the gas is partly The Top or Head Frame and Bells. removed. The down-comer is connected The top of the furnace is where the ore, with the gas washers, one for the boiler coke and limestone are introduced. On plant and one for the "stoves,'' where the account of a deadly gas, carbon monoxide, gas is washed and purified. which is always present, but in different From the gas washer one gas main leads proportions, it is aimed to make the furnace to the boilers, where the gas is burned and gas-proof. Another object in having the used to generate steam for the blowing en- top of the furnace tight is so that the gases gines. The other connects with a gas main may be utilized as will be explained later.