Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/139

 or twenty minutes, until the metal is thoroughly decarbonized, when the process ceases, and a quantity, varying according to the quality of steel required, of "spiegeleisen," an iron highly charged with carbon and manganese, previously melted in a furnace, is run into the converting vessel, and combines chemically with the decarbonized iron. The vessel is now turned down and the liquid steel is poured out into a ladle carried at the end of a crane, the crane swings round, and the steel runs out through a small orifice in the bottom of the ladle into cast-iron moulds, and is thus formed into ingots ready to be used for making rails, or for any other purpose required. The air is supplied to the converting vessels by a fine pair of horizontal blowing engines of 450 horse-power, made by Hick, Hargreaves & Co., of Bolton. The steam cylinders are 36 inches in diameter and have a stroke of 5 feet, and the air cylinders are 48 inches in diameter with the same stroke. There are also three reheating furnaces, in which the steel ingots, as they come from the converter, can be reheated, and taken direct to the rolling mill.

The rail-making plant has an annual capacity of 45,000 tons, the rolling mill being driven by a Corliss condensing engine, developing, in ordinary working, about 700 h.p. The rails, while hot, are sawn off to the required length by a circular saw, and, after cooling, are drilled and straightened ready for use.

The powerful forge machinery consists of a duplex steam hammer of 30 tons, and one of 10 tons, together with eight vertical steam hammers weighing from 15 cwt. to 8 tons, tyre rolling, plate rolling, and merchant mills, saws, and shearing machines. The 30-ton hammer was designed by Mr. Ramsbottom, the