ONAKAKA IRON WORKS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 96, 18 January 1924, Page 3

ONAKAKA IRON WORKS

OPERATIONS COMMENCED IN EARNEST THE FIRST “SMELT” Last week marked a notable event in the history of Golden Bay (states the Nelson “Mail”). After strenuous and anxious years the blast furnace of the Onakaka Iron and Steel Co. at Onakaka was “blown in” and a start made with the smelting of iron on a commercial scale. Some time ago a trial run of some SO tons was made to demonstrate the quality cf the product and to test out the plant, . but this is the real beginning of operations. ' Word went round the neighbourhood that the furnace was to be lighted in. the evening and all who could assembled for the occasion. As one approaches the works in the darkness the scene is a striking one. The salient points of the buildings have powerful electric lights, which gleam like .jewels. against the sombre background of the bush-clad mountains close behind. To the right are the sixteen coke, ovens in double row, each oven sending up its tongues of flame through the vent at the top. As the hour approached everyone gathered in the big roofed space devoted te the making of the “pig-beds,” at the further end of which stands the furnace, passing through the roof to a height of 60ft. ’llia furnace-men were occupied with the final preparations, the furnace having been charged with iron ore, coke, and limestone, beneath which was wood and ether inflammable material drenched with kerosene. At a word from the manager came five men from the smithy adjoining, armed with five long iron bars white hot at the end. These, thrust through apertures at the base of the furnace, ignited the charge. Then for a time all was obscured in dense smoke pouring from every crevice, for, bo it understood the joints in the base of the furnace are not tight at first, since allowance has to be made for expansion. These jets of smoke presently became jets of pale blue flame. At the same time in the engine room next door the engineer was starting the big engine, with .its great twelve-foot fly-wheel. This works the blower driving air at pressure through a series of huge bent pipes in a sort of gigantic oven or furnace, and the air thus heated to 900 degrees F. is blasted into the base of the smelting furnace. As the evening wore on and the crevices closed up the flames round the furnace gradually disappeared. Orderly work now commenced. The buckets from the aerial tram could be heard tipping their burdens of ore or limestone into the crusher, anad thence to the bins. At the foot of the bins charges of oro, coke, and limestone were being run into a trolley, to pass over a weighbridge, and from there into the hydraulic lift, which carries the trolley up (>0 feet to the top of the furnace, and its contents are dropped on a sort of bell, which seals the top of the furnace. This bell is lowered a few feet nt intervals and the ore, etc., falls into the furnace below. As the furnace charge lielow melts and sinks more is in this way added at the top. No flames issue from the top of the furnace. The gases are carried away by a large, pipe back . partly to the engine boilers to be burned there, and partly to the furnace alluded to above, in which the hot air blast for tho smelting furnace is heated, thus effecting considerable economy in fuel. At rhe adjacent coke ovens men are busy raking cut white hot coke from one, preparing the charge for another. The next day at about Fl o’clock a still more interesting ceremonv was performed, namely, the first tapping of the furnace for iron. A “pig-bed” was prepared in the foot-deep eand by making impressions the sizo of the pigs that are to be, and. connecting these by channels down which the iron is to run. Men with hammer and drill drive through the burnt clay plug which seals the furnace. V- hen suddenly this gives way out pours the molten metal and rapidly finch it way down the channels and into tne moulded depressions in the sand. The scene is a spectacular one, and of course in the vicinity it is very hot. At the same time the slag, being lighter, pours down another channel into a stream of water and passes away in a cloud of evil-smelling steam. The. molten iron soon sets into bars or “pigs," and while still white hot men with crowbars break them from the connecting channels. When cool enough to be handled the “p : gs” are carried away by an overhead travelling crane. The furnace vent has teen sealed, up to await the next tapping some eight hours later.

The company has had an uphill struggle and many difficulties to face, and at times the outlook has been far from bright, but the cheerful and undaunted optimism of Mr. J. R. Leggo, the managing director, and Mr. J. Heskett, the works manager, supported by an able and enthusiastic staff, has brought this company to the stage of .produot'on. There still remain difficulties' to be faced, but met in the same spirit they will assuredly be overcome. That the company has at length started after three, years of hard work and the anxiety inevitable in a pioneer undertaking must be a source of the keenest satisfaction to both these gentlemen, not the less because so many have said that it could not be done.