Sharon Steel Corporation - Farrell Attracts Multiple Industries

Farrell Attracts Multiple Industries

With the Carnegie-Illinois working at full capacity producing bar plates, the American Steel and Tin Plate Company and the American Steel and Wire Company, quick to realize the advantages of being near the source of bar plate output, in 1900 established themselves in close proximity to the Carnegie, and converted the Carnegie products into sheet steel, tin plate, and wire, respectively. These firms were added milestones to the progress of Farrell. Since the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company, the Carnegie, and the American Steel and Wire Company were now the mainstays if industry in Farrell, we should note some of the high points of their history. The original furnaces produced the first pig iron on December 9, 1901. Six years later, on June 9, 1907, seven open hearth furnaces were added, and nine years later, on March 21, 1916, three more were added. The first rolling mills began their operations on May 10, 1901, and the first open hearth was made on April 30, 1901. The original bar and billet mill was replaced by the present mill in March, 1918.

The Carnegie mill produced 482,000 gross tons of steel annually

The Carnegie works used two blast furnaces with daily capacities of 650 and 750 gross tons respectively. The height of these furnaces from the floor of the platform was 100 feet (30 m), and they were served by two blowers, approximately 5,040 horsepower (3,760 kW) strong, which delivered a blast of 50,000 cubic feet (1,400 m3) of air per minute, at a pressure of 20 pounds. The total yearly capacity of these two furnaces was 482,000 gross tons of steel, and even today, fifty years later, the yearly tonnage has not changed. It is interesting to know that to produce the 482,000 gross tons of steel each year, 960,000 tons of ore, 195,000 tons of limestone, 420,000 tons of coke, and 1,600,000 tons of air are required. The ore used in the furnaces came from the Minnesota Ore Mines, and was shipped to Farrell by lake boats and railroads. The coke came from the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation of Clairton, Pennsylvania, and the limestone from Hillsville, Pennsylvania.

The product of the blast furnace, pig iron, is so called because of the odd shape acquired as the molten metal sets and cools in sand pits made for the purpose. The pig iron is subjected to a refining process, from which it emerges in the form of ingots. The ingots pass through various departments, such as the open hearth, where they are refined further, and the rolling mill, where they are reduced, rolled, and sheared into required lengths. The sizes vary from 8-,10-, and 12 inches (300 mm) in width to 30 feet (9.1 m) in length. The annual capacity of the rolling mill is about 420,000 gross tons, and the product is classified as semi-finished.

The tin and sheet bar is delivered to various tin and sheet mills as a source of steel required for the manufacture of cans, bottle tops, kitchen utensils, enameled ware, toys, sign stock, and similar products. It is also used in auto body sheets, metallic furniture, radio and refrigerator stock, metal lath, steel drums, galvanized and other coataed sheets for the manufacture of garbage and ash cans, coal and water buckets, and flat, corrugated and formed sheets for the building trades.

The Carnegie, the American Steel and Wire Company, and the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company were built close together, so that the products of one could be shipped to and used easily as stock by the others. The Carnegie sent its steel bars to the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company, where it was further processed and made into tin sheets and plain sheets for the items listed. Other kinds of steel were sent to the American Steel and Wire Company, where it was processed and made into wire and nails.

On November 1, 1935, the plants of the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company and the Carnegie plant became a unit of the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation, and two years later, in 1937, the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corporation became part of the United States Steel Corporation. The American Steel and Wire Company continued to operate until 1937–1938, when it was closed and later dismantled, and the equipment shipped to a firm in Cleveland, Ohio.