pa1778data.pdf

STEELMAKING PLANT - BESSEMER
U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 159)
Historic Name: u.S.S. Corporation, Duquesne Works: Steelmaking
Plant, Bessemer Converter House.
Present Name: N/A
Location: Upper Works
Construction: 1886, 1897
Documentation: There are no photographs or drawings.
DESCRIPTION
I. There are no extant facilities from the Bessemer Converter
Plant.
HISTORY
Each of the industry's major steelmaking processes -
Bessemer, Open Hearth, Electric Furnace, and Basic Oxygen - have
been employed at the Duquesne Works during the course of its
history. When the works began operations in 1887, the acid
Bessemer process was used to make steel. Essentially, the
process involved blowing air up through tuyeres located in the
bottom of a cylindrically shaped, acid (silicious brick)-lined,
open-top converter which contained a mixture of scrap steel
(approximately 10% of the charge) and a molten bath of iron. The
exothermic (i.e. heat generating) reaction between the oxygen
content of the air and the molten metal converted the bath of
iron into a bath of steel by eliminating carbon, silicon, and
manganese from the iron through oxidation. An average blow
lasted approximately 15 minutes.
The Bessemer converter plant at Duquesne occupied the
southern end of the present site of Open Hearth Number Two. Its
physical design allowed for the most efficient operation of the
process possible. Buildings and equipment were laid out in close
proximity to each other so as to permit easy movement of
materials. Basic features of the original Bessemer converter
plant included a combination converter/blooming mill building
which contained two refractory brick lined converters with a 8
1/2 ton capacity; a bottom house where the removable converter
bottoms were taken to be repaired; a cupola house which contained
iron remelting furnaces; a scrap storage yard; and a blowing room
containing the vertical steam driven blowing engines which
supplied blast air to the converters.
The converter enclosure was the center of operations. It
was divided into a charging, pouring, and teeming aisle. The
converters, which sat on trunnions located on the elevated