Article: Bessemer vs. Non-Bessemer Ore - 1891

What is a Bessemer and a non-Bessemer ore?

Asked of Senator Joseph Fleshiem of Menominee.

"Any ore containing more than .060 percent phosphorus is a non-Bessemer ore, though if the percentage is only a trifle above .060 it can be mixed with ores containing several points less than .060 of phosphorus, and thus made to produce steel.

But in order to make it desirable for this purpose, it must contain a high percentage of metallic iron. Low grade ores, possessing a surplus of phosphorus, are almost worthless at present. That was the trouble with the Stambaugh mine, which is owned by the Schleisinger syndicate. Its ore had too much phosphorus and too little metallic iron, and although it was a very productive mine shipping over 150,000 tons last year, it  has been abandoned.

"The best mine in the upper peninsula is undoubtedly the Norrie (Ironwood), which last year shipped over 1,000,000 tons of Bessemer ore, and the next is the Chapin (Iron Mountain), whose product was about 750,000 tons. The Chapin is owned by the Schleisinger syndicate. The syndicate last summer built a new (rail) road from Iron Mountain to Escanaba, about forty miles, and also graded twenty miles more from Iron Mountain to Florence, Wis. This road runs parallel to the C&NW road, and, of course, carries the ore of the Chapin mine which the Northwestern has always carried hitherto. As the ore of the Chapin mine amounts to five trains of fifty cars daily, it furnishes a majority of the business of the road. It is now stated, on what we up there regard as good authority, that the Vanderbilts, either for themselves personally or for the Northwestern Road, which they control, have purchased both the Chapin mine and the new road of the Schleisinger syndicate. This being so, we look for still further investments by the Vanderbilts or their friends in other directions."

He also noted that non-Bessemer mines are not paying at present. The Naniamo mine at Iron River, which shipped 3,443 tons last year, has been closed down and the Iron River mine at Stambaugh, which shipped 153,873 tons, took out its pumps about a month ago and allowed the mine to fill with water. Non-Bessemer ores are worth, delivered in Cleveland, from $3 to $4 a ton, while Bessemer ores are worth from $5 to $6, according to the percentage of metallic iron they contain.

[DFP-1891-0202]