"B" furnace skip hoist

This view, from the South overlooks the stock bins . Hopper cars would deposit iron ore, limestone and coke. These were weighed and charged into the furnace top via a skip hoist. The wheels and rails combined to invert the skip, tipping the charge into the breeches chute – a funnel shaped structure.

From the breeches chute the materials would be guided by the McKee rotary distributor onto the small bell. At intervals, the small bell would be dropped and the charge would drop on to the large bell. When the large bell was full, it would open and the charge would fall into the furnace. The blast furnace gas and dust and heat was contained by the closed bells. The function of the distributor was to spread the coke , limestone, and ore evenly throughout the furnace. It was very important to promote good gas flow through the burden, to avoid hot spots, and avoid localised wear of the refractory lining by the abrasive burden.

The skips were counterbalanced, as one skip was at the top, the other was at the bottom.

The photographer is standing on the approach ramp to the stock bins. In the middle foreground is the gas washer with the dust catcher behind and to the left. The dust catcher has a conical base and is elevated on a steel structure. That facilitated easy periodic emptying of the vessel in to a hopper car below.

At the base of the furnace is the cast house floor ( far right). This is where the blast furnace crew controlled the process and where the slag and molten iron were tapped.

The cast house is protected from the elements only by a canopy. It would have been an extremely hot, dirty, and noisy environment. There is a staircase linking the cast house floor to ground level and you can also see a staircase spiraling around the chimney and a bridge to give access to the stoves and furnace top.

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A counterweighted lifting beam to the top and left was part of the furnace double bell arrangement. It stands upon a substantial runway beam which is like a monorail crane track. It extends to the right out beyond the charging platform ans was used for lifting heavy items of plant to the top of the furnace during maintenance periods.

There are cables or chains running from the counterweight beam to ground level which were used to operate the bells. The charging platform was a dangerous place to be when the furnaces were in blast. Normal operations were remote, from ground level.

There is an elevated walkway between the stoves and from the stoves to the charging platform which permitted access during maintenance periods.

At the top of the furnace is the right side skip, hanging in the inverted, dump position. Below the skip is the funnel shaped breeches chute.

In the foreground, the stock bins reveal the outline shape of the hopper. I think that this section was most likely for coke storage. Coke is a significantly lighter material than limestone and much lighter than iron ore so the stock bins were built differently. Coke was usually screened below the stock bins to remove small particles . It was rally important to try to keep coke lumps as large as possible in order to promote unrestricted gas flow through the burden.

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The blast furnace was built above ground level on concrete foundations. When molten slag and iron were separately tapped from the furnace (say 4 times per day) they were guided by sand lined troughs (runners) constructed fresh in the cast house floor before each cast. Slag floated on the molten iron inside the furnace and was tapped first into slag cars positioned alongside the cast house. The molten iron would be tapped into refractory lined ladles and hauled by rail to the casting machines out of sight to the right. It wasn't unusual for the slag to be tapped at twice the frequency to the iron. It just depended on the prevailing conditions.