Modern business geography

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1830562916

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-217337

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Huntington, Ellsworth http://d-nb.info/gnd/117070092; Cushing, Sumner W.

Title:: Modern business geography

Place of publication:: New York [usw.]

Publisher:: World Book Company

Year of publication:: 1930

Scope:: VIII, 352 S.; Ill., graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part one. The field of primary production

Collection:: Economics Books

The Mining Industry 115 great furnaces to separate the pure metal or other mineral from the slag or waste material. . Often the slag rises to the top like froth, while the heavier liquid metal can be drained off below. Sometimes this work of smelting, as the melting is called, is done in mills near the head of the shaft; but usually it is cheaper to do it where there is an abundance of coal, and hence the ore is often carried great dis- tances from the mine. This is done with the Lake Superior iron ores, which are smelted in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and elsewhere. Why some mines are open pits. Some deposits of minerals are so near the surface and cover areas so large that it is easier to reach them by removing all the overlying soil and rock than by digging shafts and tunnels. This is called the * open pit’ method of mining. The Mesaba range of Minnesota, near Lake Superior, containing the greatest iron deposit yet known, is mined by the open pit method. One can stand on the edge of one of the great pits and watch a train of empty ore cars take its way along the sides, down into the pit, and draw up beside a great steam shovel. The iron ore is here so easily pulverized that mild blasts with dynamite serve to loosen great quantities, and therefore it is readily handled by the steam shovel. IRON Iron, the most useful of metals, exists in great abundance. At present only the richest deposits are mined. That is why the iron- producing regions are not numerous. Iron can be procured so cheaply from the rich deposits that it does not pay to work the poorer ones. The consumption of iron. The time will come, however, when man will eagerly turn to the deposits he now passes by. In 1820, the iron goods made in the United States averaged only forty pounds for each individual. The amount rose to 175 pounds in 1870, to 400 pounds in 1900, and is now about 700 pounds. During the World War the demand increased still further. It is fortunate that iron, unlike coal, can be used again and again. After iron has served its purpose in one form, as in a kitchen stove, it is collected as scrap iron and may be made into something else, like steel rails or nails. Hence, the iron deposits of the world will probably not be exhausted for thousands of years, whereas the coal deposits are likely to become seriously depleted within a few centuries. Where iron is mined in the United States. Each year nearly seventy million tons of iron ore are mined in the United States. This is about

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