In 1912 the Ensley works produced 840,000 tons of steel, by far leading all Southern competitors. The same afternoon a traveling crane in the plant's repair shop backed up, crushing ironworker August Lavell to death. Martin and injuring John Nave, members of a work gang working alongside the tracks. On Ja train carrying "skulls" from the furnace to a scrap yard to be broken up lurched and dropped part of its load, killing C. Crawford reported drastic improvements in quality after only 18 months, reducing the scrap yield of newly-made rail from 40% to 10% while cutting costs from $29 to $20 per ton. Steel sent George Crawford to oversee TCI's operations and over $30 million in improvements made over the next six years. One executive estimated that the company had purchased $90-100 million worth of coal reserves and infrastructure for their $30 million investment. The primary value to the company was the mineral resources of the Birmingham District which were under TCI's control. With a crisis at stake without the larger company's investment, President Theodore Roosevelt assured them that he "felt it no public duty" to object to the suggestion. Steel felt out the position of the White House on whether their acquisition of TCI would merit criticism as an attempt to monopolize steel production. In November 1907, amid swirlings of a Wall Street financial panic, executives of U. 6 (blown in April 28, 1905)Īrtist Roderick MacKenzie documented operations at the Ensley Works in 1921 A second more efficient rail mill was added. The blast furnaces were entirely rebuilt and new open hearths constructed. By 1907 Bacon had been succeeded by John Topping who was tapped to oversee the necessary capital improvements. Two years later the plant produced 402,000 tons. 1904's total production was 155,000 tons. The addition of the Bessemer converter to the plant in 1904 helped increase the quality and quantity of Ensley's steel output, the first to be produced by the "duplex process". By 1906, even with the recent addition of the plant's sixth and largest furnace, he estimated that $25 million would be needed to overhaul the plant to meet modern standards of efficient manufacture. When former Minnesota Iron president Don Bacon came to Ensley in 1901 to observe the works, he characterized the operation, from the mines to finished product, as a "medley of make shifts". Reports of inexpensive steel being made in the South concerned established operators such as Andrew Carnegie. The first heat of steel was tapped on Thanksgiving Day in 1899 and the first load of Ensley steel was shipped to a Connecticut buyer on January 1, 1900. Ensley hired Fred Gordon of the firm of Witherow & Gordon to oversee the lighting of the furnaces. The Louisville & Nashville Railroad participated in development of the site. The Ensley works was undertaken by TCI during the presidency of Enoch Ensley, who had sold them the combined holdings of his Pratt Coal & Iron Company.
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