Where there's muck, there's brass, and for over a century this cloud has meant just that. Generations of Cumbrians have sweated here to produce the world's best rails, and those rails have gone to every corner of the globe which man has opened up to transport. I'm ready for another jump!
Jump! Up! Ready for it! Take it away! Sir Henry Bessemer opened the door to the steel age.
In 1856 he patented the process which has been used at Workington since 1872. These rails lasted ten times longer than any previously made. Basically the method has changed little. Modifications have of course been incorporated. Bessemer had his early failures, but in 1858 he found that the hematite ore from Cumberland Mines was the only one suited to his needs.
This is the 1934 version which is now closed down. Bessemer's first experiment had used only 700 weights of iron. This converter is capable of handling 35 tonnes, which it changes to steel every 40 minutes. Steel is produced without using any outside fuel.
Air is blown through the molten iron and starts to oxidise the impurities in it. The shower of incandescent sparks is followed by a flame which intensifies as the process continues. In the first stage, silicon and manganese are oxidized and also generate their own heat.
The flame brightens as the carbon begins to burn. When the blow starts, the temperature in the converter is about 1300 degrees centigrade, but during the burning it rises rapidly. Formerly, the success of the blow depended on one man's experience.
Today, an electronic indicator assists the blower. The blow is reaching its climax and the temperature inside the furnace is up to 1600 degrees centigrade. The process is now nearly complete.
Oxygen is blown through and burns with an eye-searing intensity. The temperatures are charted from the comparative safety of a control desk. This is the only part which can be regarded as automated. A gentle rock ensures a complete mix and the last impurities disappear. The blow is now completed.
35 tonnes of iron have been purified by fire and are now steel. The moment for the steel to be poured has arrived. Against the background of fumes and sparks the mighty converter begins to tilt. Man suddenly seems to shrink as the intensity of heat takes over. For 20 minutes pig iron has been boiling inside the furnace.
All is now ready. Once more the temperature has to be taken, first of all by using the thermometer, and then finally a man suitably protected against the intense heat looks into the boiling inferno to check that all is set for the final pour. Thumbs up, and the pour begins.
The man-made volcano erupts. Truly this has been described as industry's most spectacular process. Carefully weighed additives to make the steel of the right specification are thrown into the ladle during the pouring.
Pouring is one of the more dangerous processes in the job and it's here that the skill of the Bessemer foreman is fully tested. Some 30 tonnes of molten steel starts its majestic progress across the foundry floor to the waiting moulds. Every stage is now critical if the steel quality is to be maintained.
Steel making at Workington is a continuous process and hardly has the ladle of molten metal started its journey than a second ladle filled with molten iron is being poured into the gaping mouth of the Bessemer. Using two furnaces on a 40 minute cycle keeps the whole run from ore to rail on a 24 hour basis. The method has been used now for 102 years and for those who are interested in the statistics of such an operation, it's been estimated that in that time 25 million metric tons have been processed. BEEP BEEP Every step of the journey from converter to mould is monitored and temperatures are carefully checked. Alloy additions are made to adjust the final composition.
In effect, one man only is in charge of the operation of filling the moulds. The largest holds approximately... six tons.
Made of cast iron they're filled when the operator lifts the stopper and the steel flows into the mold. Once again careful note has to be made of the temperature and also the speed of pouring. Both have to be strictly controlled as they have each an influence on the physical condition of the steel ingot. Nothing is allowed to get in the way of purity and every mold has to be thoroughly cleaned after it's been used.
At this stage the moulds are allowed to cool a little so that ultimately the solid but still hot ingot can be extracted. Today the work is carried out by an overhead crane fitted with a special ejector. It's here perhaps more than anywhere else that one realises just why steel workers got their reputation as hard men. Imagine this being done by hand.
Finally, the ingots are lowered into what is called a soaking pit. In reality, it's the equivalent to an oven, where the ingots are kept hot prior to their short journey to the cogging and rolling mills. This is the last process, and the four-ton ingot, now called a bloom, can be turned into either a rail or a sleeper according to demand. The entire operation is remote-controlled from overhead cabins, and production can reach 5,000 tonnes.
a week. But what does this mean to Workington? Mr Leonard Raby, General Manager of the works.
Well today we've seen the last cast of Bessemer steel made at Workington but certainly not the end of rail making at Workington. We shall continue here as one of the corporations'principal centers for railmaking, but we shall be using steel produced in the modern oxygen process at Teesside, which we shall pass through our new bloom reheating. furnace which has been specially constructed for the purpose and we shall continue therefore to make rails in the traditional manner.
Although today there is some sadness in seeing the passing of an old friend and the Bessemer as a friend has served this industry extremely well over the years it's the beginning of a new chapter in the history of this great works. and I look upon it as an exciting, challenging change for Workington and Workington will continue to be a major manufacturer of rails and the corporation's supplier of foundry iron.