Towns and Nature: Birmingham, AL: 1888-1976 US Steel Ensley Works/Tennessee Coal & Iron

(HAER; Satellite)

US Steel started in Alabama by buying the Tennessee Coal & Iron Company's Ensley Works. It then expanded by moving to Fairfield, AL.

Butch Updike commented on a post: "Ensley rail mill is where I started working for USS. Steam powered but we made the best rails!" "Steam powered" caught my eye. No wonder the operation was rebuilt in Fairfield.

HAER ALA,37-BIRM.V,16-
AERIAL VIEW. - Tennessee Coal & Iron Company, Ensley Works, West of residential & commercial districts, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL Photos from Survey HAER AL-52
Initial construction was 1888

Tim Grau posted
TCI Steel in Ensley, AL. Eventually purchased by US Steel in 1907. Birmingham area was known as the “ Pittsburgh of the South”. At its peak in the 1950’s, steel businesses, in the Birmingham area,
employed up to 45,000 people .
Dave Scaglione: One of my favorite places I’ve ever photographed:
https://www.abandoned.photo/portfolio/ensley-steel-works/

The Ensley steel mill is historically significant for a variety of "firsts" which occurred there. The first duplex steel in the United States was made here in 1899. So named because it was first produced in a Bessemer convertor then transferred to open hearth furnaces, the duplex process was later adopted widely at many major steel mills including the Duquesne plant of U.S. Steel. This steel was made into the first railroad rails produced from the open hearth process in the United States. The Ensley open hearths were also some of the first tilting open hearths employed in the United States. While these features make the site nationally significant, historically, the blast furnace plant is also important. These furnaces were the first blast furnaces in the District to produce basic iron on a large scale and the product was so competitive that it was sold to the Carnegie Steel Company for their steel furnaces in Pittsburgh. Since they were used to make basic pig iron from Red Mountain ore, in contrast to most other furnaces in the District which produced foundry iron, they developed a body of practice and design that was different from their local counterparts as well as the basic iron blast furnaces from other regions. While the differences were subtle, they were substantive and by the time the plant was acquired by U.S. Steel, it had become a basis of comparison with furnace design in other regions. Several technical reports issued by U.S. Steel show the designs of the Ensley furnaces alongside such notable blast furnaces as those at South Chicago, Edgar Thomspon and Duquesne. When the thin-walled furnace design was introduced from Germany, U.S. Steel rebuilt one of the Ensley furnaces to these specifications making it an important prototype for the corporation. [HAER-data]

Rick Leach posted
Ensley Alabama

Bob Ciminel posted
An Alabama steel mill.
Rick Rowlands: It is most definitely TCI Ensley.

Bob Ciminel posted
Richard Allison: Those are the first two blast furnaces at USS-Ensley near Birmingham.

Bob Ciminel posted
Richard Allison: It was USS-Ensley Works. Closed either 1979 or 1980. I had worked some at the blast furnaces prior to closing. The entire plant is torn down. A couple of miles south is what is left of USS-Fairfield Works. There is an 170t EAF, rounds caster and a seamless pipe mill. The slab caster is likely not operational now.

Eysa Allen posted three photos with the comment: "TCI/Ensley Works US Steel. Birmingham."

bhamwiki
Panoramic photograph of the Ensley Works, c. 1909 by the Haines Photo Co.
It operated until 1976. "For much of its existence, Ensley Works was the largest producer of steel ingots and rail in the Southern United States"
One proposal for redevelopment is to build a canal from Birmingport, which is currently the terminus for commercial traffic on the Black Warrior River.
[This article and al.com talk about the various redevelopment plan failures.]

John Murnan II posted
The Ensley Works in Birmingham, Alabama, operated between 1888 and 1976 and became part of U.S. Steel in 1907. For years, it was the largest steel producer in the Southeast.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress Photographic Archives
Mike Gump: Four stoves per Blast Furnace, a excellent setup...
Ronald Allan Crumpton: The rails made there were some of the best and the heat treated curve master rails used around the world.

Another History

1959 Adamsville

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: View of a blast furnace (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).
Robert W. Rice: That is one of the little ones.

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: Working the open hearths (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: Employees leveling rails (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair and collection).

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: Interior view of a blowing engine house. These blowing engines were steam driven, upright, and centrifugal (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).
Richard Allison: I wish they could have preserved the Ensley Works over the Sloss Works in downtown Birmingham. I know it would have cost more and USS would never agree to it.

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: View of the Bessemer Converter Shop (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Pouring iron into Bessemer vessel in a unique 90 degree way. You can see the belly of the vessel very plainly in this view.

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: Rolling Rail (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: Scarfing slabs (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).
Cleve Whatley: What is the purpose of scarfing?
Dennis DeBruler: Cleve Whatley From reading some comments on other posts concerning scarfing, it is the removal of surface imperfections when a slab was rolled from an ingot. Slabs made from a continuous caster are good enough that they generally don't need scarfing. Sometimes grinders are used instead of scarfing. There were many comments indicating that this was hot and hard work.
Rick Leach posted
[This has quite a few comments that explain scarfing.]

Raymond Boothe posted
TC&I Ensley Works: View of a hot metal train working inside the Ensley Works. Notice the use of open top hot metal cars combined with Pugh torpedo cars (USS photo/Dr. Raymond Boothe B&W repair).
Pittman Owen: I believe the open top vessels are slag pots. I started work there in 1965 and never saw hot metal in anything but torpedo ladles.

An urban ruins post about the site

29 1940s photos with lots of interesting comment on the photos

Carl Jacobson: Scarfing the impurities out of some blooms. A slab that is over 36 square inches on the end is a bloom. Smaller than that is a billet.

(shared, some comments talk about what was still operating in the 1970-80s)

The second photo is worthy of special attention.

Rob Bogan: Bessemer Converters, front vessel upside down after tap to clean. 2nd one being charged with hot metal.
Dennis DeBruler: Rob Bogan Thanks for the comment. Without it, I would not have a clue. With it, I understand what I'm seeing.
[The photos include open hearths so I don't know why they kept the bessimer converters into the 1940s.]

HAER-gallery

Robert Rice Sr. posted, rotated
Rail finishing loading dock, Ensley Alabama circa 1940.
Allen Pugh: Ensley made some of the best rails because of the old way they were rolled like pulling taffy it worked the steel better they also had Curve Master treatmet I was a Roll Turner there in the 70s.
Robert Rice Sr.: They were made by rolling them in both directions, not continuous in one direction. Every railroad in the world preferred Ensley rails. But there were only so many to go around. 90% of wear is on the curves where the wheel flanges grind on the rails to turn the cars, curve master rails were electrically induction heat treated and lasted 10 time longer than regular rails, as the top and sides of the rail head were hardened to a depth of about 3/8 inch.
Harvey Keister: Robert Rice Sr. Steelton Pa. uses that process still.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Ensley Alabama Blast Furnace blowing engine room, circa 1940. Where the wind for the Furnaces was made.
Mickey Sovich: Do you have any other pictures? When I first started at USS Gary in 1970 they were phasing them out and ran on blast furnace gas , I was to see them at all!
Andy Stevenson: I bet it was loud in there.
Robert Rice Sr.: I never got to go into the blowing engine building, but this is the one that my grandfather went to work in in 1928. It was considered a critical job and he never got laid off and could cross the picket lines if there was a strike. I've been told that these machines had to be tended every few hours or they would not restart after a long shut down. I got to work almost everywhere in Ensley at one time or another. It was truly an integrated steel mill, with blast furnaces, open hearths, a foundry, a steam plant. a lime plant, a blooming mill run by a 10,000 HP steam engine, a soil plant were fertilizer was made from the open hearth slag (until the ogyxen lances were added to the open hearths), a rail rougher/billet mill run by a second 10,00 HP steam engine, a 3 high rail mill run by a 5000 Hp electric motor, a heat treatment house where the rails were slow cooled, a rail finishing dept , and later a Curve Master heat treatment section where the heads of the rails were hardened to a depth of about 3/8". Yes, Ensley was a virtual History lesson on steel.
Andy Stevenson: Robert Rice Sr. WOW a ten thousand horse power steam engine I’d love to see that.
Robert Rice Sr.: It was quite a sight, two horizontal pistons with 30 foot piston arms driving 10 foot throws on a 40 ton crank shaft. And, it could start and stop on a dime. Shook the whole of Ensley one night in 1970's when a 600lb chunk of the housing broke out and went through the roof and into the nearby rail yard. We were down for about 2 weeks while specialists from Germany came and put the chunk back in place and drilled hundreds of holes along the crack, driving in special wedges to "sew' the housing back together. Took about a year to get another housing fabricated so there was no choice but to repair the old one for temporary use.
The steam engines were so powerful that wooden oak "keys" were used to connect the double herring bone gearbox to the mill so if the mill locked up it would break the wooden keys (strapped to the drive shafts in indentations with leather belts) ,instead of destroying the mill or drive shafts.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Steel pourer filling rail molds at pouring table behind No.8 rolling open hearth circa 1940.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Pouring iron in foundry to make molds for steel ingots, Ensley Alabama 1940's.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Foundry iron Ensley Alabama circa 1940's.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Ensley Alabama, [Kelly/]Bessemer converter blowing the carbon an impurities out of a heat of iron. The one in the foreground is upside down. These were still between the open hearth furnaces when I went to work there in 1969, ,though not used since the 1950's, picture circa 1940.

Comments on the above post

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Rail straightening ensley rail finishing circa 1940.
[Back then, rails were just 39' (12m) long and were fastened with joint bars. Now they are a quarter-mile long and welded.]
Marlin Holt: Garyworks also had presses similar to this funny name gager I also observed back then no hard hats or safety glasses and no safety shoes how did they survive??
Robert Scott Davis: Sunstrand straightener ?
Robert Rice Sr.: Robert Scott Davis I don't know the manufacturer. They were operated by a 30 hp electric motor and a 3 foot eccentric, went up and down about 3 or 4 inches , the man in front had a gag on a hammer handle and stuck it between the straightener and the rail at just the right time. The bend was turned to the top and was straightened when pushed downward.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Ensley Alabama rail finishing straightener looking down the rail, gagger inserting gag, helper standing in clear. The rail is upside down in this photo, but could be right-side up or on it's side it just depends on which way it is bent. When the head comes down with the gag inserted it pushes the bend out. The more it needs straightening the more toward the center of the head the gag is inserted as the head is bowed down in the center and thinner on the ends. Circa 1940's.
Butch Updike: Thanks for sharing!!I did this too very dangerous.
Robert Rice Sr.: Most gaggers had scars and few teeth.! Later the rail turner helper was replaced with a machine called a manipulator to turn the rails for straightening, operated by the man looking down the rail and making all of the decisions.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Pouring cast iron into No.7 rolling open hearth, circa 1940, Ensley Alabama. The iron had already been through the bessemer converters so it took a much shorter time to get analysis right in the open hearth.
Kenneth Treharn: I'm in my 70's and I worked in a Basic Open Hearth Melt Shop back in the 1960's & 70's. I've heard of this process to basically speed up refined Steel making. The Bessemer was fast but they couldn't control the Chemistry. Usually Sulfur was the enemy. The Open Hearth Furnaces were slower but they could work the heat to get the chemistry correct. I've heard of tilting Open Hearth Furnaces also. Basically if it was a 150 ton Open Hearth Furnace and the heat was correct, they'd tilt the furnace pouring say 50 tons into a ladle the pour in moulds. Pour 50 tons of molten iron into the front of the Open Hearth Furnace and working the heat back to correct chemistry, then repeat. They'd end up getting more Tonage at the end of the day.

John Bizub commented on the above post
U.S.Steel Ohio Works, Youngstown, Ohio

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Another pot of iron goes into the Open-Hearth. A long time ago, notice lack of PPE. [Personal Protective Equipment]
Kenneth Treharn: I'd guess around or before 1965. I started in the Open Hearth Melt Shop in 1968 and there were a couple First Helpers that didn't want to wear the "mandatory" hard hats. The Superintendent enforced the Company policy, hard hats, safety glasses and steel toe work boots, no exceptions. Btw, I operated a Hot Metal Crane for 3 years. It was an extremely hot job in the summer. No AC, just one high speed fan. In 1976 they put AC in the Hot Metal cranes. The Hot Metal Crane was Class 14 with tonnage (hourly bonus.) I got" bumped off the Hot Metal Crane by an old timer, Charging Machine Operator. 👍 I then took his Charging Machine Operator job. It was class 16 with a higher tonnage rate. 😊
Pete T. Kasich: My guess, is that picture was taken at least before the early 70s.
Joe Kerner: Pete T. Kasich Started in OH at Fairless Wks. in "69 We wore glasses, helmets, greens on entering any part of OH. When pouring in Pitside: hardhat, aluminized coats, leather spats, face shields and blue goggles.

Carl Jacobson
Top contributor
My first job in the Open Hearths at USS Ohio Works in Youngstown, Ohio was to be the Ladle Transfer Car Operator, delivering the Charging Ladles as pictured here. I started in 1974, at age 19, PPE was required then.
The Transfer Car was composed of two standard gauge ladle cars, a motor car on the south end and a dummy car with controls only on the north end. It had air brakes. Generally it was referred to as the “Streetcar” by the workers.
The iron was held in the Mixer tank and weighed into these Charging Ladles, then delivered to the furnaces, and I was responsible to get the ladle hooked up on the crane. The cab of the Charging Crane was on the far side as pictured, the crane operator could not seen the lifting hook on the spreader bar, as shown in this picture. USS also had a safety chain that had to be bolted through the small tilting hook before pouring these ladles. Crouching down, often on one or both knees behind a ladle full of molten iron to put a bolt through a safety chain, was the worst part of this job. The threads were often beat up. We carried 1/2 bolts about 6” long with us. No cutting tools, of course, if the bolt was really beat up. Since Charging Floors are all about production, if it took more than 15 seconds to put the safety bolt on, people started screaming.
We had 175 ton furnaces. Ideally we would charge 100 tons of Blast Furnace Iron. The Charging Ladles were 50 tons each, so each furnace got 2 when charging. That amount could be changed with the availability of iron.
I was told that the Mixer tank helped with the sulphur level in that if one Blast Furnace was producing higher sulfur in the iron, hopefully the other one would be lower, and it would even out. If the sulfur was running high towards the end of the heat, they might charge an extra 7 tons of iron, this was called giving the furnace a “drink,” to try to get the sulphur down.

Edmund Joscak: Don't know if it was true, but in Homesteads OH5, we were told that from top to bottom, each furnace consisted of a million bricks. I remember the steel jacketed ones used in the body of the furnace.
Glenn Gillis: The number of trip hazards on the floor might give Health & Safety guys heartburn, too.
Pete T. Kasich: The J&L Steel Open Hearths downriver, were built upon the same blueprints that OH 5 was built, but one year later. However, at some point. J&L removed a layer of bricks to increase the capacity from 350 tons to 380 tons.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
A view from the east of Ensley steel mill , early 1900's.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
North end of Ensley open hearths with mold cars in foreground beside the soaking pit building. Ensley Alabama circa 1940.
Robert Rice Sr.: A little way north of this is where the mold trains were pushed into the stripper building at the end of the soaking pit building by an eight wheel, 4 drivers, engine. 2 x 4 x 2. The track ran out with just enough room for 8 cars of molds. If the engine went too far back it would run off the tracks. Then there was hell to pay. There was no end stop as this was a narrow gauge track which shared a rail with a standard gauge track for regular trains bringing steel from Fairfield, about 5 or 6 miles away to the south. I was a licensed engineer but not allowed to drive this particular engine. I was a switch-man most of the time. I was straight out of high school and weighed about 105 lbs.

Robert Rice Sr. posted, cropped
Ensley open hearths, aerial view looking northwest, No.1 thru No.4 in foreground, No.5 thru No.9 farther away,with mixer and Bessemer Dept. Between. Rail finishing is at right side. Circa 1940
Billy Hayes Faughn: I’m not certain but I believe open hearths were done away with and obsolete in the 70’s or early 80’s. Very dangerous and tough work. The charging side reminded me of Dante’s furnace and the pouring side could have been the surface of Mars. A tv series called United States Steel Hour in the 50’s and 60’s in the opening scene showed an open hearth on the pouring side with molted steel and slag blowing out when it was tapped.
Robert Rice Sr.: These open hearths were on giant rollers which allowed them to tap without nearly as much danger. They could be turned back to stop the flow of steel into the ladle. They were operated by 3 foot diameter water cylinders about 20 feet long. The pressure for them came from the lake which supplied the water being high on a hill behind the open hearths. Hence "rolling open hearths'. They could be rolled forward slightly also to allow the slag to run out of the doors and into pots below also, a very controlled process. And , yes the inside looked like one was looking straight into Hell. These were shut down in about 1979, they were built in the 1890's. These were 150 ton furnaces except No. 9 which was about 190 ton.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Ensley Alabama rails being magnetic lifted for insertion into the slow cool boxes for heat treatment. Later they would by placed from the cooling boxes back onto the roll line to the right for transport to rail finishing dept. Circa 1940's, same process until shut down in April 1981.
Bill Aguilera: My guess would be around 127 rail .
Robert Rice Sr.: Bill Aguilera Somewhere between 115 and 132 lb per yard.
Steve Adams: At what temperature would this have been at? Steel loses magnetism above the curie temperature, so would have been lower than that.
Robert Rice Sr.: Steve Adams Under 500 degrees.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Grinding rail ends, Ensley Alabama rail finishing. Circa 1940's.
Marlin Holt: When i was at the Gary indiana rail mill this was called deburring the actual grinding of rails was to square up the ends. this was before they installed milling machines, was dusty dirty and a good paying day job.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Cleaning billets Ensley Alabama circa 1940's.
Art Wright: They are not cleaning them they are chipping out surface cracks. This is done to prevent deficiencies in the billetts when further reduced through additional rolling. Cracks will become imbedded. Had two billet chipping yards in Gary, one at billet Mill one at Rail mill.
Marlin Holt: Chippers, in us steel gary works they chipped steel at 10 below was freezin an they were sweating as soon as they finished off to a warm room for rest of shift, they had a strong right arm from pushing on the chisel.
Patrick Liddle: I've used those chipping guns on factory rehab/conversion projects, cleaning up existing rough concrete slab edges before we poured new concrete next to the old. It was often harder work than wielding a 90# jackhammer. Those guys earned their wages--and then some!

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Scarfing slabs, Ensley Alabama, circa 1940's. Notice the TCI railroad insignia on the car in background.
[Several comments about how such a short torch is causing him to bend over. Normally a longer torch is used that allows one to work while standing up.]
David Shroads: At one time, scarfers, on average, were the highest paid employees in our mill.
Bert Pass: The continuous caster is on the Mount Rushmore of transformative steel technologies. Those ingot slabs look like crap compared to what a caster produces.
Will Jamison: Scarfing is where the scale on the surface of an ingot or slab is burned off with a long torch. The burn starts at one end and continues to the opposite end. Depending on the width several passes are made. They're cooled and then hit with a wire brush. The scale flakes off allowing the clean surface of the metal to be seen. It's then inspected for cracks, porosity, inclusions, and other defects.
I worked in the steel yard on ingots for my first two years at the mill. Scarfing, burning off runners, beveling, and cutting off hot tops.
[Some comments indicated that this job paid well but it shortened your life because of all of the smoke and gasses you had to breath.]

Graham Whitefield commented on the above post
We had Scarfers in our Slabyard in 1960’s - 70’s but very reduced numbers due to the Auto Scarfer in the Slabbing Mill giving a very clean and largely defect free surface.
The Auto Scarfer (photo enclosed) was a fearsome sight and threw red hot scale over a wide area and used Propane and Natural Gas.
Fairly regularly a build up of gas would occur under the hood of the machine and a loud bang would result.
Every Mill Operator and Maintenance man walked past the Auto Scarfer with trepidation braced for a mini explosion.

Dennis Barker commented on the above post
Scarfing at Granite City Steel...
I think the PPE has improved and ergonomics with a longer Torch...Still one of the toughest jobs in the "Mill"..

Robert Rice Sr. posted
The back of the Ensley Alabama blast furnaces, I think they are Nos 3 thru 6 with stoves to the left.
Cleve Whatley: Ensley had six blast furnaces? I thought with Fairfield having numbers 5 through 8 that Ensley had 1 through 4. Never worked for TCI so I could be way off base.
Robert Rice Sr.: 5 and 6 were torn down long ago.

Cleve Whatley commented on Robert's comment
I remember stories of the "Big Four" being the four furnaces Enoch Ensley built at the turn of the century. The picture included from Ensley shows Big Four on a railroad car.
Robert Rice Sr.: Love this photo.! looks like the 1890's.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Ensley Alabama Y5 Crane circa 1940's.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Dumping slag pots at Ensley Alabama, photo courtesy of Ronnie Glenn.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
All that's left of the Ensley supply house.

Robert Rice Sr. posted
Drone footage of Ensley Alabama steel plant today. Foreground supply house. Right stacks of open hearths. Center back rail mill power house.