[Illustration: LOADING ORE, ISLAND OF CUBA.[36] (See page 415.)] [Illustration: PIG IRON CASTING MACHINE.[37] (See page 415.)] [Illustration: OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE STOCK YARD.[37] (See page 415.)] MINING ORE, ISLAND OF CUBA. (See page 413.) The immense veins of magnetic ore lie close to the surface and are mined or quarried by working along a series of benches or ledges. LOADING ORE, ISLAND OF CUBA. (See page 413.) The ore is loaded into small buggies at the mines and run down an inclined plane, where it is dumped into railroad cars for transportation to the shipping wharves, seventeen miles distant. PIG IRON CASTING MACHINE. (See page 414.) No. 1 casting machine has a capacity of 1,000 tons per day. There are 180 molds, each pig weighing about 125 pounds. No. 2 machine has a capacity of 1,800 tons per day. It has 278 molds, each for 125-pound pig. Product, low phosphorus, Bessemer and basic, or high phosphorus machine-cast pig iron. OPEN-HEARTH FURNACE STOCK YARD. (See page 414.) The raw materials for the open-hearth furnaces are received on elevated railroad tracks graded and piled preparatory to sending to the furnaces. Yard No. 1 is 950 feet long and 87 feet wide, and is served by three electric traveling cranes of twenty tons and sixty tons capacity. Yard No. 2 is 790 feet long and 84 feet wide, and is served by two ten-ton electric traveling cranes. OPEN-HEARTH FURNACES. (See page 416.) No. 1 open-hearth plant consists of twelve furnaces, two ten-ton, two twenty-ton, five forty-ton and two fifty-ton basic furnaces and one forty-ton acid furnace with gas producers. Length of floor, 623 feet. No. 2 plant consists of ten fifty-ton furnaces with gas producers. Length of floor, 890 feet. CHARGING FLOOR OF OPEN-HEARTH FURNACES. (See page 416.) The stock is delivered to the charging floor in iron boxes loaded on narrow-gauge buggies, and is charged into the furnaces by electric charging machines. Length of floor of No. 1 open-hearth plant, 477 feet; width, 28 feet. Length of floor of No. 2 open-hearth plant, 890 feet; width, 50 feet. BLAST FURNACE STORAGE PLANT. (See page 417.) The coal, coke, ore, etc., is delivered direct by the railroad cars under a traveling cantilever crane running on tracks laid the length of a wharf and is dumped from the cars through chutes into buckets and piled until needed at the furnaces. The plant is capable of storing over 1,000,000 tons of material. BLAST FURNACES. (See page 417.)