Steelmaking 101
So, if I am going to write about the Brown’s island explosion of 1972, why am I stuck in the 19th century? My belief is that a design flaw at the new plant, caused the explosion. Perhaps flaw is too strong a word. Let me say that I believe that one very small element of the plant’s design contributed greatly to the disaster. I don’t feel that I can do justice to the story without first explaining the need for coke, coke gas, and coke by-products in the development of the steel industry as we came to know it in Weirton, the Ohio Valley and really in the United States.
