From the April 9, 1938, issue
By Science News
VAST UNDERGROUND WORKINGS SUPPLY LIMESTONE FOR STEEL
Limestone, necessary in the smelting of iron ore, must be mined just as is the iron and coal used in steel manufacture, now that surface workings have been exhausted. How the “hard rock men” who blast out the limestone work is shown in the photograph on the front cover of this week’s Science News Letter. Two men are here shown, dwarfed by the great masses of limestone overhead, drilling in a back stope of the Muscoda Limestone Mine, near Birmingham, Ala. This mine produces 130 tons of limestone per hour during busy seasons, all of which is shipped for use in the nearby smelters.