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How to Make Steel for Skyscrapers

The first modern skyscraper was the Home Insurance Company Building, constructed in 1885 in Chicago, thanks to developments during the Industrial Revolution in the manufacture of steel. This comparatively lightweight and flexible metal allowed an inner skeleton to be built, around which thin walls could be hung. Making steel for this purpose is an expensive industrial process requiring a blast furnace.

Things You'll Need

Coal
Iron ore
Limestone
Coke oven
Blast furnace
Moulds

Instructions

- 1
  Place raw coal out of the ground into a coke oven. This will remove impurities and leave only pure carbon.
- 2
  Move the carbon, or ̶0;coke,̶1; into the blast furnace and add iron ore. The ratio should be 99 percent iron to 1 percent coke. Add limestone to remove impurities. These three materials will mix as they are heated in the blast furnace and sink to the bottom. The burning coke will release a gas, which removes oxygen from the iron ore. The limestone reacts with impurities in both the ore and coke to form what is known as a ̶0;slag.̶1; This slag absorbs the ash released by the carbon.
- 3
  Open the tap hole in the blast furnace to drain the slag. At the bottom of the blast furnace temperatures will be as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, with the molten slag floating on top of the molten iron. This allows the slag to be removed from the iron.
- 4
  Use an insulated rail car to move the still molten iron and carbon to a steelmaking facility.
- 5
  Mix the molten iron with recycled steel and pour into a mold. Steel can be recycled time and time again, making it an environmentally friendly option.
- 6
  Allow to cool.
- 7
  Rivet the steel sheets together. Steel girders used to make skyscrapers are referred to as ̶0;I-Beams̶1; because the steel sheets are riveted together into long beams with an ̶0;I̶1; shape at the end. These girders can then be riveted or welded together to provide the inner skeleton for a skyscraper.

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