The golden stream, a river of molten iron

between 150 and 250 tons are tapped in a cast a 100 tons are so stream down runways of sand of graphite into the first of two huge labels then the gate is raised and the molten stream flows to a second label outside lies the label a thermos bottle as big as a tank car lined with brick capable of holding molten iron at the highest possible temperature a lot goes on in the 20 minutes that it takes to make a cast not so much in the 6 hours between casts then there's time to relax but now another sample must be taken from the golden stream a test specimen which will tell the steelmaker the quality of his work he takes skill men to nurse these monsters men who know the whims of Iron Men whove been feeding the pulse and taking the temperature of liquid metal for a good many years