h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remember doing some work on a control system for the asphalt plant at Scunthorpe - Scunthorpe Slag, as it was known.

And if Ty-Phoo put the 'T' into Britain, who put - ah, but this is a family show

Yeah, we've had the Typhoo bit, thanks. Hence Master B's ref to the "eponymous Scunthorpe problem".

But slag is an underestimated material. It sounds funny, sure, but it's surprisingly economically important. Within a few years, we'll be down to only a couple of places in the UK making iron (Scunthorpe and Port Talbot) and then we'll actually run short of the stuff.

Take a look if you don't believe me...
http://www.nationalslagassoc.org/Uses.html

(Reading, huh? S'pose we could consider using Lego as a substitute...)
Pin

Corus makes more profit off slag than steel now, doesn't it?

B

Well, yeah...but since Corus makes a whopping loss on its steel, your assertion is true of anything that Corus doesn't sell much of.

...Anything at all but steel, in fact

Any money made by selling slag is a profit to the iron maker. The people who make a profit on slag are the slag users Scunthorpe Slag, Tarmac etc.
In the days before British Steel, when Appleby Frodingham operated on the basis of 100% hot metal charge (little or no scrap), ironmaking was based on local low grade ore and for every ton of iron that was produced a ton of slag was generated. This molten slag was poured onto slag banks (the mountain range of Scunthorpe). At night the sky glowed red each time a slag ladle was tipped and the heavens reflected our glory.
No profit whatsoever was made out of the thousands of tons of slag that were loaded onto fleets of lorries and rushed from the slag banks of Scunthorpe to the east coast of Lincolnshire in the floods of 1953. On every bend of the road between Scunthorpe an Mablethorpe was slag that had spilled from the lorries as they sped on their journey to shore up the breached sea defences.
http://www.hove-to.freeserve.co.uk/53floods.htm
Ancient Brit

Thanks for that, Uncle Albert

B

I'm afraid that's over my head.

Uncle Albert? Only Fools and Horses? "During the War..."

B

Which war? Your history seems to be as good as your tact.
That particular event in history was no joking matter.