Problems of Technology Choice Faced by the Private-Sector Steel Industry in Prewar Japan

Yoichi KOBAYAKAWA

doi:10.5029/jrbh1984.13.53

Yoichi KOBAYAKAWA

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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1997 Volume 13 Pages 53-71

DOI https://doi.org/10.5029/jrbh1984.13.53

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Published: March 15, 1997 Received: - Available on J-STAGE: June 28, 2010 Accepted: - Advance online publication: - Revised: -
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Date of correction: June 28, 2010 Reason for correction: - Correction: CITATION Details: Right : 1This account of the events leading to the establishment of the company is based on Kaichiro Imaizumi,Nippon Kokan Kabushiki Kaisha sogyo nijunen kaikoroku[Recollections of twenty years of Nippon Kokan operations],1933.
2Ibid.,pp.57-58.
3Ibid.,pp.66-67.
4Osamu Nagashima,Senzen Nihon tekko sangyo no kozo bunseki[Structural analysis of prewar Japan's steel industry](Meneruba Shobo,1987),pp.159-61.
5Ibid.
6Nippon Kokan,ed.,Nippon Kokan Kabushiki Kaisha yonjunen shi[Forty years of Nippon Steel Pipe](Nippon Kokan,1952),p.863.(Hereafter abbreviated as Forty Years)
7Ibid.,and also Nagashima,Structural Analysis of Japan's Prewar Steel Industry,p.114.
8Seiiichi Kojima,Nippon Kokan Kabushiki Kaisha sabjunen shi[Thirty years of Nippon Steel Pipe](Nippon Kokan,1942),pp.160-61.(Hereafter abbreviated as Thirty Years)
9This account of trends in the company after World War I is based principally on Kojima,Thirty Years,pp.170ff.and Forty Years,pp.79ff.
10See Ken'ichi Iida,Shfiji Ohashi,and ToshirO Kuroiwa,eds.,Gendai Nihon Sangyo hattatsu shi IV:Tekko[History of the development of modern Japanese industry,4:Steel](Kojunsha,1969),pp.265ff.,and Tetsuji Okazaki,“Sentetsu KyOdO Kumiai”[Pig Iron Association],in JurO Hashimoto and Haruhito Takeda,eds.,RyOtaisenkanki no Nihon no karuteru[Cartels in Japan between the two world wars](Ochanomizu Shob,1985,pp.23ff.
11Osamu Nagashima,“Nihon Kokan Kabushiki Kaisha no koro kensetsu”[Nippon Steel Pipe's blast furnace construction],Shishi kenkyil Yokohama[City-histories research,Yokohama],No.2(1988),pp.3-6.
12Ibid.,p.7.
13Ibid.,pp.12-15.
14After World WarIIKawasaki Steel's Chiba Iron and Steel works,built in1954,were the first littoral-type integrated steel plants in postwar Japan,and they are often referred to as being the models for steel mills in Japan after them.The factory faces the ocean on three sides.In other words,they were laid out in the most efficient manner,in that“the plant was fitted out in an efficient manner along three docks,with stress laid on conveyance,so that iron ore and coal went in through the front,scrap went in from the south side,and products were unloaded from the north side,”and within the mill conveyance was done mostly by means of belt conveyors,with everything “from raw materials to the finished products traveling the shortest course possible.”See Kawasaki Jukogyu Kabushiki Kaisha shi(hon shi)[History of Kawasaki Heavy Industries(Main his-tory),1959,pp.936-37.The expression“littoral-type”means that the factory has wharves where ships carrying raw materials and finished products can dock,and also that the factory is laid out in a rational way,as described above.
15Thirty Years,pp.305-306,and Forty Years,p.183.
16Thirty Years,pp.180ff.
17Forty Years,p.864.
18In the government-owned Yawata Iron and Steel Works,the company had used,right from its inception in1901,both the open-hearth and the converter(Bessemer converter)processes,but in1927it had suspended its converter operations.Because lowphosphorus steel could not be produced by the Bessemer converter,its uses were limited.In order to solve this problem,at Yawata Iron and Steel Works they developed a process that combined the open-hearth furnace and converter to eliminate even more phosphorus from converter steel ingots,and they actually made use of the process,but the method made a rise in the cost of steel manufacture unavoidable.See Yawata Seitetsusho hachijunen shi:Bumon shi jokan[Eighty years of Yawata Iron and Steel Works:Division histories,part1](1980),pp.63-69.
19The Metal Bureau,Ministry of Coimnerce and Industry,ed.Seitetsugyo sanko shiry[Steel industry reference materials](1943),pp.28-29,308-309.
20For this account of the process in which the Thomas steel manufacturing method was invented and the technology involved,I principally consulted Tetsu no rekishi[The history of steel],Morihito Nakazawa's translation of Ludwig Beck's book(Tatara Shoba,1972),vol.5,pt.3,pp.78ff.,and Shin'ichi Nakazawa's three-part article,“Wakaki kyosei TOmasu”[The young bright star,Thomas],in Tekkiikai [World of steel](1957),nos.6,7,and8.With a Bessemer converter it is true that scrap iron and iron ore are not needed in the steehnaking process,and as a steel manufacturing method that required no fuel(it used the silicon in the pig iron as its heat source)it was an epoch-making advance over the open hearth,but it was not a suitable method for refining pig iron that contained a lot of phosphorus.The Thomas method of steel manufacturing,on the contrary,not only retained the good points of the Bessemer converter,it also was a steel manufacturing method that made the removal of phosphorus possible.That is to say,by blowing air from the bottom of the converter it was possible to produce a reaction between the oxygen in the air and the phosphorus inside the pit iron,and thus to get the amount of heat needed for refinement.Using the phosphorus particles inside the pig iron as a heat source,it removed those phosphorus particles from the steelmaybe no completely,but close enough to completely.
21Kalchiro“Doitsu seiko jigyo no fukko to wagakuni ni okeru Teimasu seikoho no susume”[The revival of German steelmaking operations and a recommendations of the Thomas steelmaking method in our country],in Kiichiro5Matsushima,ed.,Tomasu seikoho[The Thomas steel manufacturing method](Chikuma Shobo,1943.
22Kaichiro Imaizumi,“Wagakuni seikogyo no goriteki sasshin to hiryo seisaku”[A rational renovation of our country's steel manufacturing industry and fertilizer policies],in K.Imaizumi,Tetsukuzu shu[Steel scrap gatherings],pt.2(Koseikai Shuppanbu,1930),pp.1064-65.
23O.Nagashima,Structural Analysis,p.18.
24Tarty Years,pp.169-70.
25Ibid.,pp.207-208.
26Ibid.
27Kaichiro Imaizumi,“Enkisei tenro seikoho[tsusho Tomasu seikoho)no kaishi ni tsuite”[On the start of the basic converter steel manufacturing method(what is called the Thomas steel manufacturing method)],in K.Matsushima,ed.,The Thomas Steel Manufacturing Method,pp.62ff.
28See Steel Industry Reference Materials(cited in n.19above),pp.240-41.
29Forty Years,p.859.
30Ibid.,p.645.
31Ibid.,p.755.
32Kosuke Kikuchi and Takehei Iwafuji,“Tamasu ko to heiro ko no zaishitsu hikaku kenkyu”[Studies comparing the qualities of Thomas steel and open-hearth steel],in The Thomas Steel Manufacturing Method,pp.107ff.
33K.Kikuchi,“Tomasu ko ni yoru seihin narabi ni yoto”[Products of Thomas steel and their usage],The Thomas Steel Manufacturing Method,pp.107ff.
34Yushi Enta,Inobeeshon no honshitsu-tekko gijutsu donyu purosesu no Nichibei hikaku[The essence of innovation:A comparison between Japan and the U.S.of the process of introducing steel manufacturing technology](Toyo Keizai Shinposha,1986),0.100.(This book is a translation of the book by Leonard H.Lynn.)There are works by Nippon Steel Pipe technicians who were actually involved in the introduction of LD converters:Tsuneo Kinoshita,“Nippon Kokan ni okeru seikoho no suii gaikyo ni tsuite”[General fluctuations in converter steel manufacturing methods at Nippon Steel Pipe],Tetsu to hagane[Iron and steel],1960,no.7;and Jo Doi,Nippon Kokan ni okeru tenro seikoho no ayumi[The history of converter steel manufacturing methods at Nippon Steel Pipe](Nippon Steel Pipe,1987).

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