Firing Up "Nancy dear," said U.S. Steel's Chairman Ben Fairless, "come on up here with Grandpappy and light your furnace." Before a crowd of 200 Big Steel officials, families and friends, Fairless' red-haired seven-year-old granddaughter touched an oil torch to a 6-ft. fuse, which began to sputter like a Fourth of July sparkler. Inside a giant blast furnace, the fuse ignited a stack of oil-soaked railroad ties, which in turn set fire to a charge of coke and started the furnace. A few minutes later, Nancy's sister Carol, 5, touched a button which...
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