History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 67

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922

USA > New York > Clinton County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 67
USA > New York > Franklin County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 67

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BURIAL-PLACES.

The town contains a number of burial-places, none of which are of great age or importance. The oldest are those at Ausable Forks and Blaek Brook. These are in good condition and well cared for.

INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS.

The splendid water-power of the town, its rich beds of iron ore, and large quantities of valuable timber, are the foundation of its present importance as a manufacturing and mining town. So far as the cultivation of the soil is concerned, but a small proportion of the inhabitants of the town are engaged in it.

The streams were early occupied by saw- and grist-mills, one of the earliest of which was on Palmer Brook, and a large number are still to be found in various parts of the town. Iron-forges and tanneries have also abounded in the

town sinee its first settlement, and lime- and charcoal-kilns have furnished still other departments of industry.

In the north part of the town of Black Brook are also found valuable deposits of iron, and several important mines have been opened at that point.

The mine which is known as the " Trembly Ore Bed," at Williamsburgh, was discovered by Peter Trembly in 1854, and was worked by him until 1867, when it was sold to Bowen & Williams, and subsequently fell into the hands of Mr. Bowen, and afterwards of Bowen & Signor. Here quite a little hamlet has grown up, the inhabitants of which are employees of the company. The mine is situated upon a considerable elevation above the river Saranac, about one mile to the east of Redford, in the town of Saranac, and consists of only one vein of ore, which runs northeast and southwest. The ore from the mine is of excellent quality, and supplies the extensive forges of Bowen & Signor at Saranac Hollow and Russia.

At Clayburgh, half a mile above the forks of the Saranac River, on the south braneh, is the Caldwell mine, which was opened in 1841 by Royal Cushman, and was then owned by Caldwell & Barnard. It was the first mine opened in the Saranac Valley. A separator was erected, and the ore was sold mostly at Saranac Hollow. The ore is of excellent quality, and particularly adapted for wire- making. In 1844 the property passed into the possession of Caldwell & Myers, who built a forge of four fires. . In 1855 it became the exelusive property of Deacon Lawrence Myers, of Plattsburgh, and was operated by him until 1863, under the superintendence of his son, John Henry Myers. It was then sold to Bowen & Williams, and in 1871 be- came the sole property of Mr. Williams, who is still the owner. The works at that point embrace the Caldwell mine, and a forge of five fires, the latter of which was rebuilt since coming into the possession of Mr. Williams. The forge and separator are located near the mouth of the mine, and 15 coal-kilns furnish the fuel for the coneern.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

BLACK BROOK-(Continued).

J. & J. Rogers Iron Company at Ausable Forks, Black Brook, and Jay.

IT is a fact not generally known, even to the largest manufacturers and dealers in iron, that nearly all of the finer grades of cast steel made in the United States are made from ore mined among the Adirondack Mountains, and reduced to iron in the Catalan forges in this compara- tively small section of Northern New York.

The whole Adirondack country is studded with the re- mains of old forge fires. There is scarcely a stream where water-power could be had that is not marked somewhere with the remains of old dams, and near by may be found the old cinder pile and what is left of the kilns wherein the ore was roasted.

Most of these forges have been small enterprises, and run until the ore or wood in their immediate vicinity was

Enye my A. H.Ihtchie, N.A.

James logens

253

TOWN OF BLACK BROOK.

exhausted, or, more likely, until some depression in the iron market brought ruin upon their owners.

The running streams in Clinton County abound in brook trout, and whoever has enjoyed the high pleasure of follow- ing these brooks in quest of this gem of fishes must have realized that he was in a cemetery of iron enterprises. There are, however, a few iron establishments whose for- tunate location or unusual business enterprise and ability have made them an exeeption to the general rule, and which have not only survived, but have steadily prospered and continued to grow cven during times that brought ruin upon their less fortunate neighbors. The most prominent of these exceptions is the establishment of the J. & J. Rogers Iron Company, whose principal office is at Ausable Forks, with branch offices at Black Brook and Jay. This com- pany obtain their ore from their mine on " Palmer Hill," which is located about two miles north of the village of Ausable Forks. Prior to 1825 this mine was owned by Zephaniah Palmer, from whom it took its name. It was subsequently owned by Zephaniah Platt, by whom it was sold in 1825 to Messrs. Burt & Vanderwarker, who the same year ereeted a saw-mill at Ausable Forks. Two or three years later the same company, reinforced by Messrs. Keese, Lapham & Co. and Caleb D. Barton, commenced the manufacture of iron by the erection of a four-fired forge, procuring their ore partly from Palmer Hill and partly from Arnold Hill. The Palmer Hill ore being much the leaner was not valued as highly as the Arnold ore, and but little attention was at first paid to it. At this time the ore was separated by what was known as the magnet process.

In 1834 the owners sold out to a stock company, known as the Sable Iron Company, and composed of Reuben San- ford, Arden Barker, James Rogers, John Fitzgerald, Rich- ard H. Peabody, Robert B. Hazard, and Calvin Crook as trustees. At this time Messrs. J. & J. Rogers were making iron at Black Brook, having commenced in 1831, hauling the ore for their forge mostly from Arnold Hill, in the winter, upon sleds. The new company, of which James Rogers was one of the stockholders, soon began to feel the pressure of financial embarrassment. During the year 1835 the business was carried on by John Woodman, as agent. In 1836 work in the mines and forges was entirely sus- pended for about a year. During the panic of 1837 the stock passed into the hands of J. & J. Rogers, in whose possession it has since remained.

Immediately after the property at Ausable Forks came into the possession of the Messrs. Rogers, they commenced to enlarge and improve it, and now at this place many of the important works of the company are located. On the south branch of the river the first rolling-mill was built in 1834. In 1864 the store, grist-mill, and other valuable works of this company were destroyed by fire, most of which were at once rebuilt, the store being replaced by a large brick building, being one of the finest structures of its kind in Northern New York. In December, 1874, the rolling-mill, nail-factory, and machine-shop were totally burned, and all but the nail-factory rebuilt the following year. The new rolling-mill is 160 feet by 80 feet, and is liberally furnished with the most modern machinery. The machine-shop is well supplied with good tools. The eom- .

pany also have a foundry, blacksmith-shop, saw-mill, car- penter-shop, and other workshops situated at Ausable Forks, around which has grown a village of 1000 inhabitants.

The works at Black Brook are situated on two sites a quarter of a mile apart, and designated the Upper and Lower village. Operations here began with the erection of a saw-mill and other structures in 1830. Two years later the first forge fires were built by John and Peter. McIntyre. At this point are now to be seen a gang saw- mill, with English gate, a lateh- and shingle-mill, a eireular saw-mill, a store and office erected in 1853, two forges, one of eight and the other of four fires, planing-mill, blaeksmith- shops, and other auxiliaries to the extensive business of this company.

At Lower Jay, in Essex County, are still further works formerly belonging to the J. & J. Rogers Iron Company. Operations began here in 1809, and were continued by Messrs. G. A. Purmot & Co. These works consisted of a grist- and saw-mill, a forge, and other minor workshops. The owners of this property suffered severe losses, and in 1864 the property was purchased by the Messrs. Rogers. Here are now six forge fires, a store and offiee, a brick- yard, grist-mill, meehanic-shops, and other adjunets of the business.

This company owns about 50 eoal-kilns of the best con- struetion, these being situated principally above Black Brook, many of them far up upon the slopes of the mountains that form the spurs of Whiteface and Keene Mountains. The labor of about 500 men is required to produee the coal used by this company.

The old decaying mills upon the streams tell us that the lumber business was onee a thriving industry in Clinton County, but the destruction of the virgin timber and the low priee of spruce lumber have turned most of the saw- mills into monuments of past industry, and there they re- main simply as milestones in the legends told by the "oldest inhabitant." In this, as in many other things, the works of Messrs. Rogers furnish an exception to the rule. Their lumber business is an item of some importanee, though it is carried on simply as an incidental to the getting of charcoal for their forge fires. In cutting wood for coal the best logs are saved and taken to the saw-mills to be cut, and in this way about a million and a half feet of lumber is annually manufactured, which is mostly sent to Albany for sale. This business is conducted principally at Black Brook.

Another noticeable thing in the Adirondack region is the large number of abandoned orc-beds. Throughout this whole country there are a great many beds or deposits of iron ore of the variety known as magnetite (FeO + Fe2O3); this is generally found in close mechanical combination with feldsparie rock, and, unfortunately, in a great many cases there is more feldspar than ore. Magnetites are sel- dom found in true veins, but are deposited in pockets, and wherever an ore has shown itself above ground it has been dug for with an enterprise and enthusiasm only equaled by the school-boy after his first woodchuck. A large majority of these openings furnished nothing more than unredeemed promises to the miner; a great many others were soon worked out, or at least worked until the vein got too small to be profitably worked any longer; others contained

254

HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

enough sulphur to make the iron too "red short" for market ; in some phosphorus existed, rendering the iron " cold short" and valueless ; while in others too much titan- ium was found to permit the ore to be profitably worked in a forge fire. In only a few places, comparatively, have the ore deposits been found large enough and pure enough to be extensively and profitably worked. The mines owned and worked by the J. & J. Rogers Iron Company are located on Palmer Hill, in the town of Black Brook, and the ore taken from these mines is known as " Palmer ore," from which all of this company's iron is now made. This ore has been long and extensively mined, and is probably the best and most favorably known of the finer grades of the Adirondack or Champlain ores. These mines have been worked for upwards of forty years, and in some places the veins, or, more properly speaking, the pockets, have run out or gotten too small to be profitably worked, but the main or larger veins still afford a plentiful supply for all demands upon them. The vein at present worked is more than one thousand feet deep. The mouth of this mine is about twelve hundred feet above the sea level, and the vein pitches quite regularly at an angle of about 30 degrees. The drilling is principally done by air compressed at the surface with a Rand & Waring compressor driven by steam- power ; this compressed air is conducted to the bottom of the mine in iron pipes, where it is supplied to power-drills working upon the principle of the steam-engine, with the piston-rod lengthened into a drill, only the compressed air is used instead of steam. This compressed air not only does the work of drilling, but it keeps the mine constantly supplied with pure, fresh air. In compressing the air at the surface, a great deal of heat is given off, so that it is necessary to keep the compressor encased in running water. When this compressed air is liberated in the mine, a cor- responding amount of heat is absorbed, which renders the air around the drills very cold, often causing ice to form on the drills during the hottest weather in summer. The blasting is done with nitro-glycerine compounds, and, to insure safety to the miners, the holes are all loaded by men having special charge of that business, and fired at noon and at night, when no one is in the mine except the men firing the blasts. As a good result of this care,-which is also extended to keeping the mine thoroughly supported with pillars and the roof free from loose stones,-it is worth noting that during the forty years that this company have worked this mine not a single life has been lost by what is popularly known as " unavoidable accidents." Twenty-five thousand tons of this ore are raised yearly, all of which is worked into iron in the Catalan forges of the company, after which it is sold to the cast-steel makers.

The following is an analysis of the ore as it is takeu from the mine :

Pure metallic iron .. 46.56 }

Iron ore ..

64.55

Water

Insoluble siliceous matter (white sand) 30,98

Sulphur (practically) none

Phosphoric acid (phosphorus, .054).

.13

Alumina.

1.67

Lime ...

.68

Magnesia .58

Oxide of manganese .. .14

Organic and undetermined matter and loss. .70

100.00

The Palmer ore, like all the purer magnetites, is a lean ore, and requires roasting and separating before it is rich enough to work in a forge fire. After being mined the ore is hauled in wagons nearly two miles to the company's sep- arators, which are located a short distance north of Ausable Forks. The ore is here roasted in open kilns, where about 300 tons of raw ore is piled upon 25 cords of wood. The heat causes the stone to loose its hold upon the ore. As soon as the ore is cold it is wheeled to the separators and put into long troughs with grate-bottoms, where it is stamped with heavy iron hammers. After it is stamped it is passed through screens, and finally deposited in what is known as the sieves. The . sieves used by this company are quite different, and thought by them to be a decided improve- ment upon the old-fashioned sieves in general use. They usc two patterns, one rectangular, with water-discharge at one end, the other circular, with water-discharge in the centre. The bottom of these sieves is covered with hard ore about the size of a hickory-nut; this covering is called bedding. The sieves are partly sunk in a trough of water, and so ar- ranged that the water on the outside of the sieve is some three or four inches higher than on the inside ; this differ- ence in head causes the water to force its way up through the bottom of the sieve and run off at the discharge ; the" sieve, in the mean time, is gently shaken or "jiggered ;" the unseparated ore is automatically fed into the sieve by an ingenious arrangement causing a uniform distribution. The head and amount of water, the "jiggering" of the sieve, the amount of bedding, and the supply of unsepa- rated ore are so regulated that the ore sinks through the holes in the bottom of the sieves, while the sand is raised up by the water and carried off through the water-discharge. This is the result of the difference in gravity (ore, G. 5; sand, G. 2}). A great deal of skill and attention is re- quired to keep a proper adjustment for these sieves. A small error on one side will make the ore too lean, and a small error on the other side will render the sand too rich, but with proper care an excellent separation is effected.

The following analysis, compared with the one given of the raw ore, will not only show the perfection of this sepa- ration, but will also give the composition of the ore from which a very large part of the best American cast steel is made :

Pure metallic iron 66.15 { Iron ore

Oxygen with iron .. 25.94 } 92.09

Moisture (absorbed) 21

Insoluble siliceous matter (white sand) 5.95

Sulphur (practically ) none

Phosphoric acid (phosphorns, .069) 16

Alumina

.26

Lime ..

.70

Magnesia,

.36

Oxide of manganese

.12

Undetermined matter and loss

.15

100.00

Oxygen with the iron .... 17.99 }

.57

After passing through the sieves the ore falls into troughs, from whence it is carried, in little iron buckets attached to revolving belts, to the bins ready to be taken by wagons to the company's forge fires at Black Brook, Ausable Forks, and Jay.

The Catalan forge is the most ancient known process for making iron, and it is possible that when Tubal Cain in- structed his first class in the art of iron-making, he de-

John Rogers,

255

TOWN OF BLACK BROOK.

scribed an operation that might be recognized as a progenitor of the more perfected process as practiced by this modern company.

The Catalan forge represents such an extensive business interest in the counties of Clinton and Franklin as to de- serve a somewhat accurate deseription. These forges differ somewhat at different places, though the difference is not material. It is perhaps best to confine our description to one forge, and we have selected for this purpose the forge of the J. & J. Rogers Iron Company, located at Ausable Forks, N. Y.

These forges are made of cast-iron plates, so as to form a kind of box 27 inches by 24 inches, and 18 inches deep. This depth is reduced some 4 inches by the insertion of a " bottom plate," cast hollow, through which water is kept constantly running. A current of water also passes through the plate on the side of the box at which the tuyère enters the fire, and also on the side opposite the tuyère. Three arehed pipes pass over the fire inside the chimney, by which the blast is heated to between 900 and 1000 degrees F. The air thus heated enters the fire at one side, near the bottom, through a water tuyère, with a pressure equal to 12 inches of mercury. The chimneys are twenty feet high, and are made of briek banded with iron. There are four of these fires, which furnish work for one hammer, which is a cast-iron tilt-hammer weighing five gross tons, and run by an undershot water-wheel at the rate of eighty strokes to the minute. The blast is supplied by three bellows, or air-pumps, of 32-inch cylinder and 45 inchies stroke, oseil- lating on a horizontal bed and ingeniously arranged so as to furnish a uniform pressure. These bellows are run by a turbine wheel, and make each eleven strokes per minute.

After the fire is kindled in the forge the fire-box is filled full of charcoal, and as soon as it is sufficiently hot the bloomer, or man in charge of the fire, commenees gently throwing ore over the fire, which has the effect of deaden- ing it down. This shoveling of ore is repeated at short intervals for three hours, when the iron, which is ealled a loop, is ready to be taken out. During this operation the cinder is drawn off quite frequently, in the forin of liquid silicate of iron, through tap-holes near the bottom of the box. The ore, as it is distributed upon the burning char- eoal, is quickly heated and deoxidized, and doubtless highly carbonized at the same time. In this condition it readily works its way through the charcoal into the bottom of the box or firc. While the ore is being heated and deoxidized the silica which is contained in the ore, mostly in the form of mechanically-combined feldspar, and which was not en- tirely removed at the separator, combines with a portion of iron and forms an impure silicate of iron, which is fusible at a lower temperature than either the iron or the original silex. This silicate or cinder forms a liquid mass or " bath" in the bottom of the box into which the iron falls. Carbon has a greater affinity for silicate of iron than it has for pure metallic iron, and this cinder-bath undoubtedly takes a great deal of carbon from the iron that falls into it and tends to render the iron more mallcable. The tend- cney of iron made by this process is to absorb too much earbon, and consequently it is the effort of forge owners to make their iron as soft as possible. One of the great diffi-

cultics in making this iron is to prevent the bloomer from running the fires too hot. When a great deal of coal is piled upon a fire, and it is allowed to get very hot before it is cooled down by throwing ore upon it, bloomers say the fires are run hot, and while a larger yield is produced in this way, the iron is much harder than when the fire is kept at a uniform temperature.

An increase of blast tends to make harder iron, and the malleability of iron is also dependent upon the size of the tuyère and its position in the fire; also largely upon the skill and faithfulness of the bloomer.

After the fires have been run for three hours the loops are "dug out" with long bars, and placed on a hand- cart and wheeled to the hammer. These loops weigh about 350 pounds ; they are then "shingled," or hammered into the form of a rude cylinder, when one end is placed back in the forge fire to be re-heated while the next loop is being made. As soon as it is sufficiently hot it is taken out and hammered to three and a half inches, the unsound or ragged end is cut off and thrown back into the fire to be run over, and then one-fourth of the remainder is cut off, and forms a billet or bloom. The remainder of the loop is then re- heated and hammered and cut into three billets ; these bil - lets each weigh about 80 pounds.

It takes two tons of raw ore to make one ton of separated ore, and two tons of separated ore and from 300 to 350 bushels of charcoal to produce a ton of iron.

This company produce between 5000 and 6000 gross tons of iron per year, and for the last fifteen years it has been almost exclusively sold to the makers of crucible cast steel, the greater part of it having gone to Pittsburgh ; one concern, the Messrs. Park Bros., using one-half of the whole product. Most of this iron is shipped in billets as it comes from the forges, though some of it is rolled in the rolling-mill attached to the works and sold in the form of bars, ready to be cut for the cast-stccl erueibles.

Formerly a considerable portion of this iron was made into cut nails, in a large nail-factory owned by the company, but the low price of nails has caused a practical suspension of this branch of their industry. From the following analysis it will be seen that the product of the J. & J. Rogers Iron Company is not surpassed in purity even by the celebrated Loomoor iron of England, or the finer grades of iron from Norway.

Pure iron

99.440

Phosphorus. .042

Sulphur

Silica

.280

Carbon

.170

Oxygen, undeterminod matter, and loss. .068

100.000

This shows a very superior iron for conversion into east stecl, and is justly very highly prized by cast-steel makers ; but there are serious commercial objections to all forge irons for most other purposes, the principal of which are its want of uniformity in carbon, and the great cost of its production. Billets made by the same workman are not uniform with each other, and the carbon is not uniform throughout the same billet.

A great deal of labor and money have been expended to overeome this difficulty, but the obstaele seems to be that

256

HISTORY OF CLINTON COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the heat of the fire cannot be kept uniform, owing to the frequent application of fuel and ore, which cools the fires for a short time; the cinder bath, which tends to extract the carbon, being larger just before than just after tapping, tends to create an unevenness in the carbon in the loop; the varying heat of the blast, owing to the varying heat of the fire, also, doubtless, causes an unevenness in the hard- ness of the iron.

This want of uniformity is not a serious objection to cast- steel makers, who melt the iron in crucibles and add addi- tional carbon, and with the great care that this company are now bestowing upon the manufacture of their iron, it is reasonable to hope that the objection on account of uneven- ness may practically be eliminated.

It is asserted by metallurgists that iron is never perfectly welded, and since loops come out of the fire shaped very mueh like a robin's nest, the sides must be doubled over and welded on the centre. This causes the iron to be more or less seamy, and when the iron is turned or polished these scams will show, and while they do not materially weaken the iron, they injure its appearance and render it less sale- able.

The iron made by the J. & J. Rogers Iron Company is almost perfectly neutral, and is very compact and strong. A specimen of their common billets tested by the Keystone Bridge Company, of Pittsburgh, Pa., broke at a strain of 72,180 pounds to the square inch.

While very great improvements have been made in the manufacture of iron, it is an interesting fact that all of the discoveries have simply tended to lessen the cost of pro- ducing iron and not to improve its quality ; in fact, the farther back we go the better we find the quality of the iron, and the steel from which the Damascus blades were made cannot be equaled in quality and temper by the produc- tions of our most pretentious manufacturers; and no doubt if Dr. Schliemann has tested any samples of iron he dug from Troy or Mycenae he found them fully as good as any that can be produced to-day. The Catalan forge is the sur- vival of the most ancient form of the iron industry, and for the general quality of its production it still holds its ancient prestige ; but the iron industry has grown so large that the forge is lost sight of, for the same reason that an ordinary observer overlooks a violet in the woods or a flea upon the back of an elephant.

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History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 67

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 922

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922