USA > Ohio > Muskingum County > History of Muskingum County, Ohio ; with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent men and pioneers, 1794 > Part 62
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It is much easier for me to believe that in this famous Pennsylvania case, now made historical by Sir Charles Lyell, the conditions of accumu- lation of a large mass of vegetable matter, were more favorable in that part of the marsh now represented by the Summit Hill coal, than at other portions of the marsh. The conditions of growth might have been more favorable, or there might have been less waste from decomposition, or from mechanical removal. Indeed, all these causes might have combined to create the differ- ence in the thickness of the coal. In Ohio, I find a seam of coal from four to five feet thick, and evidently retaining its original and normal thick- ness, while three miles away the same seam is nearly thirteen feet thick. It is as easy for me to believe that a seam might, at Nesquehoning, be twenty-eight feet thick, as reported, and at the Summit Hill, be nearly fifty feet thick, as that a seam in Ohio, in a less distance, change from four to thirteen feet. * * * * *
The buried vegetation of the coal marshes re- appears after the lapse of long geological ages, in three pretty well marked varieties of coal, viz. : The more bituminous, or coking, the dry splint, and cannel, all grouped under the gener- al head of bituminous, as distinguished from the metamorphic anthracite. The more bituminous, or pitch coal, appears to be the natural or normal form which the unaltered vegetation took when buried. Any one familiar with the details of our bituminous coal fields. has often seen the shales and slate films of this bright, resinous coal,
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where single trunks, or branches of sigillaria, lepidodendron, or large ferns, like pecopteris ar- borescens, have been buried with an almost per- fect exclusion of air. Such films of coal are de- rived from the bark layers, the interior portion of the tree always, in these cases, disappearing without adding to the quantity of coal. Dr. Dawson regards the mineral charcoal, common in most seams of coal, as the product of the par- tially decomposed inner bark, and the more woody portion of the tree, with portions of other vegetation. In some cases which have fallen under my observation, where there was reason to believe that the tree had been prostrated while a living tree, and buried without previous decompo- sition, both barks were converted into bright and resinous coal. From this we may, perhaps, in- fer that if the whole mass of vegetation forming a coal seam were completely buried, without any previous decomposition, we might expect the whole to be converted into bright coal. Some- times we find the coal very bright and pitch-like in a considerable portion of the seam, showing scarcely any mineral charcoal, or those lamina- tions of duller color, which are generally sup- posed to indicate the more decomposed vegeta- ble matter of leaves, fronds and smaller plants. Dr. Dawson thus writes : "I would also observe that though in the roof shales and other associat- ed beds, it is usually only the cortical layer of trees that appear as compact and bituminous coal, yet, I have found specimens which show that, in the coal seams themselves, true woody tissues have been converted into structureless coal, forming like the coniferous trees converted into jet in more modern formations, thin bands of very pure bituminous material." The probabil- ity is that the less the sub-aerial decay, the more perfectly bituminized and structureless becomes the resulting coal. Nothing would be so likely to prevent decay as immersion in water, and such immersion must play an important part in the formation of the more highly bituminous and caking coals. "In the putrefaction of wood un- der water, or imbedded in aqueous deposits," says Dawson, "a change occurs in which the principal loss consists in carbon and oxygen ; and the resulting coaly product contains proportion- ally more hydrogen than the original wood. This is the condition of the compact bituminous coal. * * The 'mineral charcoal results from sub- aerial decay, the compact coal from sub-aqueous putrefaction, more or less modified by heat and exposure to air." *
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CANNEL COAL-We should expect that in the swampy flats of the coal period, there would be wet places filled with muck or vegetable mud, similar to those we often find in such swamps to- day. In the modern muck bog, the structure of the vegetation is almost entirely obliterated, and there results a fine, soft vegetable mud, which, when dried, forms a dark and almost impalpable powder. We find the proof of the existence of similar locations of vegetable mud in the old coal- producing areas. They were probably not the
only wet places ; (for what has already been said of the origin of the more bituminous, or pitch-like coals, implies the existence of much water) but they were the wet places in which the vegetation became so thoroughly decomposed, that when afterwards buried, compressed and bituminized, it was changed into a hard compact stratum of coal, showing little lustre, often no lamination, and breaking with conchoidal frac- ture. It is probable that there were vast quanti- ties of vegetable mud formed which did not go to constitute seams of cannel coal, but were float- ed away by currents, and mingling with mineral sediments, settled in the more quiet waters of the shallows, thus forming strata of bituminous slates and shales. * * Every stratum of bitu- minous shale in our productive coal measures, implies the existence of the same proximate hori- zon of a coal marsh, and should always be noted and studied with this fact in mind. When in the mud forming bitumious shales, the carbonate of iron has been introduced, we have a stratum of black band ore, unless, as is more often the case, the iron is brought by the force of affinity into nodular masses.
In the water over the accumulating vegetable mud, fishes, mollusks and other forms of life sometimes abounded, and these were entombed in the mud.
In the ooze, the stigmaria almost reveled, pene- trating it in almost every direction, and these curi- ous vegetable forms, with their spreading rootlets are found in greatest abundance in cannel coals, all flattened, but in exquisite preservation. The existence of so many stigmarias in the cannel coals, the beds of which often extend for many miles, almost necessitates the conclusion that they grew in situ. If the stigmaria is always a true root of the sigillaria, or other tree, as held by Dr. Dawson, and others, we must conclude that trees, having these roots attached, grew in the wettest parts of the marsh, which were, therefore, not open lagoons, as some have supposed. But Dr. Dawson asserts that "sigillaria grew on the same soils which supported conifers lepidoden- dra, cordaites and ferns, plants which could not have grown in water." He also claims, that most of the under clays, which, so far as I know, uni- versally contain rootlets of stigmaria, "are, in short, loamy or clay soils, and most have been sufficiently above water to admit of drainage." These views require us to believe that the stig- maria could not have grown where they are found in cannel coal, but were floated to their present places as detached roots. If thus floated, we should expect that they would sometimes show local accumulations in the drifted heaps. So far as my observations go, they are very even- ly distributed over the whole cannel coal areas. Moreover, if detached and floated bodies, and af- terwards buried in the accumulating mud, we should naturally expect them also to decay, and form vegetable muck similar to the surrounding mass.
On the other hand, Lesquereux, Goldenberg, and others, hold that the true stigmaria was an
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aquatic plant. Lesquereux thus writes : "It is my belief that the genus stigmaria does not represent tree roots, but floating stems, of which species of the genus sigillaria constitute the flowers, or fruit-bearing stems." It was, as I understand his views, only under favorable cir- cumstances of a more solid ground for anchor- age. that these stems produced the stalks, or, more properly, trunks, by which the fructifica- tion was secured. By this theory, it is certainly more easy to explain the vast number of stigma- ria found in cannel coals. By it we may, per- haps, also account for the equally great numbers of stigmaria found in some of the sand rocks of the lower coal-measures of Ohio, in which sigil- laria are but seldom found. Since we often find stigmaria in the bituminous coal, the "floating- stem" theory would harmonize with the other opinion of Mr. Lesquereux, arrived at after careful study of the marshes and peat bogs of Europe and America, that the coal was formed in similar marshes skirted by the ocean, which would furnish the needed conditions for the growth of such aquatic vegetation as he regards the stigmaria to be. * *
* We conclude that, admitting the radical nature of the stigmaria, we remain very doubtful as to their generic deter- mination, and still more so as to their specific reference.
COKE .- Passing the consideration of ashes in coals, and the sulphur found in different combi- nations, we find some practical thoughts-very interesting, in regard to coke. The strongest cokes are made from the more highly bituminous and caking coals, such as melt and swell when heated, and, after the bituminous gases are driv- en off, leave a hard, cinder-like mass, which has an almost metallic lustre, and a metallic ring, when struck. Such coke, either cold or hot, is broken with difficulty, and will resist great pres- sure without crushing. This is the kind pre- ferred by all intelligent "iron-masters." All cokes made from the soft-caking coals have a tendency to be more or less firm, from the fact that such coals soften and melt when heated. The best coke comes from the most thorough fusion of coal. Often, iron-masters, using dry coals in the raw state, and finding that they do not obtain sufficient heat, resort to the use of a certain portion of firm coke. The difficulty is not. I think, in the want of heating power in the raw coal, for its coke may have quite as much fixed carbon as the other coke used, but in the simple fact that, in the first instance, the fire is partially smothered by the compacted condition of the fuel, while in the other case, the weaker coke of the raw coal is reinforced by the stronger, and thus the whole mass of the fuel is kept in better condition by the permeated blast.
IRON .- While it is true that coal is the main- spring of modern civilization, it is also true that much of its value depends upon its association with iron. In most countries, certain varieties of iron ore are found associated with coal-black- band, clay, ironstone, etc .- and in these, Ohio ores are richer than any of those States that share
with her our great Alleghany coal basin. Again, our coal field is so situated, and the coal it furnish- es is of such quality, that a large part of the richer crystalline ores found in other States must inev- itably be brought to our territory to be smelted and manufactured.
In order that the conditions under which the production of iron is now, and is hereafter to be carried on, in Ohio, may be better understood, I will devote a few words to the description of the varieties of iron ore found in our country, and their relation to the fuel with which they are to be smelted.
The richest of all the ores is the "magnetic oxide," which contains, when pure, 72.4 per cent. metallic iron, and 27.6 per cent. oxygen. It consists of the protoxide and sesqui oxide, combined, and may be recognized by its black powder and its magnetic property. This variety of ore is found in great abundance in the crys- talline rocks of the Alleghany belt, in the Adi- rondacks, and in Canada. It is the ore brought to us under the name of Champlain ore-from the fact of its occurrence on the shores of Lake Champlain-and is that mined so extensively in Southern New York, New Jersey, and further south, along the same line. From its abundance in the localities I have cited, and its proximity to the anthracite coal of Pennsylvania, this ore has formed the basis of a very large manufac- ture in the Eastern States, and has furnished more of the iron produced in this country than any other single variety. As found in Canada, and along the Alleghanies, the magnetic ores are extremely prone to contain certain impuri- ties, which injuriously affect the metal produced from them. These are principally phosphorous in phosphate of lime, and sulphur in the form of sulphide, or iron pyrites. Of these, the phos- phorous renders the iron "cold short," or brittle when cold; and the sulphur, "red short," or tender at a red heat. . Many of these ores con- tain also a large percentage of litanium, by which they are rendered refractory, and the iron made, brittle. These defects in the Eastern magnetic ores, almost preclude their use for the finer qualities of iron and steel, and yet they are destined to form an important element in the manufacture of iron in Ohio. Iron making is, in one aspect, much like oil painting, for, as the painter gets his finest effects by skillfully blend- ing many tints, so the iron-maker can only ob- tain the best results by using in the furnace sev- eral varieties of ore. The iron ores of Eastern New York and Canada, may, by the cheapness of return freights, be delivered within our terri- tory at a price so low that they will continue to be used as they now are, in considerable quanti- ties, by our iron smelters. Some of the Cana- dian ores can be furnished on the lake shore, at a very low figure, but these ores are so large- ly contaminated by sulphur, or litanium, that they are, at present, but little used. When, however, we shall have introduced the Swedish smelting furnace-removing three or four per cent. of sulphur-we may expect these ores to
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be much more largely imported than they are now.
The ore next in point of richness to the mag- netic, is that called " Specular iron," which con- sists, when pure, entirely of peroxide. This is a crystalline ore, generally having a metallic appearance, and takes its name from the specu- lum like reflections from its polished surfaces. When free from foreign matter, this ore contains seventy per cent. of iron and thirty of oxygen. Most of the Lake Superior ores are of this character, as are also those of the Iron Mount- ains of Missouri. To us, the Lake Superior ores are of immense importance, as will be seen from the fact that at least two thirds of all the ore mined in the Marquette district are brought to our State, and this ore constitutes the main dependence of all that great group of furnaces which have been constructed in the northern part of the State within the last twenty years.
The product of the Lake Superior iron mines in 1868, was 507,813 tons, for 1869, 643,283 tons, and of this, at least one third is supposed to have been smelted with Ohio coal. The Lake Superior ores are almost entirely free from phos- phorous, sulphur, arsenic and litanium, the in- gredients which so injuriously affect iron ores elsewhere ; and the magnetic ores of Michigan, of which the supply is now known to be large, are the purest of which I have any knowledge. From these facts, it is evident that the Lake Superior iron ores are peculiarly adapted to the production of all the finer grades of iron and steel, and indeed it is the opinion of our most accomplished metallurgists, that the manufacture of steel in future years, so far as this country is concerned, will be based almost exclusively upon these ores.
The coals of the Alleghany coal-field are superior to those of the West, and it is certain that nowhere can an abundant supply of miner- al fuel, suitable for smelting the Lake Superior ores, be so cheaply obtained as in Ohio. Some portion of these ores are now, and will continue to be, smelted with charcoal on the upper pen- insula of Michigan, but the supply of this fuel is so limited, that it will play but an insignificant part in the iron manufacture of the future.
The ores enumerated constitute our native ores, the main source of supply to our furnaces. I should add, however, to this list one other variety, that which is known as the " fossil ore," a stratified red hematite, found in the Clinton group, and which forms a belt of ont-crop ex- tending, with more or less intermission, from Dodge county, Wisconsin, across a portion 01 Canada, entering New York at Sodus Bay, passing through Oneida county, where it has re- ceived the name of " Clinton ore," thence run- ning down through central Pennsylvania, Vir- ginia and East Tennessee, into Georgia and Ala- bama. In the latter region, it is known as the " Dyestone ore," from the fact that it has been employed by the inhabitants for imparting a red- dish brown tint to cloth. This Clinton ore is an hydrous peroxide, containing from 40 to 50
per cent. of metallic iron, and generally a nota- ble percentage of phosphorus. Its use in Ohio has depended upon the latter quality, from the fact that it imparts a "cold-shortness " to iron made from it, and is supposed to correct the red shortness of sulphurous iron.
Within our own territory, we have all the varieties of iron that are ever associated with coal, viz. : black-band, kidney ore, stratified ore, or, as it is called, block ore, and, in less abun- dance, brown hematite, the hydrated peroxide of iron. Of these, the black-band is a bitumin- ous shale, largely impregnated with iron, taking its name from its stratification and black color. In its natural condition, it contains from twenty to thirty-three per cent. of iron, but, by burn- ing off the carbon, it becomes much richer. This ore is found, and largely used, in Mahoning and Tuscarawas counties, and is known to exist in Columbiana. Sought for by those who know it, it will undoubtedly be discovered in many parts of the State. It smelts with great facility, making very fusible iron, and such as is especially adapted to foundry purposes. The kidney ore, an earthy carbonate of iron, generally forms balls or concretions, lying in the shales of the coal formation. Where these shales have been extensively eroded, the ore is cheaply mined by " stripping," and was the main dependence of most of our furnaces previous to the introduction of the crystalline ores. The yield of the kid- ney ore, in the furnace, will average about thirty-three per cent., or three tons of ore make one of iron. This ore is found, in greater or less abundance, in every county included in the coal area. The "block" ores of the coal measures vary much, in purity and abundance, in different localities. They are generally strata of limestone charged with iron. In the southern portion of the State, ore of this character forms a large number of distinct beds, from two to six feet in thickness, and constitutes the principal source of supply of some forty furnaces now in blast in that district.
In certain localities, some of these stratified iron ores, near their out crops, are changed from their original condition, have lost their carbonic acid and have been converted into brown hema- tite. The average richness of the stratified ores .may be said to be about the same as that of the kidney ores, namely; thirty-five per cent of me- tallic iron. The iron furnished by some of them is of very superior quality, as is proved by the reputation of the celebrated Hanging Rock iron, made from the ores.
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON .- We have briefly considered the principal elements-coal. and the ores, that are to form the basis of the great iron industry. It is known to most per- sons that, with the fuel and ore, limestone is used in large quantity in the smelting furnaces ; but. as this material is readily attainable in all locali- ties, it need not now occupy our time. I may say, however, in passing, that a large amount of work needs to be done in our State in the inves- tigation of the composition of our fluxes, and
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their adaptation to the ores we most use. In this part of the iron manufacture, our furnace men are working very much in the dark, and it is certain that they can receive important aid.
The ordinary process of reduction of the ore in the blast furnace, is so well known that I need not dwell on it in detail. All varieties of iron ore consist of a combination, sometimes exclu- sively, always mainly-of oxygen and iron. This oxygen, when brought in contact with carbon at high temperature, unites with it, and passes off as carbonic acid, or carbonic oxide, leaving, as a result of this smelting process, cast iron. This is, however, not yet metallic iron, for it contains four to five per cent. of carbon, and is a carburet of iron ; a hard, brittle substance, applicable to a thousand uses in the arts, but not yet malleable. The manufacture of bar iron consists mainly in the removal of this carbon, and, although not a geological disquisition, we will briefly mention the process, which is called "puddling." In this process the cast iron, or what is termed "pig," is placed in a reverberatory furnace, and there exposed, at a high temperature, to the action of an oxidizing flame. This burns out the carbon and leaves the iron pure, except as it contains a small portion of silicon, sulphur, phosphorous, etc. As the iron in the puddling furnace ap- proaches the malleable condition, it becomes ad- hesive and pasty, and is worked into balls ; these are taken out and passed through the squeezers, and rolling mill, where they become what is called "muck bar." Muck bar, ordinarily re- quires still further refining, so it is cut into con- venient length, piled, re-heated, re-rolled, and then comes out as "merchant bar." Thus, we have cast iron and bar iron; the two forms in which iron is largely used by civilized man. This peculiar and protean metal is capable, however, of assuming still another condition, in which it supplies certain of our wants much more perfect- ly than do either of the forms before mentioned. This we call steel ; and steel differs from mallea- ble iron only in containing from one-half to one and a half-say on an average of one per cent. of carbon. This carbon, though so minute in quantity, imparts its peculiar properties, render- ing it capable of being cast like pig iron, without the loss of its malleability, and also communicates to it the all important property of temper, by which its hardness is immensely increased, and it is fitted for many uses that no other material known to us can serve. Nearly all the iron used in the world, at the present time, is manufactur- ed with mineral fuel. The old charcoal furnaces were thought to do well when they gave a yield of thirty-five to fifty tons per week. Now there are several furnaces in Ohio, each of which pro- duces three hundred tons of pig iron in the same time, and some of the English furnaces produce six hundred tons per week.
THE ELLERHAUSEN PROCESS OF MAKING STEEL .- We have seen that pig iron consists of metallic iron, with four or five per cent. of carbon, while the richer ores consist mainly of iron and oxygen. Ellerhausen's theory was that iron ore
could be mingled with cast iron in such a way that the oxygen of the ore would unite with the carbon of the pig metal, and, passing off as car- bonic oxide, leave the iron of both elements in the combination in the metallic state. The experi- ment was first tried by drawing a ladle of molten iron from the furnace, and stirring into it a quantity of iron ore. The change anticipated began at once, and the iron assumed a pasty con- dition, which rendered it impossible to stir it with a bar. Substituting a wooden rod, the materials were mingled, and were made to form a ball sim- ilar to that collected in the puddling furnace by the rabble. This ball heated, squeezed and roll- ed, was found to furnish a fair article of bar iron. Subsequently there was substituted for the ladle, a wheel, eighteen feet in diameter, bearing on its margin a series of boxes, This wheel was made to revolve beneath a stream of molten iron and pulverized ore, that crossed each other at right angles. By the rotation of the wheel, the boxes were gradually filled with layers of iron, mixed with ore. When each contained a suffi- cient quantity the sides were removed, and the blooms transferred to the puddling furnaces, these re-heated until the slag they contained was "sweated" out, then squeezed and rolled into bars. These bars, without piling or re-rolling, are found to exhibit all the properties of first- class iron. This process was extensively operat- ed by J. H. Shoenberger & Co., and Lyon, Shorb & Co., Pittsburgh. But it is possible to produce malleable iron direct from the ore. This is called by metallurgists, the "direct process," because it follows a direct line, and avoids the wind about through the blast furnace. This is the method practiced in what is called the cata- lan forge ; it has not been demonstrated to be cheaper, however, than by the other method, while some metallurgists maintain that not many years will elapse till all our bar iron will be man- ufactured by some direct process.
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