USA > Pennsylvania > Carbon County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 90
USA > Pennsylvania > Lehigh County > History of the counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Pt. 2 > Part 90
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" At the same time there was another building at Pottsville, by Mr. Lyman. I received a communica- tion from this gentleman by the hand of the president of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, for whom I was building the first furnace at this place. This letter urged me to come to Pottsville. I visited him in August, 1839, and furnished him with plans of in- wall, bosh, hearth, etc., and continued to visit him about once a month until the furnace was completed, which was in January, 1840. Then I was so engaged here that I could not remain with him long enough to put it in blast. He accordingly obtained the ser- vices of Mr. B. Perry, who blew it in, as founder. They made iron for some weeks (I am not able to say how many), but, the machinery not being strong,
they broke down, and I believe the furnace chilled up, though I will not be positive on this point, as it might have been blown out.
"On the 4th of July, 1840, I made the first iron on this plan in our first furnace here, and kept it running month after month and year after year. In 1841 I built the second; in 1846, the third; in 1849, the fourth and fifth; and in 1860, the sixth; and there are now in this valley forty-six anthracite furnaces, producing over four hundred thousand tons of pig- iron annually.
" I am sorry I have to write this so long, but could not well make it intelligible if shorter. When next I see you I will take pleasure in telling you of scores of experiments made with anthracite coal. I have been in the blast-furnace business sixty years the 12th of April next, and forty-five to fifty of these years I have been experimenting with anthracite. I cure very little about the glory, -- who was or who is the successful candidate,-as men's praises are like shadows.
" You may use this, as I fear no contradiction. I have written nothing but plain facts, but not one- tenth of what might be said did necessity call for it. "I should be glad to hear from you. " Yours very truly,
" DAVID THOMAS. "P.S .- Mr. Richards did not buy the Mauch Chunk Furnace until 1842 or 1843, and he used char- coal in it."
We give below a letter from Mr. James Pott, of Harrisburg, to the editor of the Coal and Iron Record :
"In No. 1 of vol. i. of your journal you give a sketch of David Thomas, in the course of which you say, ' He was the first man to demonstrate the practi- cability of using anthracite in smelting iron ores. . . . And of all this magnificent industry the furnace started by Mr. Thomas at Pottsville, less than thirty years ago, has been the pioneer.'
"My object in addressing you is not to detract from the credit due Mr. Thomas for the perfection to which lte has carried this business, but to correct what } believe to be an error. My father, John Pott, used anthracite coal to smelt iron ore in his furnace (Man- heim Iron-Works), on the West Branch of the Sehnyl- kill, as carly as 1836-37, first in connection with charcoal, then with wood cut short, like stove-wood, and finally, by making some change in the interior of the furnace, with anthracite alone, a hot-blast having already been attached.
"These experiments, running through several years, demonstrated to his entire satisfaction the practica- bility of using anthracite in reducing iron ore; but. about 1838-39 the works stood idle for a year or more, when, in the year 1840, he made preparation to en- large the furnace and to construet it on different prin- ciples, which its former size would not admit of. In the early spring of 1841, and before the work was
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completed, came a terrible ice-freshet, which swept away everything, tearing up the very foundations of forge and furnace, and this was the end of the 'Man- heim Iron-Works.' A few years later my father sold the property, and in 1844 removed to Bedford (now Fulton) County, Pa., where for several years he con- ducted the ' Hanover Iron-Works.' The paralyzation of this industry, following the adoption of the tariff of 1846, compelled him to abandon the business in 1847, and thenceforth he devoted himself to agricul- ture and milling until he died, in November, 1856.
" From early life my father had been engaged in the manufacture of iron, and so also was his father (John Pott), who, in 1807, built 'Greenwood Furnace' on the 'Island,' where Atkins' extensive furnaces at Pottsville now are.
" Mr. Thomas is a public benefactor, and deserves great credit for his energy and enterprise in carrying forward this business to such perfection and success ; but I feel that it is but just to correet what I believe to be an error, and to claim for John Pott the credit of having first successfully demonstrated the 'prac- ticability of using anthracite in smelting iron ores,' and for little 'Manheim Furnace' the distinction of having been the 'pioneer' in what has since grown into such wondrous proportions under the skill and tact of Mr. Thomas. .
" I remember well hearing my father often remark that he was the first to use and demonstrate the adaptability of anthracite to blast-furnaces, and that others-the name of Mr. Thomas being mentioned in his observations-had carried it forward to perfect success.
" At the time of the destruction of the works the supply of anthracite for the reconstructed furnace had been contracted for, and a large quantity had already been delivered on the furnace 'bank,'-a pile so large as to seem to my youthful eyes like a mountain of coal.
"You will not blame me, sir, for being a little sen- sitive on the subject. I have not at hand my father's books, from which to obtain data, and am writing from memory, making the 'hard-cider' campaign in 1840 and the great freshet in 1841 the points from which I calculate, If I am in error I am willing to be corrected."
The following was published in the Mauch Chunk Democrat :
" TRENTON, N. J., March 26, 1872.
" MR. EDITOR,-Some unknown person (a friend, I suppose) has sent me an article of about half a column in length, clipped from some newspaper, upon the margin of which I find written in pencil the ques- tion, ' How about this ?'
"The article begins thus: 'For some time past there has been a discussion going on in regard to the credit of making the first anthracite iron in the United States,-Mr. David Thomas, of the Thomas Iron-Works, Mr. John Richards, deceased, once of
the old Mauch Chunk Furnace, and Mr. Lyman, of Pottsville, each having their friends to advocate their separate claims to the honor.'
"Next follows a letter from Mr. David Thomas, re- lating his experience and knowledge of the matter in question, in the course of which he makes the follow- ing statement: 'There was another [furnace] at Manch Chunk, owned by three or four men, -a Mr. Baulim, a Mr. Gitto, and a Mr. Lathrop (the latter, I think, is still living at Trenton, N. J.). This furnace was chilled np in about one week after blowing-in.'
"Mr. Thomas' memory must certainly have failed him, or he was misinformed in regard to the Manch Chunk Furnace, as will appear evident from the fol- lowing extracts from . Notes on the Use of Anthra- cite in the Manufacture of Iron ; with some Remarks on its Evaporative Power. By Walter R. Johnson, A.M., Boston, 1841.'
"'The furnace at Mauch Chunk, which stands at the head of the preceding table, is believed to have been the first in this country at which any consider- able success was attained in the smelting of iron with anthracite.' Their ore produced was of various, but mostly inferior, qualities, owing probably to deficiency of blast. The blowing cylinders were of wood (single acting), and at the speed employed did not furnish over seven hundred cubic feet of air per minute.
"' Their apparatus for hot-blast was at first defective, and was afterwards placed at the tunnel-head, where it could be seen as well regulated as though managed in separate ovens, with an independent fire. Hence even of the limited supply of air taken into the bel- lows, a considerable portion must have been lost by leakage, and by escapes at the open tuveres there applied.'
"'BRAVER MEADOW, PA., Nov. 9, 18.10. "'SIR,-Agreeably to a request of Col. Henry High, of Reading, I send you the following hastily- written statement of the experiments made by Baugh- man, Guiteau & Co., in the smelting of iron ore with anthracite coal as a fuel.
" During the fall and winter of the year 1837, Messrs. Joseph Baughman, Julius Quitean, and llenry High, of Reading, made their first experi- ment in smelting iron ore with anthracite coal, in an old furnace at Mauch Chunk, temporarily fitted up for the purpose.
"""They used about eighty per cent, of anthracite, and the result was such as to surprise those who wit- nessed it (for it was considered an impossibility even by ironmasters), and to encourage the persons engaged in it to go on. In order, therefore, to test the matter more thoroughly, they built a furnace on a small scale near Mauch Chunk Weigh-Lock, which was com- pleted during the month of July, 1838. Dimensions: Stack 213 feet high, 22 feet square at base, boshes 54 feet across, hearth 14 to 16 inches square, and 4 feet 9
1 Beaver Meadow (Pa. ) coal.
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inches from the dam-stone to the back. The blowing apparatus consisted of two cylinders, each 6 feet diam- eter; a receiver, same diameter, and about 23 feet deep; stroke 11 inches. Each piston making from 12 to 15 strokes per minute. An overshot water- wheel, diameter 14 feet, length of buckets, 33 feet ; number of buckets, 36; revolutions per minute, from 12 to 15.
"' The blast was applied August 27th, and the fur- nace kept in blast until September 10th, when they were obliged to stop in consequence of the apparatus for heating the blast proving to be too temporary. Several tons of iron were produced of Nos. 2 and 3 quality. I do not recollect the proportion of an- thracite coal used. Temperature of the blast did not exeved 200° Fahrenheit.
"' A new and good apparatus for heating the blast was next procured (it was at this time I became a partner in the firm of B. G. & Co.), consisting of two hundred feet in length of cast-iron pipes one and a half inehes ; it was placed in a brick chamber, at the tunnel-head, and heated by a flame issuing thence. The blast was again applied about the last of Novem- ber, 1838, and the furnace worked remarkably well for five weeks, exclusively with anthracite coal; we were obliged, however, for want of ore, to blow out on the 12th of Jannary, 1839. During this experi- went our doors were open to the public, and we were watched very closely both day and night, for men conld hardly believe what they saw with their own eyes, so incredulous was the public in regard to the matter at this time ; some ironmasters expressed themselves astonished that a furnace would work, whilst using unburnt, unwashed, frozen ore, such as was put into our furnace.
"'The amount of iron produced was about one and a half tous per day, when working best, of Nos. 1, 2, and 3 quality. The average temperature of the blast was 400º Fahrenheit.
"' The following season we enlarged the hearth to nineteen by twenty inches, and five feet three inches from the dam-stone to the back of the hearth, and on July 26th the furnace was again put in blast, and continued in blast until Nov. 2. 1889, a few days after the dissolution of our firm, when it was blown out in good order.
"'For about three months we used no other fuel than anthracite, and produced about one hundred tons of iron of good Nos. 1, 2, and 3 quality. When working best the furnace prodneed two tons a day.
""Temperature of the blast 400° to 600° Fahren- heit. The following ores were used by us, viz .: "Pipe orc," from Miller's mines, a few miles from Allentown ; "brown hematite," commonly called " top mine," or surface ore; "rock ore" from Dicker- son mine in New Jersey ; and " Williams Township ore" in Northampton County. The last-mentioned ore produced a very strong iron and most beautiful einder.
"'The above experiments were prosecuted under the most discouraging circumstances, and if we gain anything by it, it can only be the credit of acting the part of pioneers in a praiseworthy undertaking.
"' Most respectfully, sir, "' Your obedient servant,
"'F. C. LOWTHROP. 1
"'Prof. WALTER R. JOHNSON, Philadelphia.'"
"'Correct copy from the book :
"'JOHN WISE, "' Librarian Franklin Institute, "' Philadelphia, Pa.' " As an evidence of the reliability of the work from which the above extracts were taken, I would remind your readers that its anthor, in 1844, published, by order of Congress, a 'Report on the Different Varieties of Coal,' in order to determine their evap- orative powers.
"Respectfully yours, " F. C. LowritRop."
Subsequently the following appeared in the Bethle- hem Times :
"The following documents have been placed in our hands for publication, and we hope that any per- sons who may have facts or evidence of facts which will throw light on the subject will forward them to us, that we may lay them before our readers. Some time since we published the following paragraph :
"'The first successful use of anthracite coal for the smelting of iron was in 1839, at the Pioneer Furnace, at Pottsville, Pa. It had been tried on the Lehigh in 1826, but was unsuccessful.'
"To some extent to corroborate this statement, ,which was called in question in private conversation by some gentlemen, a friend handed us the following letter and petition to the Legislature, with the request to publish them, as throwing light on the subject. We are unable to give the presentation of the peti- tion to the Legislature. Does any oue know when it. was circulated or signed ? There may have been de- bate in the Assembly on the reference of the petition when presented, which might contain interesting facts.
" To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: The petition of the subscribers respectfully sheweth, That the State of Pennsylvania has been greatly benefited by the re- sults of the experiments lately so successfully made to manufacture iron with anthracite coal. They con- ceive that these results are mainly to be attributed to the exertion of William Lyman, of Schuylkill County, who, at his own risk and expense, put into successful operation in this country the first anthracite blast- furnace (on a practical seale), the origin, therefore, of all others since built and now projecting; and they therefore pray your honorable bodies that an act may be passed conferring on him such privileges as in your wisdom may be deemed expedient, thereby encouraging useful enterprises in future, and afford-
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ing some compensation for the heavy outlays always necessarily incident to the commencement of every such undertaking.'
"' POTTSVILLE, Oct. 14, 1840.
"'This is to certify to all whom it may concern, that all contracts or bargains for ore which may be made by the bearer, Mr. Lance, will be confirmed by Messrs. Marshall & Kellogg, proprietors of the an- thracite furnace at this place; and all ore purchased by Mr. Lance will be paid for by city acceptance, as shall be agreed on between the parties .- For Mar- shall & Kellogg. WM. LYMAN'"
The following article is from the Pottsville Miners' Journal :
" This subject has again been broached in a letter which we published a few days ago from James Pott, in which he stated that his father, John Pott, was the first to make anthracite iron at his furnace in 1837 -. 38, located in the West Branch Valley. This we know is correct as far as it goes; but in the use of anthracite coal alone he failed in making it in a mer- chantable quantity, and ceased working until the trial was made at the Pioneer Furnace on the Island in 1839. After the success at the Pioneer Furnace, hic did intend to remodel his furnace to use anthracite coal exclusively ; but a freshet came and swept away his works, and he moved to Bedford (now Fulton) County. Mr. Geisenheimer made a small quantity of anthracite iron at the Valley Furnace, and took out a patent, but afterwards abandoned it. Small quan- tities were made on the Lehigh ; and we believe that " .¿; late Mr. Ridgway succeeded in making a small 'ity at the old Pott Furnace near the Island.
bey were all charcoal furnaces, of course no , be made. Anthracite iron was also J.But these experiments satisfied Burd 1 ... other parties deeply interested in coal and iron Sarcasts, that iron could be made with an- thracite coal; and then he and other parties com- menced building the Pioneer Furnace on the Island after the model of the furnace in Wales, which Mr. David Thomas had seen, and who superintended the building of this furnace. They ran out of funds, and the late Nicholas Biddle and others made up a fund of five thousand dollars as a premium, which they offered to any person who would make anthracite iron for commercial use, and run the furnace for a period of six months. Mr. William Lyman then took the furnace, and completed it after the model of the Wales furnace, which Mr. Thomas furnished. When finished, the furnace was blown in by Mr. Benjamin Perry ; and it was a success, and the furnace was kept running for the period of six months. The pre- mium, after full investigation, was awarded to Mr. Lyman, at the Mount Carbon House, iu 1840, where a supper was given, and it was at this supper that Nicholas Biddle gave the following toast :
"'OLD PENNSYLVANIA -- her sons like her soil : roughi outside, bnt solid stuff within ; plenty of coal to warm her friends, and plenty of iron to cool her enemies.'
" The iron trade was at that time so much depressed under the compromise tariff of 1833, reducing the duties down to twenty per cent. in 1840, and the op- position to the use of anthracite iron by the charcoal interests, that Mr. Lyman failed a short time after ; then Mr. Marshall, now of Shamokin, ran it after- wards, and he met with the same fate. The furnace was afterwards run by other parties who had but little capital, and they too failed, when it finally fell into the hands of the Atkins Brothers, who took charge of it in 1857 or 1858, and they too became to some extent involved, owing to the dull state of the iron trade under the free-trade system; and if it had not been for the Rebellion occurring in 1861-62, which put up the price of iron, they might have met the same fate ; but they succeeded, and added another furnace to the old Pioneer; then tore down and remodeled the Pioneer, and are now erecting a third furnace on the Island on a larger scale than the others. Of the three brothers, our citizen, Mr. Charles Atkins, is the only survivor. After the success at the Pioneer, other par- ties, avoiding the defects of the old Pioncer, erected other furnaces on the Lehigh and elsewhere, and an- thracite iron was soon made in large quantities, and in 1871, out of 1,914,000 tons of iron produced in the United States, 957,608 tons, a little more than one- half of the supply, was made with anthracite coal. In 1861 the product was 409,229 tons, having more than doubled in ten years.
"These are the facts connected with the first manu- facture of anthracite iron for commerce in the United States; and Mr. Lyman, who undertook the furnace, Mr. David Thomas, who superintended its erection, Mr. Benjamin Perry, who blew it in successfully, and the gentlemen who offered the premium of five thou- sand dollars for its production in commercial quanti- ties, are really entitled to the credit of establishing this branch of business in this country ; while the other gentlemen, who had previously made small quantities before it was made in England, are entitled to the credit of demonstrating that it could be made with suitable fixtures; but they all failed in making it in quantities for use."
The concluding letter was published in the Mauch Chunk Democrat :
"TRENTON, N. J., May 4, 1872. " MR. EDITOR :
" DEAR SIR,-In the Journal of March 30th last you published for me a communication containing some extracts from a work issued during the year 18441, by Professor Walter R. Johnson, of Philadel- phia, entitled ' Notes on the Use of Anthracite in the Manufacture of Iron; with some Remarks on its Evaporative Power.'
" My object in sending you that article was simply
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to defend my former partners and myself from the detraetive remarks made in a letter written by David . Thomas, Esq., of Catasauqua, Pa. ; he having stated
- that our furnace at Mauch Chunk chilled up in about one week after blowing-in, whereas it, in fact, was not allowed to chill up at any time.
"Since my communication was written, I have read two or three articles from different papers asserting that I was detraeting from the credit due Mr. Thomas.
" I have no wish to claim any 'glory' rightfully belonging to Mr. Thomas, or to others. I merely, in defending the firm of B., G. & Co. from Mr. T.'s un- just remark, quoted authentie history published more than thirty years ago, and which has never been con- tradicted.
"Some of the parties who have been writing in be- half of Mr. Thomas, but who evidently know little' about the smelting of iron ore, speak rather eontemp- tuously of us, because we operated with a small fur- nace.
" In a matter which at that time was looked upon, even by ironmasters, with much nnecertainty as to its ultimate snecess, it would have been very unwise to go to the expense of building a large furnace at a eost of many thousands of dollars, when it was known that if the thing could be accomplished with a small furnace, it could be done much more easily, and far more profit- ably, with a large one.
" We did not enlarge our furnace, as one writer has stated, but simply the hearth, and we blew it out be- eause it was too small to work at profit ; and, not hav- ing funds with which to construct large works, we re- turned the property on which the furnace was built to the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, from whom it was leased, which was the last we had to do with it.
" A few years afterward I was introduced to a gen- tleman from Pottsville, who, upon being informed by our friend that I had been connected with the Mauch Chunk furnace, asked if I recolleeted a committee of the citizens of Pottsville visiting us one night. I an-
swered in the affirmative, and asked him what con- clusion they arrived at. He replied, 'We watched you all night long, and returned home with the full conclusion that it was a perfect sucecss.'
" Within the past week or two I have scen one or two articles from the pen of Mr. James Pott, of Har- risburg, who elaiins for his father, Mr. John Pott, the credit of having been the first in this country to smelt iron ore with anthracite. He dates his first success so far back as 1836 and 1837. A more nupresuming and candid letter than that of Mr. Pott I have never read ; and if we are to look outside of published history for the one who was first successful, I should say that without a doubt (so far as I can learn) Mr. John Pott, of the Manheim furnace, was the man.
"Very respectfully yours, "F. C. LOWTHROP."
We add an article from the Mauch Chunk Cloud Gazette of May 25, 1872:
"Mr. James Cornelison, formerly a blacksmith re- siding here, was in town on Monday last, and was 'interviewed' concerning his knowledge of the first experiments in the manufacture of anthracite iron. He was employed in the establishment of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, whose works were upon the site of the present foundry of J. IT. Salkek & Co., and distinctly remembers the building, about the year 1823 or 1824, of a staek some fifteen or twenty feet high, for the purpose of smelting the iron ore with anthracite coal. This experiment was, at the time, so far successful, that Mr. Cornelison states sev- eral ' pigs' were actually made with eold-air blast. Messrs. Josiah White and Erskine Hazard were cowi, eerned in the building of the stack, in whose' #bon tions much interest was taken. This stater allowing ing from a gentleman in every way """ the request good the assertion in Johnson's Not on the subject Iron,' that the first known experimentou of the For- tant direction was made in Mauch Chunk."
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N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA
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