Today we went to the Cornwall Iron Furnace located near Lebanon, PA This is the only surviving Charcoal Cold Blast furnace in the Western Hemisphere. It operated from 1742
thu 1883. In 1730 Peter
Grubb discovered iron ore in the hills just to the south. It used wood for charcoal, iron ore &
limestone. Water was used to power the billows located at the bottom of the 3 story furnace.
Iron ore, limestone & charcoal were dumped into the 19 inch mouth of the furnace from the charging floor at the top of the furnace. I believe they produce about 24 ton of pig iron a month with 12
employees mostly slaves. The temps in the
casting room at the bottom would reach as high as 150 degree's
By 1978 Peter had died and his sons no longer wanted to run it so it was sold the Robert Coleman who had other furnaces. In the early 1800's it was converted to cheaper more
efficient coal and the billows were changed so that the blasting air was supplied by two air pots powered by a steam driven one cylinder engine.
There were communities built around these as it took many people to supply the labor for the mine, the charcoal pots, furnaces etc.
Today we went to the Cornwall Iron Furnace located near Lebanon, PA This is the only surviving Charcoal Cold Blast furnace in the Western Hemisphere. It operated from 1742 thu 1883. In 1730 Peter Grubb discovered iron ore in the hills just to the south. It used wood for charcoal, iron ore & limestone. Water was used to power the billows located at the bottom of the 3 story furnace.
Iron ore, limestone & charcoal were dumped into the 19 inch mouth of the furnace from the charging floor at the top of the furnace. I believe they produce about 24 ton of pig iron a month with 12 employees mostly slaves. The temps in the casting room at the bottom would reach as high as 150 degree's
By 1978 Peter had died and his sons no longer wanted to run it so it was sold the Robert Coleman who had other furnaces. In the early 1800's it was converted to cheaper more efficient coal and the billows were changed so that the blasting air was supplied by two air pots powered by a steam driven one cylinder engine.
There were communities built around these as it took many people to supply the labor for the mine, the charcoal pots, furnaces etc.
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