Brandywine Iron Works - Early 1800s

Brandywine Iron Works - Early 1800s. The Lukens National Historic District. , Issac Pennock, properly considered the founder of the business which became the Lukens Steel Company, began his career in the manufacture of iron in the early 1790s when he erected a mill at a place called Rokeby on the Buck Run in Chester County, about four miles south of Coatesville. This operation, called the Federal Slitting Mill, produced blacksmith iron, barrel staves, and miscellaneous iron products. , In 1816 Dr. Charles Lukens, the son-in-law of Isaac Pennock, came into the business of iron making. Dr. Lukens is remembered for having rolled the first boiler plate in America, documented in 1818, thus setting the company's course as a specialty plate producer. Dr. Lukens died in 1825, leaving his widow, Rebecca, to run the mill., The plates were made from single charcoal blooms which were made in an old-fashioned forge fire, then re-heated over an ordinary grate fire and rolled into plates or sheets. The plate rolls were about 16" to 18" in diameter and from 3' to 4' long, driven by an overshot water wheel. As the increase in demand for Lukens plate required greater power, the overshot water wheel was replaced by a breast wheel, and a flywheel was also introduced. This then led to larger rolls of 21" in diameter and 66" in length., [captions], The Old Mill - East Side, The Old Mill - West Side, Mill site 1820