Blast Furnace
The Ingredients for Iron-Making
Look around you, these five blast furnaces were the heart of the plant for many decades. Ordinarily up to three of the five furnaces would be operating at one time. They ran continuously-night and day, seven days a week-and required constant feeding of materials. To make one ton of pig iron, the furnaces required 1 ton of coke, 2 tons of iron ore or pellets, ½ ton of limestone, and about 4 tons of heated, pressurized air.
1 Ingredients Go In
Iron ore: a rocky mineral mined from the earth. Coke: a high-carbon fuel obtained from the processing of coal. Limestone: a mineral that acts as a flux and captures impurities in iron.
2 Loading The Furnace
Iron ore and limestone were brought to the furnace in transfer cars, while hopper cars delivered coke. The three ingredients were dumped into storage bins below the trestle. Skip cars hoisted the materials up the inclined track, charging them into the furnace in layers.
3 A Blast Of Heat
Hot, pressurized air was shot into the blast furnaces. As the coke burned, the inside of the furnace would reach over 3000° Fahrenheit! Hot gases rose through the descending ore, coke and limestone, left the furnace through large pipes, and were cleaned
this page online
Erected by SteelStacks. (Marker Number 4.)
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Industry & Commerce • Man-Made Features.
Location. 40° 36.899′ N, 75° 22.097′ W. Marker is in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in Northampton County. It can be reached from East 1st Street. Marker is on the Hoover-Mason Trestle at SteelStacks, next to the Blast Furnaces. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 711 East 1st Street, Bethlehem PA 18015, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Southeast Pennsylvania and in Lehigh Valley. It is also in the American Northeast and in the Mid-Atlantic. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and also one of the original Thirteen Colonies.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Immigration & Industry (a few steps from this marker); Making Iron (a few steps from this marker); Moving Materials (within shouting distance of this marker); Hot, Loud, & Dangerous (within shouting distance of this marker); The Beginnings of Bethlehem Steel (within shouting distance of this marker); A Community of Workers (within shouting distance of this marker); Iron and Steel: A History (within shouting distance of this marker); Air Products (about 300 feet away, measured in a direct line). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Bethlehem.
Also see . . .
1. Bethlehem Steel. Wikipedia entry (Submitted on January 17, 2025, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.)
2. How it works: The Blast Furnace. Shelton Iron and Steel website entry (Submitted on February 5, 2018, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.)
3. What is SteelStacks?. Website homepage (Submitted on February 5, 2018, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.)
Credits. This page was last revised on January 17, 2025. It was originally submitted on February 5, 2018, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio. This page has been viewed 589 times since then and 27 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4. submitted on February 5, 2018, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
