Heat Treating
The High House
What is Heat Treating?
If you look towards the bridge to your left, you can see a tall and narrow building. This is the High House, or No. 3 Treatment Facility. Its tall shape accommodates the heat treating process, where gun barrels and other long steel pieces were heated and cooled to improve the metal's properties. Annealing, a type of heat treating, softens the steel, relieves internal stresses, and improves the grain. The result is a better combination of strength, elasticity, and plasticity.
1 Each piece is placed in a vertical furnace and heated. Excess gases from the blast furnaces are burned as the fuel source for this heat. The steel must stay at temperature for several hours.
2 Workers "quench" or cool the steel quickly in water or oil. The steel's properties change depending on how fast a piece is cooled.
3 The High House was designed to accommodate the addition of heated steel housing components to the gun barrel to insure a secure fit when the heated components cooled and shrank in place.
Erected by SteelStacks. (Marker Number 24.)
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists:
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Location. 40° 36.902′ N, 75° 21.851′ 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. 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: A Changing Landscape (here, next to this marker); The No. 2 Machine Shop (a few steps from this marker); Wartime Steel (a few steps from this marker); Non-Native Plants (within shouting distance of this marker); Why Did Bethlehem Close? (within
Also see . . .
1. Bethlehem Steel. Wikipedia entry (Submitted on January 1, 2025, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York.)
2. What is SteelStacks?. (Submitted on February 24, 2018, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.)
Credits. This page was last revised on January 1, 2025. It was originally submitted on February 24, 2018, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio. This page has been viewed 330 times since then and 35 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on February 24, 2018, by William Fischer, Jr. of Reynoldsburg, Ohio.
