Anthracite Iron - A Revolution Is Born

Anthracite Iron - A Revolution Is Born.

"With the erection of this furnace (Furnace No. 1 in Biery's Bridge) commenced the era of high and larger furnaces and better blast machinery, with consequent improvements in yield and quality of iron produced." , , Iron master William Firmstone, 1874 , "Sketch of Early Anthracite Furnaces"

, Several Pennsylvania iron masters experimented with anthracite in their furnaces, with limited success. Even Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, realizing the potential bonanza for their anthracite business if the coal could be used to make iron, tried and failed at a furnace in Mauch Chunk in 1826. By 1837, a Welsh furnace owner, George Crane, and his ironmaster, David Thomas, had successfully combined anthracite coal and the hot-blast technique in their operation in Yniscedwyn, Wales. Hazard and his son travelled there in late 1838, and hired Thomas to come to Pennsylvania., The Lehigh Crane Iron Company, formed by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation, purchased nine acres of land along the canal at Lock 36, near Biery's Bridge (now Catasauqua). The water power there was strong enough to drive a waterwheel that powered THomas's hot-blast blowing engines. The furnace was completed in 1840 and the first cast of about four tons of iron was made on the 4th of July of that year. Thomas's furnace at Biery's Bridge was not the first to make iron with anthracite coal in the United States. But Thomas's long experience and attention to detail made it the first to be a technological and commercial success. For the first time, large quantities of high-quality iron were being made quickly. More than any other achievement to that time, it signaled the beginning of the industrial revolution in America.,

"It is of the utmost importance to the Company that the business of making iron with anthracite coal should be established on the Lehigh as speedily as possible." , , Directors of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, July 2, 1839

, Furnace No. 1 , Lehigh Crane Iron Works, 1840 , Furnace No. 1 was constructed of limestone and was 45' high, with a 12' chimney (1). A water-powered elevator brought the coal, iron ore, and limestone to the top of the furnace (2). The blast was supplied by a water wheel 12' in diameter and 24' long, driven by water from the Lehigh Canal that was diverted into a channel that dropped 8'. The wheel turned gears that pushed beams on a frame that drove the blowing-cylinders (3). The cylinders (4), five feet in diameter with a 6' stroke, forced air through ovens in small buildings on the ground alongside the furnace (5). The air, heated to 600°F, was then blown into the furnace, where burning anthracite raised the temperature to 2700°F. Molten iron was tapped from the bottom of the furnace and guided to into channels of wet sand on the casting floor (6).