Making Charcoal Iron

Making Charcoal Iron. . , This furnace stack was built in 1846 and replaced the original. It could produce as much as 1,500 tons of iron per year and operated until 1858., Centre Furnace first went into "blast" and began making iron in 1792. When profits fell, the operation closed in 1809, and it did not reopen until 1826., A ramp from the hill to the north of the furnace once rose to the top of this stone pile. From the ramp, workers layered the raw ingredients of iron ore, charcoal and limestone into the 35-foot-tall stack. A water wheel powered by Thompson Run ran bellows that blew air into the bottom of the original furnace. This was known as "cold blast." In 1847, the remodeled furnace became "hot blast" when heated air was recycled rather than permitted to escape through the top., Charcoal heated the furnace to more than 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Molten iron flowed to the bottom of the stack and into sand molds in the casting house. A main pool of iron branched off into smaller pools that reminded workers of a sow nursing her piglets, giving rise to the term "pig iron.", The men separated the cooling iron into pieces. Some iron was sent to local forges, where it was heated again and pounded to remove impurities and make it more malleable. The finished product was known as "wrought iron.", Pig and wrought iron traveled by mule, packhorse, wagon or flat boat to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh or Baltimore., Collectively, the metal produced by Centre Furnace and other regional ironworks became known as Juniata Iron. Centre and surrounding counties remained the nation's leading iron-producing region from 1800 to 1850., [Left photo caption reads] This mid-20th century photo shows the current furnace stack. This sign is posted where East College Avenue was located before it was rerouted., [Center illustration caption reads] This rendering of an ironworks shows the bellows, waterwheel and furnace., Cast in the fall of 1792, this bell must have been among the first things created at Centre Furnace. It had an important job: it tolled the beginning and end of the work day, mealtime breaks, furnace tappings and emergencies. The bell was donated to the Centre County Historical Society by a descendant of the last ironmaster, Moses Thompson, and now rings on special occasions.