Wrightsville's Lime Kilns

Wrightsville's Lime Kilns. . Lime Kilns such as these were used for burning limestone and turning it into lime. The lime was used for fertilizer, white-wash, plaster, and deodorant for outhouses. Quarried limestone was also used along with coal and iron ore to make pig iron in furnaces such as the Aurora Furnace located just north of these lime kilns in Wrightsville., Lime is manufactured from limestone, a mineral. The limestone (CaCO3) is crushed and loaded along with a charge (load) of coal into a tapered, stationary vertical refractory lined tube with the wider bottom permitting the free downward movement of the materials. Burned out with hot air at a temperature of 2000°F, the limestone is decomposed emitting carbon dioxide gas leaving calcium oxide (CaO), more commonly known as quick lime. Following cooling, the lime is crushed into its useful powder form., The lime industry played a large part in Wrightsville's history. An 1894 bird's eye map of Wrightsville indicates that at least five different sets of kilns were operating in the community. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, York County was one of the largest producers of lime in Pennsylvania.