Day: July 31, 2014

Women and Girls

FOBF_silver Iron History, Q & A 1 Comment

Women and Girls in the Iron Industry

Many people, especially students, ask us about the role that women and girls played in the iron industry.  When a school group visits us, we’re about 99% sure that the question will come up.  Usually, students want to know what role they played at Beckley Furnace.

The simple answer is “Well, they did not make iron” but it’s a big topic; certainly bigger than that answer; maybe a huge topic; and the answer isn’t easy.

We’re going to be exploring the topic over several posts, so please stay tuned if this is a question that is meaningful to you.  If you ever think about the part gender plays in society today, then the answer to this question is probably going to be of interest to you.

What’s the gray thing ….

FOBF_silver How it worked, Iron History, Q & A 1 Comment

Just what is that gray thing in the shed, up near the dam?

It wasn’t there last year!

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Well, you’re right.  We built the shelter for the gray thing over the winter, and we dedicated it this summer.  And the “gray thing” is NOT a bomb (as one visitor suggested) or a jet engine (which it also resembles both functionally and in appearance).  Instead, it’s a turbine.  A water-power turbine that was used for the final decades of Beckley Furnace’s active life to power the hot blast.  Actually, it’s one of two turbines at the Beckley site.  Read about the other turbine here.

The turbine has an interesting story, and we’ll be telling you more about it later on, but here are a few items you might find interesting right now:

–It was a “Hercules-type” turbine, of unknown manufacturer, probably installed when the dam was rebuilt in the 1870s.

–While it looks pretty massive on the display rack, it was considered a powerhouse for its day, generating (we think) about 80 hp.  (A nice thing about turbines — they can generate lots of power even when the water input is reduced due to drought.)

–This turbine had spend nearly 90 years buried in the mud in the pit where it operated.  It was evidently too heavy to be removed for scrap metal during the Second World War.

–After getting expert advice about how to conserve this rarity, we concluded that in order to preserve the interior we needed to cut a hole in the side.  Fortunately, that gives you a good view of the inner workings of the device.

–Yes, that wooden thing at the lower end of the turbine is just what it looks like: a washer.  It’s made of a tropical wood called lignum vitae that withstands the kinds of forces this turbine exerted, and to do it in water, too.

07-27-2014 silver 185_lignum_vitae

Making iron at Beckley Furnace

FOBF_silver Iron History, Q & A 0 Comment

How they made iron…

Actually, several different techniques have existed for making iron over the centuries.  We’ll go into more detail about some of the others in a future post, but for the time being, let’s just consider how it was done at Beckley.

Beckley was a hot blast furnace — which means that (1) it was a blast furnace instead of a forge or another process, and (2) the blast of air that was forced into the iron mix was heated first.  (It’s that blast of air that was forced into the hot iron mix that gave its name to the blast furnace, by the way.)

But let’s back up a little:

What were the ingredients?

The ingredients of iron here at Beckley were:

1. Iron ore (in this case, from the Upper Housatonic area)

2. Charcoal (initially made from trees in the general area, but as demand grew, from as far away as Vermont)

3. Limestone (there are quarries near Beckley — the closest is about a mile down Lower Road)

What was the process?

The process of making iron, once a hot fire was in place in the furnace, involved workers pushing wheelbarrows of iron ore, charcoal, and limestone across a bridge from the charging wall (you can see it on the other side of Lower Road), and dumping them into the top of the furnace.

At the same time, water power from the dam was driving rudimentary air compressors called “pumping tubs” that blew air into a large heating unit called a stove, and from there, blew the hot air into the hearth of the furnace.

The hot air was supplemented by hot gasses from the furnace, largely carbon monoxide, that were piped from the top of the furnace down to mix with the hot air from outside to be blown back into the liquid iron mix.

When a fair amount of liquid iron had accumulated in the bottom of the hearth, a two step process was started.  (1) Some of the liquid slag (waste material from the iron making process) was drawn off to solidify into sheets on the floor of the casting shed (it was then broken up with sledge hammers and removed), and then (2) the liquid iron was tapped to flow out into iron molds pressed into the sand of the casting shed floor.

The ingots of iron were (and are) called pigs (we’ll have another post about why they’re called pigs).  Once they cooled and solidified, they were carried out of the casting shed and stacked.

And, iron had been made a Beckley Furnace!  The process went on over and over, day and night, seven days a week, as long as the furnace was “in blast”  (which means in operation).