Cornwall Furnace
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Cornwall Iron Furnace is a designated
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
that is administered by the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Pennsylvania's heritage. The commission cares for hist ...
in
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
,
Lebanon County Lebanon County ( ; ) is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 143,257. Its county seat is the city of Lebanon. It lies 72 miles northwest of Philadelphia, which is the nearest m ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. The furnace was a leading Pennsylvania
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
producer from 1742 until it was shut down in 1883. The furnaces, support buildings and surrounding community have been preserved as a historical site and museum, providing a glimpse into Lebanon County's industrial past. The site is the only intact charcoal-burning iron blast furnace in its original plantation in the Western Hemisphere. Established by Peter Grubb in 1742, Cornwall Furnace was operated during the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
by his sons
Curtis Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from the Old French ''curteis'' (Modern French">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of Fren ...
and Peter Jr. who were major arms providers to George Washington. Robert Coleman acquired Cornwall Furnace after the Revolution and became Pennsylvania's first
millionaire A millionaire is an individual whose net worth or wealth is equal to or exceeds one million units of currency. Depending on the currency, a certain level of prestige is associated with being a millionaire. Many national currencies have, or ...
. Ownership of the furnace and its surroundings was transferred to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1932.


Overview

Cornwall Iron Furnace was one of many ironworks that were built in Pennsylvania over a sixty-year period, from 1716 to 1776. There were at least 21 blast furnaces, 45 forges, four bloomeries, six steel furnaces, three slitting mills, two plate mills, and one wire mill in operation in
Colonial Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...
. The furnaces at Cornwall Furnace went through two stages of technology. Peter Grubb was born in Delaware about 1702 and settled in what is now Lebanon County in 1734. He bought about of land rich in
magnetite Magnetite is a mineral and one of the main iron ores, with the chemical formula . It is one of the iron oxide, oxides of iron, and is ferrimagnetism, ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetization, magnetized to become a ...
. Grubb also noticed that his land had the other natural resources needed to produce iron. Namely, vast stands of
timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
for the production of
charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...
, running water to operate the bellows, and an ample supply of limestone needed to add flux to the smelting furnaces. Grubb's plans were further helped by the fact that the magnetite at Cornwall was either very close to or on the surface of his land. He was ready to venture into the iron business and set about the task of building an iron "plantation". These centers of iron production were usually located well away from the heavily cleared
farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...
s and were nestled in the Ridge and Valley section of Pennsylvania. Grubb constructed his furnaces, first a bloomery and later the more modern charcoal-fired blast furnace and the support buildings and
mill village A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, often cotton mills or factories producing textiles. Europe Italy * '' Crespi d'Adda'', UNESCO World He ...
that was needed to house his workers. He named his operation Cornwall because his father,
John Grubb John Grubb (1652–1708) was a two-term member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly and was one of the original settlers in a portion of Brandywine Hundred that became Claymont, Delaware. He founded a large tannery that continued in operat ...
had come from Cornwall, UK in 1677. Cornwall Iron Furnace was an excellent fit for the agricultural-based economy of the
Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...
. Iron was needed to make into tools, nails and weapons. The official policy of Great Britain frowned on manufacturing in the colonies, but
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
was no longer able to produce the needed iron for its needs let alone the needs of the colonists. In fact England had become dependent on
import An importer is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. Import is part of the International Trade which involves buying and receivin ...
ing iron from
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. Peter Grubb was not really an ironmaster, but a builder. In 1745 he leased the ironworks to a consortium, Cury and Company, for 25 years and returned to Wilmington. The consortium continued the operation, with ownership passing to Peter's sons,
Curtis Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin, deriving from the Old French ''curteis'' (Modern French">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of Fren ...
and Peter Jr., after his death in 1754. The brothers took over the operation in 1765 and ran it quite successfully until the late 1780s. Curtis operated the Cornwall Furnace and lived on site; circa 1773 he built the original 19 rooms of the mansion that still stands prominently next to the property. Peter Jr. ran a forge at Hopewell, refining the
pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...
produced by the furnace into more valuable bar iron. The ironworks were major suppliers to the Revolutionary War effort, and
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
once visited to inspect the operation. Unfortunately for the Grubb family, as described in Curtis Grubb's biography, they were unable to retain control of the operation after Curtis' marriage in 1783. Most of the Grubb's holdings gradually fell into the hands of Robert Coleman, culminating in 1798. Coleman's son, William, was named manager of Cornwall Furnace and lived in the mansion; in 1865 the Colemans remodeled it into the 29-room structure known today as Buckingham Mansion.


Iron Act

In American Colonial history, the Iron Act, passed in 1750, was part of the British legislation designed to encourage the production of raw materials (including
pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...
) in colonial America, but to restrict their manufacture there into finished iron goods. Existing manufacturing works could continue, but new ones for certain processes were prohibited.


Bloomery

The first furnace built by Peter Grubb at Cornwall Iron Furnace was a
bloomery A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its iron oxides, oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called ...
. Grubb built this in 1737 to test the market value of his ore. It was an economical way to test the market without having to invest in building the much more efficient and profitable blast furnace. A bloomery is basically an enlarged
blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...
's hearth. It consists of a pit or
chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...
with heat-resistant walls made of earth, clay, or stone. (
Sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
was used at Cornwall.) Near the bottom, one or more clay pipes enter through the side walls. These pipes, called
tuyere A tuyere or tuyère (; ) is a tube, nozzle or pipe allowing the blowing of air into a furnace or hearth.W. K. V. Gale, The iron and Steel industry: a dictionary of terms (David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1972), 216–217. Air or oxygen is i ...
s, allow air to enter the furnace, either by natural draft or by forced with a
bellows A bellows or pair of bellows is a device constructed to furnish a strong blast of air. The simplest type consists of a flexible bag comprising a pair of rigid boards with handles joined by flexible leather sides enclosing an approximately airtig ...
. An opening at the bottom of the bloomery may be used to remove the bloom, or the bloomery can be tipped over and the bloom removed from the bottom. The first step taken before the bloomery can be used is the preparation of the
charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...
and the
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...
. The charcoal is produced by heating wood to produce the nearly pure carbon fuel needed for the refining process. The ore is broken into small pieces and ''roasted'' in a fire to remove any moisture in the ore. Any large impurities in the ore can be crushed and removed. Since
slag The general term slag may be a by-product or co-product of smelting (pyrometallurgical) ores and recycled metals depending on the type of material being produced. Slag is mainly a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. Broadly, it can be c ...
from previous blooms may have a high iron content, slag from previous blooms can be broken up and recycled into the bloomery with the new ore. In operation, the bloomery is preheated by burning charcoal, and once hot, iron ore and additional charcoal are introduced through the top, in a roughly one-to-one ratio. Inside the furnace,
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
from the incomplete combustion of the charcoal reduces the iron oxides in the ore to metallic iron, without melting the ore; this allows the bloomery to operate at lower temperatures than the melting temperature of the ore. Since the desired product of a bloomery is easily forgeable, nearly pure iron, with a low
carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
content, the temperature and ratio of charcoal to iron ore must be carefully controlled to keep the iron from absorbing the carbon and becoming unforgeable.
Limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
could also be added to the bloomery, about 10% of the ore weight, which would act as
flux Flux describes any effect that appears to pass or travel (whether it actually moves or not) through a surface or substance. Flux is a concept in applied mathematics and vector calculus which has many applications in physics. For transport phe ...
and help carry away impurities. The small particles of iron produced in this way fall to the bottom of the furnace and become welded together to form a spongy mass of the bloom. The bottom of the furnace also fills with molten slag, often consisting of
fayalite Fayalite (, commonly abbreviated to Fa) is the iron-rich endmember, end-member of the olivine solid solution, solid-solution series. In common with all minerals in the olivine, olivine group, fayalite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system (spac ...
, a compound of
silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...
, oxygen and iron mixed with other impurities from the ore. Because the bloom is highly porous, and its open spaces are full of slag, the bloom must later be reheated and beaten with a hammer to drive the molten slag out of it. Iron treated this way is said to be ''wrought'', and the resulting nearly pure iron ''
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...
''.


Blast furnace

In 1742, Grubb replaced his bloomery with a high charcoal-fired cold blast furnace. The blast furnace burned hotter than the bloomery and was able to render molten
pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...
("
charcoal iron Charcoal iron is the substance created by the smelting of iron ore with charcoal. All ironmaking blast furnaces were fueled by charcoal until Abraham Darby I, Abraham Darby introduced coke (fuel), coke as a fuel in 1709. The more economical coke ...
") from the ore. A blast furnace relies on the fact that the unwanted
silicon Silicon is a chemical element; it has symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic lustre, and is a tetravalent metalloid (sometimes considered a non-metal) and semiconductor. It is a membe ...
and other impurities are lighter than the molten iron that is the main product. Grubb's furnace was built in the form of a tall
chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...
-like structure lined with
refractory In materials science, a refractory (or refractory material) is a material that is resistant to decomposition by heat or chemical attack and that retains its strength and rigidity at high temperatures. They are inorganic, non-metallic compound ...
brick.
Charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...
,
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
and
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...
(iron oxide) were poured in at the top, and air was blown in through
tuyeres A tuyere or tuyère (; ) is a tube, nozzle or pipe allowing the blowing of air into a furnace or hearth.W. K. V. Gale, The iron and Steel industry: a dictionary of terms (David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1972), 216–217. Air or oxygen is i ...
near the base. The resulting "blast" promotes combustion of the charcoal (more modern furnaces use coke or even
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...
), creating a chemical reaction that reduces the iron oxide to the base metal which sinks to the bottom of the furnace. The exact nature of the reaction is: Fe2 O3 + 3 C O → 2Fe + 3CO2 More precisely, the compressed air blown into the furnace reacts with the carbon in the fuel to produce
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
, which then mixes with the
iron oxide An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust. Iron ...
, reacting chemically to produce iron and
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...
, which leaks out of the furnace at the top. In the beginning of the reaction cycle, the hot blast, also called "wind", containing pre-heated gas from
Cowper stove A regenerative heat exchanger, or more commonly a regenerator, is a type of heat exchanger where heat from the hot fluid is intermittently stored in a thermal storage medium before it is transferred to the cold fluid. To accomplish this the hot fl ...
s and air, is blasted into the furnace through tuyeres. The wind will ignite the coke and the
Boudouard reaction The Boudouard reaction, named after Octave Leopold Boudouard, is the redox reaction of a chemical equilibrium mixture of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide at a given temperature. It is the disproportionation of carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide ...
will take place: C + O2 → CO2
CO2 + C → 2 CO The temperature in the furnace typically runs at about 1500 °C, which is enough to also decompose
limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...
(
calcium carbonate Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a common substance found in Rock (geology), rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skel ...
) into
calcium oxide Calcium oxide (formula: Ca O), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term '' lime'' connotes calcium-containing ...
and additional carbon dioxide: CaCO3 → CaO + CO2 The calcium oxide reacts with various acidic impurities in the iron (notably
silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...
), forming a slag containing
calcium silicate Calcium silicate can refer to several silicates of calcium including: *CaO·SiO2, wollastonite (CaSiO3) *2CaO·SiO2, larnite (Ca2SiO4) *3CaO·SiO2, alite or (Ca3SiO5) *3CaO·2SiO2, (Ca3Si2O7). This article focuses on Ca2SiO4, also known as calci ...
, Ca Si O3 which floats on the iron. The pig iron produced by the blast furnace is not useful for most purposes due to its high carbon content, around 4-5%, making it very
brittle A material is brittle if, when subjected to stress, it fractures with little elastic deformation and without significant plastic deformation. Brittle materials absorb relatively little energy prior to fracture, even those of high strength. ...
. Some pig iron is used to make cast iron goods, often being remelted in a foundry cupola. For other purposes further processing is needed to reduce the carbon content to enable iron to be used for tools or as a construction material. There have been various processes for this. The earliest process was conducted in the
finery forge A finery forge is a forge used to produce wrought iron from pig iron by decarburization in a process called "fining" which involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and decarburization, removing carbon from the molten cast iron through Redo ...
. In the late 18th century, this began to be displaced by 'potting and stamping', but the most successful new process of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...
period was
puddling A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid on a surface. Puddle or Puddles may also refer to: * Puddle, Cornwall, hamlet in England * ''Puddle'' (video game) * Puddle (M. C. Escher), a woodcut by M. C. Escher * Weld puddle, a crucial part of th ...
. This is now done by forcing a jet of high-pressure oxygen into a special rotating container containing the pig iron. Some of the carbon is oxidised into
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
, CO, and carbon dioxide, CO2. This also oxidizes impurities in the pig iron. The container is rotated and the processed pig iron can be separated from the oxidised impurities. Before the mid 19th century, pig iron from the blast furnace was made into
wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...
, which is commercially pure iron. At that period, if steel was needed, particularly pure varieties of iron were heated with charcoal in a cementation furnace to produce
blister steel The cementation process is an obsolete technology for making steel by carburization of iron. Unlike modern steelmaking, it increased the amount of carbon in the iron. It was apparently developed before the 17th century. Derwentcote Steel Furn ...
(with about 1-2% carbon). This might be further purified using the
crucible technique Crucible steel is steel made by melting pig iron, cast iron, iron, and sometimes steel, often along with sand, glass, ashes, and other fluxes, in a crucible. Crucible steel was first developed in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE in Southe ...
, but steel was too expensive to use on a large scale. However, with the introduction of the
Bessemer process The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is steelmaking, removal of impurities and undesired eleme ...
in the late 1850s and then other processes, the production of steel was dramatically increased. By the late 19th century most iron was being converted to steel before use.


Charcoal

The blast furnaces at Cornwall Furnace needed a tremendous amount of charcoal in order to keep them fired and thereby create a steady production of iron. The making of the charcoal became an industry in itself. Hardwood trees were chopped down, dried, stacked and fired in pits. A collier carefully stacked the wood around a
chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...
. The stack of wood was covered with leaves and dirt and was set on fire in the center. The fires were allowed to smolder for ten to fourteen days, under the careful, round the clock, supervision of the collier. The colliers were careful to make sure that enough heat was produced to expel moisture, tar and other substances from the wood without burning the wood up entirely. Wood was not charred until just before it was needed to keep it from getting wet and becoming useless. The demand for charcoal was so tremendous that Cornwall Furnace used an entire acre of wood every day for making charcoa


Working at the furnace

The furnace operated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, except for when it was closed for repairs. Cornwall Iron Furnace was capable of producing 24 tons of iron a week. A large
waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...
powered the bellows. Carts loaded with charcoal passed to and fro between the coal barn and the furnace under a protective roof designed to keep the charcoal dry. Other wagons hauled the ore from the mine to the top of the furnace on the hillside. Workers then manually transported the charcoal and ore to the furnace. The guttermen worked at the base of the furnace. They raked the cooling sand and dug channels for the molten pig iron. Next, they stacked the bars of pig iron outside. The working conditions were very difficult. Temperatures inside the casting house reached as high as 160 °F (71 °C). Such a massive and difficult iron and charcoal making operation need a massive and hardened
workforce In macroeconomics, the workforce or labour force is the sum of people either working (i.e., the employed) or looking for work (i.e., the unemployed): \text = \text + \text Those neither working in the marketplace nor looking for work are out ...
. The furnace alone needed as many as sixty people working around the clock in twelve-hour shifts. The iron works support staff included a company clerk, a host of
teamster A teamster in American English is a truck driver; a person who drives teams of draft animals; or a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union. In some places, a teamster was called a carter, the name referring to the ...
s, woodcutters, the colliers, farmers and household servants. There was a wide gap between the classes. Workers were housed in small homes and worked very hard for low wages. The owners and supervisors of the furnace lived in mansions with sizable servant staffs. Historians have likened life at the furnace to life in a
feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
barony Barony may refer to: * Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron * Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron * Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...
. There were three groups of workers at Cornwall Iron Furnace: Free labor,
indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of Work (human activity), labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract called an "indenture", may be entered voluntarily for a prepaid lump sum, as paymen ...
s and
slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
. Slavery was legal in Pennsylvania until it was gradually abolished beginning in 1780 when the importation of slaves was prohibited. The management of the furnace had quite a bit of trouble with the staff of indentured servants. These unskilled workers were imported from
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. Many of them worked at Cornwall for a short time before eventually running away.


The Coleman legacy


Robert Coleman

Robert Coleman rose from a holding clerkship at a
prothonotary A prothonotary is the "principal clerk of a court," from Late Latin, L.L. ''prothonotarius'' (Wiktionary:circa, c. 400), from Greek ''protonotarios'' "first scribe," originally the chief of the college of recorders of the court of the Byzantine E ...
's office in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
to bookkeeper at Cornwall Iron Furnace to becoming Pennsylvania's first millionaire

Coleman arrived in Philadelphia from Ireland in 1764. After serving as a clerk and bookkeeper he went on to acquire a lease on Salford Forge near Norristown, Pennsylvania, Norristown in 1773 and immediately made a sizeable profit by manufacturing cannonballs and shot at Salford and Elizabeth Furnaces. He then used his profits to purchase a two thirds share of Elizabeth Furnace, shares of Cornwall and the Upper and Lower Hopewell Furnaces, (not the similarly named Hopewell Furnace), and ownership of
Speedwell Forge Speedwell Forge Mansion, also known as Speedwell Forge Homestead, is a historic home located at Elizabeth Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The ironmaster's mansion was built about 1760, ...
. Soon Coleman was able to construct Colebrook Furnace, purchase the rest of Elizabeth Furnace and acquired 80% ownership of Cornwall Furnace and the ore mines nearby. His business acquisitions and the profits turned from them enabled him to become the first millionaire in the history of Pennsylvania.


George Dawson Coleman

George Dawson Coleman was the grandson of Robert Coleman and son of James Coleman. George Dawson Coleman married Deborah Brown of Philadelphia and had several children including Ann Coleman who moved to France and revitalized
Château de Villandry The Château de Villandry is a grand country house located in Villandry, in the ''département'' of Indre-et-Loire, France. It is especially known for its beautiful gardens. History The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as ...
(alongside her husband Joachim Carvallo). George Dawson Coleman controlled much of the Coleman iron fortune with his brother, Robert. George acquired greater control of the ore mines at Cornwall and was able to experiment with iron furnaces that were fueled by anthracite coal instead of coke. He also invested in the expanding
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
, and built houses, a school and church for his employees. He was much loved by his community and went on to serve several times in the Pennsylvania State Legislature. (Several churches built by the Coleman family are still in existence in the area, and they are known as Coleman Chapels.) George oversaw many improvements in production at Cornwall Iron Furnace. The bellows were replaced with "blowing tubs." The blowing tubs were piston-powered air pumps and containers that held compressed air and forced that air into the furnaces. The waterwheel was replaced by a steam engine in 1841. And the furnace stack was rebuilt in the 1850s. The Colemans turned direct supervision of Cornwall Iron Furnace to John Reynolds in 1848, who acted as the guardian of the minor children of Thomas B. Coleman. He was the father of John F. Reynolds, a graduate of
West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
. John Fulton Reynolds was commissioned a
general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
and was the first Union General to fall at the
Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, ...
. The elder Reynolds managed the furnace until his death in 1853.


Robert Habersham Coleman

Robert Habersham Coleman was the fourth and last generation scion of the Colemans. He shut the facility in 1883, opening new facilities for the company. In 1881, at the time he took over his family's business, Coleman was worth about seven million dollars. By 1889 he was estimated to be worth thirty million dollars. By 1893 the fortune had vanished. One of his homes, Cornwall Hall, was a "symbol of the rise, fame and decline of the "king" of Cornwall (Pennsylvania) during America's
Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...
."


Downfall

Cornwall Iron Furnace became
obsolete Obsolescence is the process of becoming antiquated, out of date, old-fashioned, no longer in general use, or no longer useful, or the condition of being in such a state. When used in a biological sense, it means imperfect or rudimentary when comp ...
by the 1880s. The Bessemer and open-hearth processes of creating
steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
, the replacement of charcoal with coke and
anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highe ...
, the discovery of iron deposits at the
Iron Range The Iron Range is collectively or individually a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by the Giants ...
in
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
near
Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...
, and the building of modern factories in
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, Steelton and
Bethlehem Bethlehem is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, located about south of Jerusalem, and the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate. It had a population of people, as of . The city's economy is strongly linked to Tourism in the State of Palesti ...
brought about the end of iron production in Cornwall. Cornwall Furnace no longer earned a
profit Profit may refer to: Business and law * Profit (accounting), the difference between the purchase price and the costs of bringing to market * Profit (economics), normal profit and economic profit * Profit (real property), a nonpossessory inter ...
in its last ten years of operation and the last owner, Robert Habersham Coleman, had it shut down on February 11, 1883. In 1932, the furnace and ancillary buildings were deeded by Margaret Coleman Buckingham and have since been restored and open to the public.


See also

*
Cast Iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
*
Iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
*
Ironworks An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloome ...
*
Ewiger Jäger The ''ewiger Jäger'' (eternal hunter; ''der ewige Jäger''; ) is a local variant of the ghostly wild huntsman (German ''wilder Jäger''; ) found in German, Belgian, and American folklore. Germany According to the Brothers Grimm’s '' Deutsch ...
— Cornwall Iron Furnace is the site of a ghostly legend of the Wild Hunt. *
List of National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania This is a List of National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania. There are 169 in the state. Listed in the tables below are the 102 NHLs outside Philadelphia. For the 67 within Philadelphia, see List of National Historic Landmarks in Philadelphi ...
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania


References

* * * H. R. Schubert, ''History of the British Iron and Steel Industry'' (1957). * R. F. Tylecote, ''History of Metallurgy'' (1991). * Gordon C. Pollard, 'Experimentation in 19th century bloomery production: evidence from the Adirondacks of New York' ''Historical Metallurgy'' 32(1) (1998), 33-40.


External links


Cornwall Iron Furnace official site


How iron is extracted, for high school level
Blast Furnace animationHow a Blast Furnace works
Illustrated.
Extensive picture gallery about all methods of making and shaping of iron and steel in North America and Europe. In German and English.Blast Furnace Museum Radwerk IVSchematic diagram of blast furnace and Cowper stoveironfurnaces.com - a free wiki dedicated to preserving the history and location of historic blast iron furnaces
{{Authority control Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania 1716 establishments in Pennsylvania Industrial buildings completed in 1742 National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania Museums in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania Industry museums in Pennsylvania Ironworks and steel mills in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania American Revolutionary War museums in Pennsylvania Blast furnaces in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania