Lehigh Crane Iron Company
Location of Lehigh Crane Iron Works in Pennsylvania | |
Location | Front St. between Church and Wood Streets, Catasauqua, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 40°39′07″N 75°28′22″W / 40.65208°N 75.47287°W |
Built/founded | 1839–1840 |
PHMC dedicated | May 4, 1997 |
The Lehigh Crane Iron Company, later renamed Crane Iron Company, was a major ironmaking firm in the
The new company was named Crane in recognition of George Crane, a British foundry owner whose kind understanding and support backed their desire to hire away his foundry's long time superintendent, ironmaster David Thomas, who had achieved regular successes in employing the new hot blast process and successfully worked out necessary additional methods to not only smelt iron, but produce fine quality cast iron and pig iron ready to make steel. These results positioned Crane's company's strongly to dominate British steel and iron manufacturing for decades. Crane was grateful, so with a younger Thomas assistant already on hand, allowed Thomas his big chance for fortune. LC&CN's Hazard not only hired him and paid his expenses to come to America and set up an ironworks using the new technique, but made him a partner in the enterprise in agreement of 31 December 1838.
By late winter, LC&NC was seeking suitable real estate, with water power and access to iron ores. Suitable acres were available a few miles below the Lehigh Gap in Northampton County. The company put its first furnace into blast in 1840, and quickly gained a reputation for efficiency and ironmaking prowess among the many furnaces that now sprang up in the Lehigh Valley. Over the next several decades, Crane Iron developed an extensive portfolio of assets, buying mines in the Lehigh Valley and in northern New Jersey, and taking over many of the smaller iron furnaces in the region. Crane Iron also financed the building of railroads in the area to haul limestone and iron ore to its furnaces.
As the merchant pig iron business began to decline, Crane Iron sold off much of its railroad interests in 1896. In an effort to revive Eastern iron mining in the face of competition from
History
In 1837, the Yniscedwyn Works in Wales became the first ironworks in Britain to produce anthracite iron in commercial quantities, by use of the hot blast method. The works were owned by George Crane, and superintended by David Thomas.[3] This discovery promised to provide a large market for anthracite, and the managers of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company wished to duplicate the process in the United States. After negotiations with Crane and Thomas, they were able to hire Thomas to emigrate and manage their proposed ironworks. The company was named in honor of Crane: it was organized on April 23, 1839 and incorporated on May 16, 1839, under a general act of the Pennsylvania Legislature. The LC&N supported the new company by granting them land and rights to water power (from the LC&N's canal) for their furnace.[4]
Construction of the first furnace commenced about August 1, 1839, at Biery's Port, later Catasauqua.[5] The ovens for the hot blast were coal-fired, and the blowing engine was driven by a waterwheel tapping the canal at Lock 36. The furnace was blown in on July 3, 1840 and the first four tons of iron produced July 4, 1840. It remained in blast until flooded by a January freshet in 1841, producing 1,080 tons of iron during that period.[6]
No. 2 Furnace was erected in 1842, using waste gas from the stack to heat the blast instead of coal-fired ovens. No. 3 was built in 1846, and Nos. 4 and 5 in 1849, as the iron business increased.
The limestone flux for the furnaces was largely shipped from local quarries. A mixture of about 75% limonite and 25% magnetite ore was used to supply the furnace. Most of the limonite was mined locally: the first batch of ore smelted at the furnace was supplied by Henry Hoch's mine in Schoenersville nearby, and the mine was an important supplier of the ironworks for years, being worked from 1840 to 1908.[6] Some magnetite also came from the Wieand mine in Vera Cruz, but it was principally shipped from the Irondale-area, Byram, and Dickerson Mines in New Jersey. Anthracite came from the LC&N's mines, shipped by canal boat for many years, and later by rail.
Expansion
In 1855, David Thomas left his post as superintendent of the Crane Iron Company to oversee the new Thomas Iron Company. His son John Thomas succeeded him, and served until he, too, took over at Thomas Iron, and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Joshua Hunt.[7]
The success of Crane Iron and the many other iron companies that sprang up in the Lehigh Valley led to a major mining boom in Lehigh County, with no less than 261 mines of varying size being opened.[8]
This was in part facilitated by improved transportation in the area. The Crane and Thomas Iron Companies wanted a railroad to bring local ore to their furnaces, but faced strong local opposition when attempting to gain a charter.
By this time, the iron furnaces also boasted a substantial plant railroad. This began with the construction of a private wagon and rail bridge, which the company opened to the public, across the
In 1889, No. 3 stack was raised, and No. 4 went out of service in July 1890.
See also
- Crane Railroad
Notes
- ^ a b Brenckman 1884.
- ^ Thomas 1900.
- ^ Bartholomew & Metz 1988, pp. 17–18.
- ^ Bartholomew & Metz 1988, pp. 20–24.
- ^ Bartholomew & Metz 1988, p. 25.
- ^ a b Bartholomew & Metz 1988, p. 26.
- ^ a b c Bartholomew & Metz 1988, p. 118.
- ^ Pennsylvania Geological Survey, Lehigh County
- ^ a b Bartholomew & Metz 1988, p. 100.
- ^ Kulp 1962, p. 69.
- ^ Kulp 1962, pp. 69–70.
- ^ Kulp 1962, p. 87.
- ^ Taber 1987, p. 334.
- ^ Kulp 1962, p. 70.
- ^ Bartholomew & Metz 1988, p. 118–120.
- ^ Bartholomew & Metz 1988, p. 121.
References
- Brenckman, Fred (1884). History of Carbon County Pennsylvania (2nd (1913) ed.). p. 627., downloadable full pdf version
- Thomas, Samuel (1900). "Reminiscences of the Early Anthracite-Iron Industry". The Hopkin Thomas Project (Preprint).
- Bartholomew, Craig L.; Metz, Lance E. (1988), Bartholomew, Ann (ed.), The Anthracite Iron Industry of the Lehigh Valley, Center for Canal History and Technology, ISBN 0-930973-08-9
- Kulp, Randolph L., ed. (1962), Railroads in the Lehigh River Valley, Lehigh Valley Chapter, National Railway Historical Society, Inc
- Lambert, James F.; Reinhard, Henry J. (1914), A History of Catasauqua in Lehigh County Pennsylvania, The Searle and Dressler Co., Inc., ISBN none
- Pennsylvania Geological Survey, Lehigh County, retrieved 2008-04-23
- Taber, Thomas T. III (1987), Railroads of Pennsylvania Encyclopedia and Atlas, Thomas T. Taber III, ISBN 0-9603398-5-X