The Hanging Rock Blast Furnace
The Hanging Rock blast furnaces varied little in their design. They resembled flat-topped pyramids built of sandstone block. The narrow furnace top rose 35-40 feet from the broad base. Inside the sandstone blocks was a lining of bricks made of clay mined nearby. The necessary ingredients, including chunks of iron ore and limestone, along with charcoal for fuel were dropped into the open top of the furnace. Tall wooden buildings on stilts surrounded the furnace, providing easy access to the top of the furnace and a convenient dry place to store the charcoal.
After the charcoal was ignited, air was forced through openings at the base of the furnace into beds of sand where the hot liquid was molded into blocks called “pigs.” Blast funaces produced an average of 3000 tons of iron a year. This “pig iron” was loaded onto railroad cars for shipment to foundries in Cincinnati and Cleveland, to the east coast, and even to Europe.
Courtesy hmdb.org
