IMPORTANCE OF THE FURNACE
Furnace Family Life
In the vicinity of each furnace was a community of several hundred persons, where the workers and their families lived. The small town consisted of a general store, church, school, and graveyard. Occupations were classed as laborers, teamsters, ore-diggers, blacksmiths, carpenters, charcoal burners, storekeepers, bookkeeper, and furnace owner or manager. Wages were low and life was primitive. The $10 or $20 per month wage was paid in scrip to be used in the company store. Homes were furnished by the company and were usually dirt floor log cabins. The manager had a home of wood or brick.
Buckeye employed:
100 - 200 men and 50 - 100 yoke (pair) of oxen
1 Manager (furnace, lands & store)
1 Foundryman or Blower (furnace operations)
2 Engineers (steam engine & boilers)
5 - 9 Chargers (weighing and charging the stack)
2 Keepers (discharge iron and slag, regulate blast air)
2 Helpers
3 - 5 Cast House workers (pig molds & break out pigs)
2 Slag removers
2 - 4 Loaders and clean up men
2 - 3 Store clerks
50 Wood cutters
2 - 10 Colliers (Charcoal makers)
14 - 21 Ore miners
2 - 5 Limestone miners and haulers
2 - 5 Ore burners (Roast the ore in hearths similar to
charcoal making or in kilns) Reese Edwards (later moved to Oak Hill),
worked in the blacksmith shop at Buckeye Furnace, dates unknown.
Technology
In nearly continuous operation from 1851 to 1894, Buckeye produced 12 tons a day (about 4000 tons a year) of number one and two
foundry pig iron during the 9 month "Blast". The other 3 months of the year were spent collecting the raw materials.
Timeline
1851 Built by Newkirk, Daniels & Co. (and Daniel Isaminger, Mr. Hoop and others) (held for 11 years)
1862 Sold to H.S. Bundy ( and H.F. Austin) for $50,000 (held for 2 years)
1864 Sold to Terry Austin & Company (held for 3 years)
1867 Buckeye Furnace Company takes control. (Eben Jones, John D. Davis, L.T. Hughes, and Dr. S. Williams)
1894-1895 Final blast (operated for 43 years) Prominent Wellston resident H.S. Bundy, one time partner in
ownership of Buckeye, also had interests in Keystone, Latrobe, Madison an Jefferson furnaces.
Raw Materials Consumption -
To produce 3,000 tons of pig iron per year required:
7,888 tons of ore
411 tons of limestone for flux
411,000 bushels of charcoal (4, 110 tons)
300 - 350 acres of timberland and 48 wood cutters working 120 days from October to April to produce 11,500 cords of wood to make those 411,000 bushels of charcoal.
Timber regeneration takes 20 - 30 years so Buckeye needed from 6,000 to 10,000 acres of timberland to maintain a continuous supply.
To produce one ton of pig iron required:
5,200 pounds of ore (2.6 tons)
274 pounds of limestone for flux (0.14)
137 bushels of charcoal (1.37 tons)
Limestone for Flux
Vanport ("Gray") limestone was used throughout the region. Limestone extracted from outcroppings or by stripping off burden and or blasting.
The Furnace
The furnace consisted of an inner lining of fire-brick and an outer wall. The outer wall or stack was constructed of massive sandstone blocks. The purpose of the outer wall was to support and to insulate the inner lining. Space between the two was filled with sandstone rubble and sand.
The furnace was built on two levels with the top of the stack the same elevation as the storage yard. Sheds were used for housing the charcoal and other supplies to be used in the furnaces.
Another shed on the upper level of the stack, served as a bridge and the charge of charcoal, ore, and limestone were moved across this and dumped from a cart into the top of the furnace. Equipment for generating the hot air blast was also located on the upper level. Large blowers fanned the burning charcoal to a high heat and as the charge melted, the limestone served as a flux to float away the impurities. About every half hour another charge was added. In the old stacks air was fed through large V shaped openings in the side. The impurities floated to the top of the molten iron and formed a glassy waste product called slag. This slag was usually black in color and now litters the ground in the vicinity of the old furnaces. The waste product was referred to as cinders and in later years was used for surfacing roads. The molten iron collected in the bottom and was drawn off periodically into troughs formed on a sand bed. This was called pig iron because the troughs resembled a mother sow suckling her pigs.
