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Stories from PA History
The Pennsylvania Iron Industry: Furnace and Forge of America
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The Pennsylvania Iron Industry: Furnace and Forge of America
Chapter 3: The Transition to Mineral Fuels and Transformation of the Industry, 1840-1880

Pottstown Ironworker crew, c. 1861, consisting of Nailers, Heaters, Feeders and Forgers. Notice the tools that the workers hold and the row of children in the top rows.
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Pottstown Ironworker crew, c. 1861
Technological change transformed the Pennsylvania iron industry between 1840 and 1880. Replacing charcoal as the principal fuel with anthracite coal and then bituminous coal and coke, the industry grew rapidly. By 1860 anthracite furnaces produced 57 percent of the nation's iron. The dominance of anthracite was short-lived, however, as bituminous coal surpassed it as a fuel source in Pennsylvania furnaces by 1875. These changes also affected the size of ironworks, ownership, capitalization, products, workforces, and labor-management relations.

A iron furnace complex sits along the edge of the water
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Crane Iron Works complex.
Led by markerDavid Thomas, Pennsylvania ironmasters adopted British technologies, including hot blast apparatus, and constructed the first anthracite furnaces, close to coal beds in eastern Pennsylvania. In 1840, Thomas blew in the nation's first successful anthracite furnace at the markerCrane Iron Works. By 1868 the company had erected five more anthracite furnaces of increasing size and output. Achieving greater efficiency and lower cost than charcoal, anthracite furnaces fostered a dramatic shift in eastern Pennsylvania. As ironmasters erected larger anthracite furnaces, they increased output substantially to meet rising demand.

Lyon, Shorb and Company album page. The photographs depict the owners and employees of the company. On this page six facsimile representative carte-de-visites are presented.
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Lyon, Shorb and Company album page, circa 1862-1867.
The shift to bituminous coal and coke occurred more slowly. In the 1810s, Thomas Lewis was the first to make coke in America, for Isaac Meason's rolling mill constructed at Plumsock and then at Bear Creek Furnace. These early coke furnaces, however, failed due to a weak blast, inferior coal and coke, and inadequate transportation.

Improvements in producing coke from coal, exploitation of high-quality bituminous beds, and rising demand for products made from coke iron spurred the construction of coke furnaces after 1840. markerThe Brady's Bend Works operated two bituminous coke furnaces in the 1840s then integrated a rail-rolling mill to become the first firm to use bituminous coke in large-scale iron manufacturing. Other firms soon followed, as western Pennsylvania led the state in erecting coke furnaces near bituminous coal beds. By 1880, rail tranportation enabled eastern iron manufacturers to use coke or coke mixed with anthracite, and by 1900 coke furnaces produced 70 percent of Pennsylvania iron.

Hand-colored lithograph, drawn from nature by James Queen. Drawn on stone by F. von Lahr. Printed by P.S. Duval and Co.'s Steam Lithography Press, Philadelphia, PA, circa 1855.
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Montour Iron Works, Danville, PA. circa 1855.
Rolling mills also superseded forges after 1840, producing a wide range of wrought-iron products. Rolling mills grew greatly in size and number; by 1849 seventy-nine rolling mills produced 80 percent of Pennsylvania wrought iron. Rail mills led the way. The Montour Iron Works of Danville rolled the markerfirst iron T-rails in Pennsylvania in 1845.  The next year the markerLackawanna Iron and Coal Company began rolling iron rails in Scranton. Soon one of the nation's largest rail manufacturers, the company by 1857 had four anthracite furnaces supplying their rail mill. In 1846, the markerPhoenix Iron Company in Chester County also branched into rail production, integrating a new rail mill with three anthracite furnaces. Rail manufacturers led in integrating blast furnaces with rolling mills, thus increasing the overall size of ironworks.

Iron Archet
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Iron Archet
Pennsylvania iron makers also developed other rolled, wrought-iron products for the industrializing nation. Construction of markerDunlap's Creek Bridge in 1836-1839 proved the feasibility of iron bridges. In 1841, markerJohn Roebling began making iron cable, first used to pull canal boats up steep inclines on the markerAllegheny Portage Railroad. The nation's markerfirst iron railroad bridge was completed in 1845 in Montgomery County. During the mid-1850s the Phoenix Iron Company began rolling structural beams for bridges and buildings.

These major shifts were also accompanied by changes in the capitalization and ownership of ironworks. Only a few plantation ironmasters invested in these newer works. Most investors after 1840, such as Schuylkill County anthracite furnace pioneer markerBurd Patterson, were new to the industry.  New furnaces, rolling mills, and integrated ironworks required significant more capital than earlier ironworks. Ironmasters and investors like markerDavid R. Porter and  markerSimon Cameron, who became political leaders in the state, increasingly formed corporations to combine investors' funds and limit personal liability. By 1859, one-third of Pennsylvania iron firms were corporations rather than partnerships. Owners of rail companies led the industry in forming corporations and concentrating ownership among a handful of manufacturers.

Group photograph of rugged iron men.
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Foundry Workers, Phoenix Iron Company, Phoenixville, PA, circa 1900.
As ownership and firm size evolved, management practices changed. Rather than run the ironworks they owned, investors frequently hired managers to run their operations, and unlike to earlier ironmasters seldom interacted with their employees and thought of themselves as responsible for workers' welfare. Increasingly, they saw employees as a cost to be reduced to increase efficiency and output, and when sales slumped, they laid off workers rather than keep them on the payroll.

Changes in ownership, management, and technology also altered the lives of ironworkers. Iron workforces grew dramatically in size. Some 1,300 people worked at the Brady's Bend Iron Works in 1872, far more than at earlier marker iron plantations. The wage hierarchy also became sharper. Skilled workers received substantially more pay than common laborers. In Harrisburg in 1873, the founder was paid $3.34 a day and common laborers received $1.48. Employees were paid in cash; the earlier practice of paying workers in goods declined after 1840.
Part of the production facilities at the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, with workers standing along the tracks.
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Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company's Blast Furnaces at Scranton, 1892.


The work forces also became divided by ethnicity. The best jobs went to English, Welsh, and German immigrants, or to experienced American-born workers. American- and Irish-born common laborers did most of the unskilled work. More workers resided in towns or cities, as owners moved production facilities to canal or rail lines and to locations with larger labor pools. Employees lived in their own neighborhoods near the ironworks, while owners lived in fashionable areas elsewhere.

General view of the complex from NE corner, looking west.
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Company yard and buildings, Phoenix Steel Corporation, Phoenixville, PA, circa...
Conflcts between workers and owners also rose in size and intensiity after 1840, as  workers formed unions and engaged in strikes. Skilled workers, who had more power and autonomy than the unskilled, more frequently challenged employers. In 1849, when Pittsburgh  ironmasters hired "scabs" or replacement workers, after their workers walked out, striking workers and their families marched on two rolling mills, and the women drove the scabs out. Police responded by arresting "rioters," including women. Ironmasters reopened with replacement workers and did not rehire most of the strikers.

In the 1850s more skilled iron workers formed unions to represent their interests: Philadelphia molders founded the Stove and Hollowware Molders Union in 1855; puddlers in Pittsburgh organized the Iron City Forge of the Sons of Vulcan in 1858; and, led by markerWilliam Sylvis, fomed the National Molders Union in 1860.   

Interior of the rolling mill
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Interior of a rolling mill, Phoenix Iron Company, Phoenixville, PA, circa 1940....
Efforts to organize workers surged after the Civil War.  In 1865, The Sons of Vulcan which became a national union in 1862, led a job action in Pittsburgh protesting pay cuts that employers instituted when iron prices fell. After an eight-month strike the union and ironmasters agreed to a sliding wage scale, in which pay rates would rise and fall with iron prices. The sliding scale was an integral part of labor relations in the industry, reducing conflict over the central issue of wages.

Union membership grew rapidly after the settlement. In 1876, the National Molders Union, the Sons of Vulcan, and other unions formed the national Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. The Amalgamated Association won better wages for workers, and its membership grew to 16,000 in 1882. Workers organized unions and struck for better pay, while ironmasters responded with blacklists, firings, and the hiring of scabs. Still, a majority of Pittsburgh owners grudgingly accepted unions, and negotiated with them to moderate unions' pay demands, and avoid costly work stoppages.
Amalgamated Association of the Iron, Steel, and Tin workers button.
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Amalgamated Association of the Iron, Steel, and Tin workers button.


Workers and owners experienced far-reaching changes in the iron industry between 1840 and 1880. More changes would after 1880, with the emergence of the Pennsylvania steel industry and more changes in technology, the the nature of industrial work, and labor relations.  The Amalgamated Association united skilled steel and ironworkers just as steel came to replace iron. Union strength declined after the bitter, violent defeat of the Amalgamated Association during the infamous markerHomestead strike of  1892, after which Pennsylvania steel mill owners enforced new forms of control and "industrial paternalism" over the lives of their workers.
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