Old Industry

[Jammer]

Ok, another installment of Old Industry. Although it's fun researching and finding these old furnaces, I must admit, if you've seen one you've about seem them all. I'm changing my direction a bit, looking for the Ore pits to collect some Iron Ore.

First are the Limekilns in Erin, Tenn. These were used to burn the lime to make a pure form of calcium for water filtration. I thought it was for flux for the Iron Furnaces.




Next is Cornwall Furnace in Rome, GA. Beautiful furnace and it sits right by a lake.



This is my new desktop photo.

Then we went on to Bellwood Furnace near Dover, Tenn. Pretty bad shape, it sits near the beginning of Lake Barkley.

[Jammer]

Fulton Furnace in the Land Between the Lakes region just in Kentucky. It's just the sign, we drove back the road but didn't find the site. May go back sometime, I love that area.


This one was a surprise, we were in Northern Ky and crossed the river on a ferry to look for the Fluorite Museum and happened to see this sign. Furnace is in good shape and kept up nice by the state. It had an interesting notch in the top that I hadn't seen in other furnaces. The sign and info center had been torn down, I don't know if there going to put in a new one. There were a couple chunks of Iron ore at the base, too big to pick up.




We found the Fluorite Museum, of course it was closed, only open Thurs, Fri, and Sat.

[Jammer]

This was a coal mine that my son and I stopped at a while back. There was a big explosion that killed several workers and supervisors. Not much left. Parts of the buildings, smokestack and a huge sinkhole that looks to be recent.






If I were a little younger, I would have to climb down in there to see if the shaft is open.

[Jeff Clark]

I do not know how this thread got past me but just cool!!! is about all I can say.

[Jammer]

When I was in Tennessee a couple weeks ago, I was talking to some of the locals and they told me where a pit was that they used to get Iron Ore from. They were metal detecting for Cival War items and this spot set their detectors off big time. I got permission and went to the site and dug up some ore, ended up with a 5 gal bucket full, about 55 pounds. I would have gotten more, but the wife was impatient and she doesn't like dirty rocks in the trunk of "HER" car. Much heavier than other rocks I have that I thought were ore.
Here's a few pics of the Ore. I hope to be able to smelt this ore sometime. I've been breaking it up, to get it ready to roast.

We are going to a mineral dig in Kentucky in a couple weeks. Going to try to find some Fluorite and Galena or some other odd minerals from the area. http://www.clementmineralmuseum.org/show.htm

[Jammer]

I could not help myself. We went to a couple more furnaces while we were in the south for my son's commision. I had to take the wife to the beach in Florida so I could stop where I wanted to on the way home.

We went to Tannehill Furnace just outside Birmingham Ala. This is, by far, the best furnace site I've been to. They have rebuilt the furnace with the charging and casting shed. Laid out the pumphouse and steam shed. Most of the equipment for the furnace is in the museum. The whole site is great with cabins and a campground. Crafters are there making dulcimers or paintings. It was very hot so we checked out the furnace and then went to the air conditioned museum. This site has a large area set up for blacksmiths, they have a school there. Also some cupolas and casting supplies and teach some casting using the cupolas or a crucible furnace. Nothing fancy, but a pretty cool set up. I'll start another thread for the cupolas and blacksmith. There was just so much here, I"ll post a few pics and put the link on for my Photobucket. Anyone getting to this area should definitly check this place out.



Iron Ore, huge


While going through Birmingham we saw the exit for Sloss Ironworks. It was too late to go in but we got to see the grounds and a slideshow about the site. There is a huge cupola furnace here and have tours of the area.




I could have spent a week in this area. Birmingham has so much info on the Iron and Steel industry.

[Jammer]

http://s183.photobucket.com/albums/x310 ... 20Furnace/

Here is the link to the furnace album. and some other pictures I found interesting. This cannon was cast in 1975 for the bicentenial. They built a cupola furnace inside the furnace stack and cast several items, cannons, cannonballs and some pigs.


This is an old postcard showing workers in the casting pit of Olive Furnace in Southern Ohio. It's the one with the stone arch for charging the furnace.



Here is some of the items in the museum, a large steam engine like the one that ran the blowers for the furnace. Also a mobile "portable" Steam engine.

[dallen]

nice thanks for posting the pictures jammer.

DA

[Jammer]

http://www.oldindustry.org/

This site had been closed for about a year or more. Glad to see it's back up.