The Mount Savage Iron Works operated from 1837 to 1868 in Mount Savage, Maryland. The ironworks were the largest in the United States in the late 1840s, and the first in the nation to produce iron rails for the construction of railroads. Before that time all iron rails were imported from England. The works were established in an area adjacent to mines for coal, iron ore and fire clay. Facilities included blast furnaces, puddling furnaces, a rolling mill, iron refineries, coke production and brick production.
The Maryland and New York Coal and Iron Company was incorporated in 1837, and it acquired land north of Frostburg, Maryland. The company, led by Samuel Swartwout, a New York land speculator, renamed this area as the town of Mount Savage, and made plans to establish an iron works. [1] : 289 After raising funds from investors, the company built two blast furnaces in 1840, using coke as fuel. [2] : 256 It built a rolling mill in 1843 specifically to manufacture rails. Production of bridge rails, with an inverted "U"-shape and weighing 42 lb/yd, began in 1844. [2] : 434 Some of the initial rail production was used to build a railroad line to Cumberland, Maryland to connect with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). [1] : 301, 306 (See Mount Savage Railroad.) The company also manufactured 50 lb/yd T-shaped rails for the Fall River Railroad in Massachusetts; [2] : 434 and sold rails to the B&O. [3] Production in 1845 was about 200 tons per week. [4]
In 1846-47 the Mount Savage works faced financial problems, due to the Tariff of 1846, which ruined the iron business, and the flooding of a portion of the Mount Savage Railroad. [1] : 312 The company defaulted on several loans. A group of New York City investors, Erastus Corning the most prominent among them, acquired the company later in 1847 and renamed it the Mount Savage Iron Company. The facilities were expanded with additional capital, and in the 1850s the labor force grew to over 900 workers. The Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad became another important customer. [3]
The works faced competition from various facilities in Pennsylvania and the Great Lakes region, where superior grades of iron ore were discovered and mined beginning in the 1850s. [2] : 324 The facilities were acquired by the Consolidation Coal Company in 1864. The rolling mill was shut down in 1868 and dismantled in 1875. The blast furnaces ceased operation c. 1870. [3]
Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content. It is made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air. Coke is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ore smelting, but also as a fuel in stoves and forges.
A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finished casting products are made from molten pig iron or from scrap.
Anthracite iron or anthracite pig iron is iron extracted by the smelting together of anthracite coal and iron ore, that is using anthracite coal instead of charcoal in iron smelting. This was an important technical advance in the late-1830s, enabling a great acceleration of the Industrial Revolution in the United States and in Europe.
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks.
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IISCO Steel Plant of Steel Authority of India Limited is an integrated steel plant located at Burnpur, a neighbourhood in Asansol city, in the Asansol subdivision of Paschim Bardhaman district, West Bengal, India.
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company (CF&I) was a large steel conglomerate founded by the merger of previous business interests in 1892. By 1903 it was mainly owned and controlled by John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould's financial heirs. While it came to control many plants throughout the country, its main plant was a steel mill on the south side of Pueblo, Colorado, and was the city's main industry for most of its history. From 1901 to 1912, Colorado Fuel and Iron was one of the Dow Jones Industrials. The steel-market crash of 1982 led to the decline of the company. After going through several bankruptcies, the company was acquired by Oregon Steel Mills in 1993, and changed its name to Rocky Mountain Steel Mills. In January 2007, Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, along with the rest of Oregon Steel's holdings, were acquired by EVRAZ Group, a Russian steel corporation, for $2.3 billion.
Mount Savage is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Allegany County, Maryland, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 873.
The Maryland Mining Company is a historic coal mining, iron producer and railroad company that operated in Allegany County, Maryland, United States.
The Eckhart Branch Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Cumberland, Maryland area in the 19th century.
The Mount Savage Railroad was a railroad operated by the Maryland and New York Coal and Iron Company of Mount Savage, Maryland between 1845 and 1854. The 14.9 miles (24 km) rail line ran from Frostburg to Cumberland, Maryland.
The Georges Creek Railroad was a railroad operated by the Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company in Western Maryland. The railroad operated from 1853 to 1863, when it was acquired by the Cumberland and Pennsylvania Railroad (C&P).
The Georges Creek Coal and Iron Company is a defunct coal mining, iron producer and railroad company that operated in Maryland from 1835 to 1863.
TrentonWorks is an industrial manufacturing facility located in the town of Trenton, Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (1852–1952), also known as TCI and the Tennessee Company, was a major American steel manufacturer with interests in coal and iron ore mining and railroad operations. Originally based entirely within Tennessee, it relocated most of its business to Alabama in the late nineteenth century, following protests over its use of free convict labor. With a sizable real estate portfolio, the company owned several Birmingham satellite towns, including Ensley, Fairfield, Docena, Edgewater and Bayview. It also established a coal mining camp it sold to U.S. Steel which developed it into the Westfield, Alabama planned community.
The Duluth Works was an industrial steel and cement manufacturing complex located in Duluth, Minnesota, United States, in operation 1915 to 1987. The complex was operated by the United States Steel Corporation. Officially, the plant's purpose was to supply the growing Midwest with steel finished products. Unofficially, they were built as part of a "gentleman's agreement" between U.S. Steel and the State of Minnesota to not impose hefty iron ore taxes on U.S. Steel in exchange for a fully integrated steel plant within Minnesota, whose mines furnished 80% of the ore to U.S. Steel. The combined works of the steel and cement plant were the largest employers in Duluth and the fourth largest industrial complex in Minnesota.
The Pittsburgh coal seam is the thickest and most extensive coal bed in the Appalachian Basin; hence, it is the most economically important coal bed in the eastern United States. The Upper Pennsylvanian Pittsburgh coal bed of the Monongahela Group is extensive and continuous, extending over 11,000 mi2 through 53 counties. It extends from Allegany County, Maryland to Belmont County, Ohio and from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania southwest to Putnam County, West Virginia.
The Fitzroy Iron Works at Mittagong, New South Wales, was the first commercial iron smelting works in Australia. It first operated in 1848.
The Lithgow Blast Furnace is a heritage-listed former blast furnace and now park and visitor attraction at Inch Street, Lithgow, City of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1906 to 1907 by William Sandford Limited. It is also known as Eskbank Ironworks Blast Furnace site; Industrial Archaeological Site. The property is owned by Lithgow City Council. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
The Columbia Steel Company, sometimes shortened to Columbia Steel, is an American steel company headquartered in the state of Oregon. It had its origins in 1901, but did not officially organize under its current name until 1909.