Crane Iron Works
Source:Roberts,
C. R, et al, History of Lehigh
County Pennsylvania,
1914.
The
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company was organized in 1818, and after operating
their coal beds and canal for 20 years, in which time they had increased their
production and transportation of 1,000 tons, in 1821, to 224,000 tons, in 1837,
they quite naturally considered the propriety of encouraging the establishment
of industries along the Lehigh river for the consumption of their coal. They,
therefore, in 1838, offered the valuable water privileges of the river from the
Hokendauqua dam to the Allentown dam to any persons who would expend $30,000 in
the erection of a furnace and run it successfully for three months by the
exclusive use of anthracite coal.
This
offer led to the organization of the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, which included
members of the Coal and Navigation Company, and, in the Fall of 1838, Erkskine
Hazard (one of the leading spirits of the Iron Company), went to Wales for the
purpose of securing a competent person to come to the United States in their
interest and superintend the erection of furnaces. He there met George Crane
(proprietor of the Crane Iron Works at Yniscedwin) who recommended David
Thomas, an expert employee, and they called to see him.
At
first, Thomas was reluctant to leave his native land, but, influenced by a
liberal offer, besides the consideration that his sons would have better
opportunities in America than they could hope for in Wales or Great Britain, he
consented, and on the night of the last day in the year 1838, he entered into
an agreement with Mr. Hazard.
It
should be mentioned in this connection that Solomon W. Roberts went to Cardiff,
Wales, in 1836, as an inspector of rails which were ordered by the Philadelphia
and Reading Railroad Company, and other railroad companies. He visited the
Crane Iron Works in May, 1837, and then informed his uncle, Josiah White, of
the successful use of anthracite coal in the manufacture of iron there. He
returned in November, bringing the details of Crane's plans and specifications
illustrative of the process. He was asked to take up the manufacture, hut
declined and recommended one of Crane's associates. In accordance with his
recommendation, Erskine Hazard, of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, went
to Wales in November, 1838, and Hazard secured the services of Mr. Thomas.
In
the Spring of 1839, Samuel Glace, while inspecting the canal along Biery's
Port, noticed a number of men standing on the cast side of the canal, which led
him to think that there might be a leak in its bed, and so he asked the
locktender, Jonathan Snyder, who they were. He then recognized Owen Rice and
Frederick Biery, and they introduced him to the strangers as gentlemen from
Philadelphia. Shortly afterward, he received orders from Mauch Chunk, to ascertain
if there were any quick-sands along the canal at Biery's Port. These were the
men who selected the site for the furnace where the first iron was made in
America with the use of anthracite coal, which proved a commercial success.
Mr.
Thomas sailed from Liverpool on May 13, 1839, and reached New York June 5th. He
brought with him his whole family. Before leaving England he had made the
blowing machinery and castings for the hot-blast, and all were shipped except
the two cylinders, which were too large for the hatches of the ship. So, when
the other machinery arrived, the projectors of the works were as badly off as
if none had been sent.
There
was not at that time a foundry in the United States large enough to cast such
cylinders as were needed. There were small foundries at Allentown and
Bethlehem. The company applied to the Allaire Works of New York, and the Alger,
of Boston, but neither of them could bore a 5-foot cylinder without enlarging
their works, which they were unwilling to do. Mr. Thomas then went to
Philadelphia to the Southwark Foundry of S. V. Merrick and J. H. Towne, who
enlarged their boring machinery and made the required cylinders.
Fire-brick
were imported from Wales, none being manufactured in this country, and in
August, 1839, ground was broken at Craneville (now Catasauqua) for the first
furnace.
After
many difficulties and discouragements, the furnace was finally blown in at five
o'clock July 3, 1846. The ore was two-thirds hematite to one-third New Jersey
magnetic. It was blown with two-and-a-half-inch nozzles, and the blast heat was
600 degrees.
The
first run of iron was made the 4th of July, and proved a great success. From
this time its manufacture by anthracite was successfully conducted at the Crane
Works, and continuously except for the slight cessations common to all
manufacturing establishments.
Furnace
No. i, in which the success of the new discovery was first fully demonstrated
in this country, was 42 feet in height, with 12 feet bosh. It was operated by a
breast-wheel 12 feet in diameter and 24 feet long, geared by segments on its
circumference to a spur-wheel on a double crank, driving two blowing cylinders,
5 feet in diameter, with a 6-foot stroke, worked by beams on a gallows-frame.
The motive power was the water of the canal, the difference between the upper
and lower levels of lock No. 36. The furnace remained in blast until its fires
were quenched by the rising waters of the flood of January, 1841, a period of
six months, during which time 1,088 tons of pig iron were produced. The largest
output for one week was 52 tons.
The
furnace was blown in again after the freshet May 18, 1841, and continued in
blast until August 6, 1842, producing in this time 3,316 tons of pig iron.
Mr.
Thomas had been looked upon as a visionary and the remark was made by a leading
charcoal ironmaster that he would eat all the iron Mr. Thomas made with
anthracite coal.
Other
Furnaces Erected. This successful operation led the
company to put up one furnace after another to supply the increasing demands of
their trade, until they had six in operation, as follows: 1842. Furnace No. 2,
4.5 feet high; 14 feet bosh. 1846. Furnace No. 3, 50 feet high; 18 feet bosh.
1849. Furnace No. 4, 50 feet high; 18 feet bosh. 1849. Furnace No. 5, 50 feet
high; 18 feet bosh. 1868. Furnace No. 6, 6o feet high; 17 feet bosh.
The
first load of iron ore was brought to the works on April 30, 1840, by Henry
Hoch. It was hematite from the mine of Jacob Rice in Hanover. township, Lehigh
county. One was brought during the first year from the mine of Nathan Whitely,
near Breinigsville, in Upper Macungie township; and one from the mine of John
Kratzer, in South Whitehall township. In 1842, the celebrated Goetz bed was
opened in Hanover township, Northampton county, and the first ore was taken to
the Crane furnace.
The
first magnetic ore was brought from the Mount Hope mine in Morris county, N.
J., in 1840.
In
the erection of the furnaces no machinery was used. Trees were cut down and set
up as poles, to which ropes and chains were fastened and these held scantling
in place at intervals; planks were laid as a floor on this scantling and on
this floor heavy stones were pulled up to the masons on small two-wheeled carts
with long handles.
A
large blowing-engine was afterward erected, because the water-wheels were not
powerful enough to furnish blast for all the furnaces, even though a small
engine had been erected at an earlier date. This necessitated more room, and
Bridge street (which ran in a direct line to the Canal) had to be vacated and
located as at present.
Canal
Bridge Moved. The question then was how to remove the
canal bridge to the new location, and Samuel Glace, an experienced
superintendent on the canal, solved it. He waited until the boating season was
over; then he placed two empty boats under the bridge and drew the water from
the canal, which put the boats on the ground; then he placed long blocks on the
boats and covered them with planks; then the water was let into the canal,
which raised the boats and put the bridge up in the air and then the bridge was
easily drawn to its new position.
Public
Interest. The manufacture of iron was quite a
curiosity, and down to the Civil War, for a period of 20 years, the works were
visited by many people of prominence, including Sir Morton Pero, Simon Cameron,
Horace Greeley, and Dom Pedro (Emperor of Brazil). The bridge house was at
times crowded with people, and it became a custom of the villagers to come to
the evening cast.
The
teams which brought -~~on ore from the mines were sometimes more than two miles
in length, reaching from the Crane Iron Company scales out to Eberhard's quarry
on the Mickley road. The roads in the county were frequently made impassable to
the farmers and this reconciled them to the proposed C. & F. R. R. The
magnetic ore was brought from New Jersey in loads and hoisted on an inclined
plane by horse power and then piled up in front of the furnaces 6o feet high.
The
coal was brought by boats and piled up on the site of the new canal, opposite
the Bryden Horse Shoe Works, in immense quantities. In the winter season it was
placed on barrows, then taken on huge scows to the furnaces, ready for use.
This was done night and day during the entire winter. On one of the midnight
trips, Hugh Dougherty was missing, and found drowned. His funeral was the first
Catholic funeral in town. The interment was made at Easton.
Immense
quantities of coal were also hoisted by buckets and piled in great heaps on the
site of No. 6 Furnace (which was torn down in February, 1914.) The opening of
the L. V. R. R. and C& F. R. R. changed this, and many costly improvements
had to be made to meet these new conditions.
The
six furnaces operated by the company for many years have been reduced to two.
The men employed vary from 300 to 500.
The
company erected numerous small two-story brickand frame dwellings in the First
ward of the borough for the convenience of its workmen, numbering altogether
95, put up at the same time as the furnace. It has also 5 dwellings in the
Second ward, 3 in the Third, and one in the Fourth; total assessed, 104.
Iron
Curiosities. At the laboratory of the Crane Iron
Works there are two interesting curiosities on the north side of the building
which look like the mouths of two projecting cannon. They were placed there in
1907 as mementos. They are abandoned tuyeres, which had been in the furnaces,
through which the hot-blast was forced. The one next to the pavement was in the
first furnace, erected in 1840.
The
company made an assignment in 1893; a re-organization was effected under the
name of the Crane Iron Works, and it passed under the control of the Empire
Steel and Iron Company. Its main office was at Philadelphia from 1839 to 1895;
then it was transferred to the Front street office at Catasauqua, opposite the
furnace, where it continued until 1908, when it was removed to the Empire Steel
and Iron Company building on Bridge street.
The
Empire Steel and Iron Company removed its offices from New York City to
Catasauqua in 1900, locating in the Crane Iron Works office building, and
continued there until 1908, when they were transferred to the superior three-story
brick building on Bridge street, which the company erected at a cost of
$20,090.
Besides
the Crane Iron Works, other companies, controlled by the Empire Steel &
Iron Company, with offices here, are the Mt. Hope R. R. Co., and the Victoria
Coal and Coke Co., of West Virginia.
Leonard
Peckitt, president of this company since 1899, became chief chemist of the
works in 1888, and since 1980 has been prominently identified with its
management.
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