Giles Edwards,
AlabamaÕs Leading Proponent of Coke as Furnace Fuel
by Jim Bennett
Newsletter
Of The Birmingham-Jefferson Historical Society, April 8, 2010
Giles Edwards, builder of the
first Alabama blast furnace blown in on coke, was a Welsh immigrant who figured
prominently in BirminghamÕs rise to the top among the nationÕs great iron and
steel centers.
Well educated on advancements in
iron making in Europe, he brought many innovations to his American experience
beginning work in 1842 as a draftsman at the first iron plant built at
Carbondale, Pennsylvania. Edwards later worked in the mills at Scranton, and
superintended the Thomas works at Tamaqua and Catasauqua, also in Pennsylvania.
Early on EdwardsÕ expertise drew
the attention of iron mogul David Thomas, considered to be Òthe father of the
American anthracite iron industry.Ó Thomas had built the first successful coal-fired
furnace at Catasauqua in 1840. Like Edwards, he was born in Wales in the County
of Glamorgan, almost in the shadow of the giant ironworks at Dowlais. At one point
in the 19th century this place had been the largest iron producer in the world.
In ThomasÕ employment, EdwardsÕ
health began to fail from overwork and after a short stay at the Novelty
Ironworks in New York, the company convinced him for health reasons he should
move south to Chattanooga, Tennessee where the iron industry was beginning to
show promise.
Here the East Tennessee Iron
Manufacturing Company had built the Bluff Furnace on the Tennessee River near
the Walnut Street Bridge in downtown Chattanooga in 1854-56 as a charcoal
furnace. It shut down three years later to be converted to coke, the first
southern iron furnace to use the new fuel source. There is speculation the
furnace was actually leased to a group of northern iron investors including
John Fritz, builder of the furnace and rolling mill at Catasauqua where Edwards
was employed. Investors, possibly some hidden ones, were interested to see if
quality pig iron could be made from coke using Southern coal.
Under EdwardsÕ direction, along with James Henderson of New
York, the Bluff Furnace was converted into the first coke-fired furnace in the
Southern Appalachian region in 1859 - 1860. It featured a number of innovations
including a cupola-type iron jacket stack 11 feet in diameter and a modified
hot blast stove.
This iron jacket extender,
designed to increase production, would later be used at both the Oxmoor and
Brierfield Furnaces in Alabama after the Civil War.
Operations at the Bluff Furnace
came to a stall following political unrest and a workerÕs revolt during the
election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. With the experiment deemed a success, the
plant closed and Henderson moved back to New York. Edwards moved further south
to become assistant superintendent of the Shelby Furnace which was being
modernized. As federal troops advanced toward Chattanooga in 1863, the Bluff
Furnace plant was dismantled and the machinery shipped to the new Oxford Iron
Furnace under construction near present day Anniston. A portion of the blast
equipment is also thought to have also made its way to the Shelby Furnace with
Edwards.
It was at the Shelby Rolling Mill
in 1864 that armor plate for the ironclad CSS Tennessee was rolled.
After the war, Edwards also
helped rebuild the Brierfield Rolling Mill and put the nearby Bibb Furnaces
back into operation for Gen. Josiah Gorgas who had purchased the site as war
contraband in June of 1866.
Shortly after, Edwards moved to
the Tannehill Furnace site as land agent for the Thomas family whose Pioneer
Mining and Manufacturing Co. had bought 2,615 acres in 1868 for its huge iron
ore reserves.
En route to Tannehill in 1871,
his wife, Salinah, remarked from the train, ÒOn our way to Tannehill we passed
through Elyton and saw the site of Birmingham. There were only two section
houses for the men starting the railroad—nothing else. But my husband
pointed up the long valley. There lies Birmingham, he saidÉall thatÕs going to
be Birmingham some day and he spread his arms out to take in the entire
country.Ó
Near the Tannehill Furnaces,
Edwards moved into the old ÒMansion HouseÓ, probably where the Tannehill
furnace master had lived during the war, and explored new ore fields to open
for the Thomas company.
ÒNo man before Giles Edwards,Ó
wrote historian Ethel Armes, Òlearned or demonstrated the significant value of
the mineral deposits in just this particular section.Ó
He soon acquired in the Tannehill
area certain valuable properties of his own where he began building the Edwards
Furnace in Woodstock seven miles distant in 1873, it becoming the first Alabama
furnace blown in with coke. The Alice Furnace in Birmingham was also blown in
on coke later the same year.
Coke had been used experimentally
in charcoal furnaces during the war years and Shelby had used raw coal. In
1864, the first successful coke iron was actually made at the Irondale Furnace
during an experiment sanctioned by the C.S. Nitre Bureau. Although successful, the
test did not persuade Alabama iron makers to abandon charcoal until after the war
was over.
Edwards, perhaps more than most,
understood the value of coke as a replacement for charcoal as fuel in the
southern iron industry. Beginning in Wales and later in Pennsylvania and
Tennessee, he knew it made little sense to decimate hundreds of acres of forest
when tons of coal were under their feet.
At his new Woodstock furnace,
Edwards built a water elevator to bring raw materials to the top for charging.
The blowing engine was the same one used at the old Irondale plant, the
flywheel of which weighed 36 tons and was rated at 150 hp. No doubt, many spare
parts were also picked up at the burnt-out Tannehill site, just a few hundred
yards from his residence.
Brown ore mined near the site
also was shipped to the rebuilt Oxmoor plant where it was mixed with Red
Mountain iron ore. Edwards built an ore washer and a tramway to the Alabama
& Chattanooga Railroad (later the Alabama Great Southern), a distance of
one-fourth mile to expedite delivery.
The Edwards Furnace, hit with
economic downturns and expansions, was remodeled several times. Shareholders
included Henry F. DeBardeleben, builder of several furnaces in Bessemer. Before
closing in 1890, Edwards Furnace could produce 30,000 tons of pig iron per day.
Edwards and his family lived a
short distance from the furnace and jonquils still bloom each year at the home
site behind what may be the largest oak tree in Bibb County. His two daughters
were married at the family home in a double ceremony in 1899. Lydia married James
W. McQueen, who would later become vice president of Sloss-Sheffield Steel and
Iron Co. and Gertrude married D. W. Pickens.
Interestingly, during one of the
down times, Edwards is engaged at the Oxmoor Furnace in 1883 where a recent
fire had closed the plant. Here he rebuilds the facility for the Eureka Company.
It was at this site that the famed ÒEureka ExperimentÓ in 1876 proved once and for
all that coke made from Alabama coal could successfully be used in the
manufacture of pig iron.
Said DeBardeleben, founder of
Bessemer and a former manager of the Oxmoor Furnace, ÒGiles Edwards was a conceiver
of big projects. He was one of the first men in the state to see the big
possibilities ahead and to cast his lines and work accordingly. He was well
informed on coke, coal and iron. He was a practical geologist and a scholar,
had one of the best libraries in the state. He was a good draftsman besides, a
first rate one and an excellent citizen, none better.Ó
Edwards died in 1892 while still
living at his Woodstock residence at age 68. He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery
in Birmingham in the McQueen plot next to his wife who helped him build the
Edwards Furnace. The transition from charcoal to coke in Alabama was complete.
In March of 1862, noted Welsh
iron-master Giles Edwards came to Shelby Iron. Born in Glamorganshire, South
Wales, September 26, 1824, Edwards had, by about 1842, made his way to
Carbondale, Pennsylvania, near the head of the Lackawanna River. There, he
superintended pattern making at the first iron mill in that town. Edwards later
worked with mills at Scranton, and superintended the Thomas works at Tamaqua, Pa.
From Pennsylvania, Edwards moved south to Tennessee, where he supervised the
rebui lding of the Bluff Furnace at Chattanooga.
Following this
reconstruction, Judge John Lapsley of Selma, a new shareholder at Shelby,
requested Edwards to superintend the reconstruction and expansion of the Shelby
works.
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