(The steel museum has an exhibit concerning the iron and steel industry in Pennsylvania. The corporate predecessor of Lukens Steel was started in 1810.)
The 206" (17', 5.25m) mill
If I come across information about a steel mill that is still operating in the US, I'm trying to document it. This mill was particularly surprising because it can't economically receive iron ore from the Upper Great Lakes. Then I learned that it was founded long before that iron ore had been discovered. The reasons for this location in 1810 were water power and the turnpike that became the Lincoln Highway. One reason it is still operational is that it has a large 206" rolling mill. And it was converted to use Electric Arc Furnaces in the early 1960s. The Reading Railroad is now the Reading, Wilmington & Northern.
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| Richard Jahn posted [Pennsylvania State archives] Aerial photo from the early 1930's of the Coatesville steel complex looking north towards the PRR bridge. The RDG W&N branch in the track following the stream on the right side. Reading yard office is marked. Outstanding photo Richard, earlier than the 30's. Worth Brothers open hearth (far lower left) is still there. It was shut down and torn down when Bethlehem steel purchased it in the 20's. They moved the 160" plate mill to Sparrows Point for the shipyard. It's in China now. Between the open hearth and the river is Coatesville Boiler works. They made boilers and other fabricated equipment from plate purchased from Worth or Lukens. On the other side of the river is where Lukens started. The first group of buildings is the spun head area. Using plate heated to forming temperature one piece domed heads were created. The next group of buildings are the 140" and 206" plate mills. The 206" mill was the largest plate mill in the world. The advantage of a larger plate was fewer seams were required in fabricating something. The downside is specialized cars are required to transport them. There are at least four of the special gondolas visible loaded with plate. The 206" mill is still running and shipping out wide plate on special gondolas. Above and to the right is Open Hearth 2 and 3. Lukens was always a cold shop that melted pig iron and scrap to make steel. Worth Brothers had 3 blast furnaces East of their Open Hearth. Across the river is the 120" plate mill complex. Somewhere in there is where Lukens first began. Many of the buildings still exist and are in use. However a large expansion occurred for WW2 and post war resulting in new buildings and changes to the old ones. There are lots of additional details visible in this picture. One is the Lukens narrow gauge railroad crossing the river. It crossed on a lift bridge then into a tunnel under the Reading and 120" steel yard. Later the 120 shipping building would be built over it. The tunnel still exists but is closed off. If you have more photos similar to this one I'd love to see them posted. I work in the plant and am always looking for past photos of it. James Torgeson shared Lukens Steel, 1930s. Still in operation under the ownership of Cleveland-Cliffs. |
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| Richard commented on his post enlarged section |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on James share I believe that the four special gondolas mentioned by Will Jamison for shipping the 206" plate are the ones next to the building. You can see that the plates are shipped on an angle. |
"The Coatesville mill operations are the oldest and longest continuously operating mill in the country." In 1818, it was the first plant in America to produce iron plate. Until then, plates had to be imported from England. The plate was 4' wide and called boiler-plate. In 1825, iron plates were used to build the hull of the Codorus, which was the first iron steamboat. The boat was 60' long and 9' wide. The mill was powered by a water wheel until a new steam-powered mill was added in 1870. The 206" mill was added in 1919, and it could produce 500,000 tones per year. Bethlehem bought the plant in 1998. [PAbook]
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted, cropped A postcard from the past- The Worth Brothers Company was a major producer of steel plates AND a competitor of Lukens Steel Company. Twice the company held the record of producing the largest plates in America with their 132” plate mill in 1897 and their 152” plate mill in 1905. The Worth brothers sold their facilities to the Midvale Steel & Ordnance Company in October 1915, and then became part of Bethlehem Steel in 1923. DISCOVER more steel history at: http://www.steelmuseum.org/pais300.../worth_brothers.cfm [The link error is by the museum.] |
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| Barry Messner commented on a share Jon Wolfe posted |
National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted four photos with the comment: "Join us on Thursday November 2nd from 6:00 - 7:30 p. m. for a panel discussion on Worth Brothers Steel Company. They had a rolling mill and blast furnaces throughout Coatesville. Light refreshments will be served. All are welcome. Steelmuseum.org"
James Torgeson shared
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"The 1900s also brought the height of the boiler plate demand with the height of the railroad industry and in 1917 Lukens Steel was established on the New York Stock Exchange. The race continued though to build the largest plates: the 140, 160, 204 and in 1919 the 206 mill. World War II saw the company’s level of employment top 6,000 over its many locations. The plant was enlarged by the Department of the Navy construction facilities to handle the large amounts of materials needed to supply the navy plate steel for its vast armada of combat and auxiliary ships. The Company purchased these facilities from the government at the end of the war. The 1950s and 1960s saw continued expansion as the world came to the post modern era, with nuclear submarines, such as the Pennsylvania, and oil tankers, such as the Manhattan, along with skyscrapers, namely the World Trade Center. The electrical era also brought an end to the open hearth furnaces as one 100-ton electric-arc furnace was installed in 1958. A second 100-ton furnace was installed in 1960, with a 150- ton following in 1962." [StewartHuston]
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| Barry Messner posted James Torgeson shared |
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| Jon Wolfe posted Lukens Steel Peter KZ: Is that an open hearth furnace? Maurice Hare: Peter KZ Yes, that was Open Hearth #3. Open hearth steelmaking ended in 1975. Kenneth Treharn: Five running Furnaces of a 7 furnace Open Hearth Melt Shop. |
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| 1 of 4 photos posted by Gerard Yarka In an almost model railroad like operation, SW900's 1501, 1503, 1505, &1507 work the busy Lukens Steel plant in Coatesville, PA on a rainy 6/23/74. |
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| Donald Franklin Weghorst posted Electric Furnace at Lukens Steel (pouring platform). Henry Stanley: I can remember holding the ladle to be tapped into. Before the ladle car. Back when we had two furnaces going. Dale Baker: Tapping D furnace. This was before the LMF was installed. Mark Kennedy: It's now Cliffs and they still Ingot Pour. They also have a Caster. There are some Aerospace and Military grades that still have to be Ingot Pour. |
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| Old Postcard via Bridge Hunter [The buildings on both sides of the bridge were part of the plant.] |
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted On February 25, 1892, Lukens Iron & Steel Company tapped its first heat on an open hearth furnace. This was the first steel made by the company (previous products were made with steel purchased from others). Because of the open hearth process, Lukens' steelmaking capacity more than doubled just a few years later. Open Hearth #1 was built with two 30-ton furnaces, two 35 tons furnaces were then added, and both of the original furnaces was upgraded to 35 tons. Eventually the company had six 35-ton furnaces in the Open Hearth #1 building. [Does this mean they purchased pig iron instead of steel?] James Torgeson shared |
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| ClevelandCliffs "produces some of the widest, thickest and heaviest steel plates in the industry" [It's production facilities include a "bottom poured ingot." I assume they are still using ingots in this day and age of continuous casting to produce the thick plates.] |
"The entire fleet of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers contains steel from Coatesville — from the first-ever USS Langley, to the USS Enterprise, which is currently under construction," Mike Nichols, a Drexel University graduate who has headed quality control at the Philadelphia-area plants since 2009...."The hull of every naval submarine is made with our steel, including the first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus," Nichols added. "Our steel is found in military Humvees, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and MRAP All-Terrain Vehicles. Together, Coatesville and Conshohocken supply steel plate for the Navy's landing platform dock (LPD) vessels, also called Amphibious Assault Ships," which are named for the Sept. 11, 2001, attack sites — USS New York, USS Arlington, USS Somerset....The plates range from 3/8 inch to 6 inches thick. [inquirer-lukens]
The purchase of ArcelorMittal by Cleveland-Cliffs "comes amid a slump in industrial sales that has made companies cheaper to buy — and a change in technology by which Cleveland-Cliffs is burning cheap, cleaner U.S. natural gas to make steel rather relying on smoky, coal-based coke." [inquirer-sales] The statement about natural gas applies to CC's integrated mills, not this one since this one is a mini-mill. (Mini-mill means that it uses an Electric Arc Furnace for steel production, not that it is small. It can make up to 900,000 tons annually.) I include this statement about natural gas because I'm relieved to learn that CC is making progress towards "green steel."
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| hagley Multiple flame cutting "Lukens Steel Company was a medium-sized producer of specialty steel products and one of the top three producers of steel plate in the United States. Lukens Steel Company is noted for being the first industrial company in the United States led by a woman, Rebecca Lukens (1794-1854). " |
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted, cropped On January 21, 1954, the USS Nautilus launched. The Nautilus was the world’s first nuclear powered submarine. It surpassed all previous speed and distance records for submerged vessels and completed the first underwater crossing of the North Pole. She was decommissioned in 1980 and is now a National Historic Landmark in Groton, Connecticut. The Nautilus was made with Lukens steel. Steelmuseum.org Built with Lukens plate! Cliffs Coatesville still makes the wide/heavy plate used to build US subs. Chris Morris: Textbook quantum leap. Jimmy Carter did the sea trials on that for Admiral Rickover. JC was key to the development of our nuclear navy. He was far more than a peanut farmer, though that's good too. James Torgeson: Chris Morris Only President that graduated from Annapolis. Two graduated from West Point (Grant & Ike). Pete Steffey: All around Pittsburgh there are machine shops , Bettis-Bechtel Atomic Power (was Westinghouse Atomic) , with pictures of the Nautilus, and Admiral Rickover . They are all proud of their contribution , however large or small , to this amazing achievement . |
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| Fourth of 80 stories after filtering out "People" on a timeline 1825: Iron Rolled for the Cordus Brandywine Ironworks rolled iron for the first iron hulled vessel built in America, the Codorus. Starting a relationship with the shipbuilding industry that continues today. |
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| Fourteenth of 80 stories after filtering out "People" on a timeline 1870: 84" Steam Powered Mill Built A new steam-powered mill equipped with rolls 25 inches in diameter and 84 inches long was built. This abandonment of water power marked the company's official passage into the modern industrial age. |
One reason why I included this photo is that it is a reminder that equipment in a factory in the 19th Century was powered by line shafts and leather belts.
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| Fifteenth of 80 stories after filtering out "People" on a timeline 1875: Testing Machines Added Dr. Huston installed the first machine to test a plate's tensile strength. A testing lab soon followed. |
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| Eighteenth of 80 stories after filtering out "People" on a timeline Feb 5, 1890: Three-High Reversing Mill A three-high reversing mill, with 34" diameter rolls and a width of 120" was built. The nation's largest at the time, the mill was driven by a Corliss steam engine and was equipped with cooling tables, hydraulic lifts and transfer apparatus to move plates from the mill to the shears. |
During 1891-1902 several open hearth furnaces were added to the plant.
In 1903 they added a steam-driven 140" mill that could roll plates up to 136 inches wide.
In 1918 they added Open Hearth #3 that had eight 100-ton furnaces bringing the total to 24 furnaces.
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| Thirtieth of 80 stories after filtering out "People" on a timeline May 22, 1918: World's Largest Plate Mill The World's Largest Plate Mill rolls its first plate. In 1919 the mill is enlarged from 204" to 206". It remained the world's largest mill until the 1940's when a 209" mill was built in Japan. The 206" mill, still in operation today, remains the largest in America and the Western Hemisphere. |
The timeline also notes when additional rolling mills were added, the conversion from hearth furnaces to electric arc furnaces, and the addition of a continuous caster in 1971.
Some selected pages of thumbnail indexes of photos.
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| hagley-8 [This page also has several aerial views of the plant.] |
The next eight pages contain aerial, exterior and interior views of the facilities. Starting on page 16 there are photos of various products made with the mill's steel. I quit looking at page 20 because it appears the remaining photos through page 36 are of people.
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted On January 10, 1972- Lukens was excited to announce they had constructed "the longest strand to date". The strand was 65 inches wide, 7 inches thick and 201 feet, 9 inches long. steelmuseum.org Buz Ross: And great history was made I remember that day. Paul Trizonis: What function did it serve? James Toreson shared |
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted, cropped Throwback Thursday: At the height of the 1950's, Lukens was heralded as possessing the world's largest capacity for spinning and pressing dome shapes known to the steel industry as "heads". This recognition started in 1880 when the company pioneered a machine which produced steel heads by means of a spinning or flanging operation. For the following 60 years, the process underwent constant refinement, leading Lukens to serve the nations missile producers. The heads were employed in fuel tanks and rocket casings due to the corrosion resistance of the clad steel. Steelmuseum.org |
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted Through the eyes of a steelworker: Here you see clad plate being dipped in a 40 ft. (molten caustic) tank for descaling. Did you know the roll-bonding process used for clad steel was first developed by Lukens in 1930, in partnership with the International Nickel Company. steelmuseum.org |
National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted three photos with the comment: ""B" Furnace Taps 1st Heat of Steel, August 17, 1962"
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted, cropped In our archives we discovered a short note and photograph, with a BIG history. Inscribed on the note is: "Mr. C.L. Huston, Dear Sir, Before the old fly wheel was removed from the puddle mill, I made a picture of it, and as the wheel has since been destroyed I thought you might be pleased to receive a copy of the picture, which I enclose herewith, Hoping that you and yours will enjoy good health and a prosperous year. I beg to remain Sir, Yours Truly, Enos C. Baker, Assistant Chemist.” Discover the timeline of the Lukens steel mill era here: www.steelmuseum.org/RebeccaLukens/era_ends.cfm |
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| 1 of 5 photos posted by National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum Throwback Thursday 50th Anniversary of the 1973 Flood [June 29, 2023] Do you remember this day when the torrential rains flooded Lukens Steel Company - the parking lots, the Employee Department, the Machine Department, soaking pits, motor rooms and more. Employees and volunteer firemen worked diligently over the next few days to pump water, wash mud away and retrieve records and furnishings. Steelmuseum.org |
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| National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted, cropped June marks the commission anniversary of ALVIN! Lukens Steel supplied the 6-foot diameter HY-100 steel for the research submersible, “Alvin, the Seapup”. Alvin is probably most famous for its role in the exploration of the Titanic. Accompanied by a small remotely-operated vehicle, the sub conducted detailed photographic surveys and inspections of the wreckage, 13,000 feet down on the ocean floor, that proved indispensable to researchers. steelmuseum.org |
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| James Torgeson shared a National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum post It's a hot one today! Check out the heat in this throwback photograph of plate manufacturing in the 140-inch mill. You can discover the processes of steelmaking at our online exhibit https://steelmuseum.org/steelmaking.../hot_rolling.cfm [Note the Mesta equipment.] Joe Grazulis: That's one WIDE hot mill! What is that for, plate? This would be some darn wide coils!!! James Torgeson: Plate. Joe Grazulis: James Torgeson so how would they ship something like that! I imagine it's got to be at least 40 feet long... What , 40ft x 11ft x 1"? James Torgeson: Joe Grazulis It's shipped at an angle in specially equipped gons. http://readingmodeler.info/.../151-modeling-a-reading-ghm... John Douglas-Coley: The 148” plate mill at Stelco used to roll 3/4” plate (skelp) for further processing into large diameter (approx. 80” dia.) pipe in a spiral pipe mill. Charles Broce: Shipyards take way bigger plates than this to build ships. Everything is not automotive. From Bethlehem steel at Newport News shipbuilding we received plates daily that made this look small. 6” thick IDPS plates that go on the deck of aircraft carriers. Or same thickness on the nose of a Virginia class submarine. Some mill somewhere is still making this stuff. John Douglas-Coley: I used to work for Stelco in Hamilton Canada, they had a 148” plate mil. I remember the finishing stand had independent 5000 hp motors for the work rolls. Unfortunately the mill ended its days in Hamilton by being dismantled and sold to a mill in India. Todd Sbocsik: They roll a 206" there..at one time, the largest in the world. Still rolling it today! Vincent Hlavinka Jr: Joe Grazulis fab shop I worked at dealt with 120 x 480 frequently. Pretty sure our last plasma table was spec’d at 144 wide but never ran anything that wide. Plates were used for bridge girders. Came in on rail and made the last mile or two on truck. Some permit loads, some run late at night hoping the cops were at the other end of town. Jess Dawson: I’m a 4HI operator at EVRAZ Oregon Steel in Portland Oregon,in 1997 it was the largest 140” combination Steckel Mill in the world we do roll 96” coils,it’s a very unique rolling mill,very temperamental mill,the rush it will give you is unimaginable,some people see it as I can do that but believe me it takes years to learn this machine,it’s different grades of steel the rolling practices and the very feel of what this machine is about any mill operator in the world would probably vouch for that about their machine, I like my job very satisfying knowing what the material is being applied for and trying to teach this to a new operator is also satisfying |
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National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum postedOur New Visitor Center welcomes groups of all ages and sizes. Our interactive exhibits and guided tours are perfect for clubs, friends, families and students. Groups of 20 or more receive a $5/person discount on General Admission. Plan your visit: Sames Torgeson shared |
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| Fred Lannert commented on Ray's post Equally impressive is where the picture was taken from. The Coatesville High Bridge is an engineering marvel. |
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| ClevelandCliffs "Coatesville is a steel plate production facility located in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, approximately 40 miles west of Philadelphia. This strategic location in eastern Pennsylvania allows for good highway and railroad access. The plant produces steel from scrap in an electric arc furnace (EAF) and can produce approximately 800,000 tons of raw steel annually. The Coatesville facility refines more than 450 different steel chemistries and, together with the Conshohocken facility located just 33 miles away, produces some of the widest, thickest and heaviest steel plates in the industry." |
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| Jeff Picka posted Former Lukens Steel works (now Cleveland-Cliffs) as seen from Oak St, Coatesville PA. It was taken from Oak St hill on December 19, 2018. Rich Morrow: Jeff Picka are you saying oak street at the top of 3rd avenue looking west? Dennis Barker: Is the 206" Plate Mill still operating? https://steelmuseum.org/206_Mill_Exhibit_2018/index.cfm |
National Iron and Steel Heritage Museum posted four photos with the comment:
September 1965.The biggest steel head shape of its kind ever produced. 22-foot diameter flanged and dished head is shown swinging into place for welding during construction of Lukens "C" furnace. Spun by Lukens, the 1-1/4-inch-thick head is being used because its shape and structural soundness permit the most efficient and economical design.
James Torgeson shared
Ed Skuchas: Lukens eventually got out of the spun head business
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| Jon Wolfe posted Plate Being Rolled on the 206” Lukens Mill. |
John Carey posted three photos with the comment: "140 Mill Cleveland Cliffs Coatesville PA. 1 month after we were bought from Mittal Steel. It was only blue for a week! 🤣"
Korey Reed: Looks like a roughing mill and vertical edger. I work at us steel Granite city in maintenance.
Dale Long: It's called the S&R mill. Used to be a slab and roughing mill. Now it rolls mostly plates.
Mike McGee: Korey Reed u notice the Mesta brand name.
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