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Satellite)
The manufacturing of Portland
cement in the USA began in this town in 1875. The limestone in this area had the three ingredients needed to make cement: lime, silica, and alumina. And anthracite coal to provide the needed heat in the kilns was just up the Lehigh River from here.
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pbase
"The nine vertical kilns of the Coplay Cement Company were used for the production of Portland cement. These were Schoefer kilns, a Danish modification of an upright kiln originally developed in Germany. The kilns were 90 feet high and originally surrounded by a building which has since been taken down, as well as the top 30 feet of the kilns removed. The kilns were completed in 1894 and constructed of locally made red brick. It is believed these may be the only extant copies of this type of kiln. "A special limestone found nearby was quarried, ground, and made into crude bricks which were fed into the kilns and heated to around 2000ºF by burning anthracite coal, brought in by railroad from the mining area north of here. The sintered results were ground into powder as the final product." |
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AmericanHeritage
"Lehigh County acquired the kilns in 1976 and launched a rehabilitation campaign....Not only do these structures represent the transition in kiln technology from the bottle or dome kiln to the rotary kiln, but they stand as a fitting monument to the pioneering role of David O. Saylor, the Coplay Cement Company, and the Lehigh Valley area in the development of the American portland cement industry.
"Several years before he constructed his first cement plant in 1866, Saylor purchased the land where it and the future mills of the Coplay Cement Company would be located. His first mill, often referred to as plant A, where he made his first portland cement in 1871, was utilized well into the 1890s but was demolished early in the 20th century. In 1892, eight years after Saylor's death, the Coplay management, faced with a growing demand for its product, decided to erect a new mill, and eventually 11 Schoefer kilns, which were a Danish modification of an upright kiln originally developed in Germany were built. Constructed of locally made red brick, these kilns were utilized for the production of portland cement. "By 1900, this region provided the nation with 75 percent of its cement and had been the scene of a number of technological breakthroughs like the development of the rotary kiln." |
"In 1871, Saylor received the first American patent for Portland cement. Lehigh County was a natural spot for cement production. Cement is made from rocks containing lime, silica, and alumina; Lehigh County limestone “cement rock” contains all three ingredients. By 1900, the Lehigh Valley made 72% of Portland cement produced in this country." [
AtlasObscura]
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UncoveringPA
The Ironton Rail Trail runs adjacent to the kilns. |
I looked for evidence of the quarries nearby. I quickly found these two.
And then the more I looked, the more quarries I found, including an active one in the lower-left corner of this excerpt. And there is a
Lafarge cement plant in the upper-right corner.
That plant has three rotary kilns.
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