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The furnace was built in 1868 by Henry Musselman and Henry M. Watts. They kept remodeling it so that the "annual production of pig-iron increased from 5,400 tons in 1870 to 22,500 tons in the late 1800s....The furnace had four hot blast stoves which preheated air to 13,000 F. Two large blowing engines delivered 14,400 cubic feet of air per minute into the furnace. A gas washer and dryer were used to condition the furnace gases before they were sent to preheaters and boilers to make steam to run the plant and pumps." It went idle at the beginning of the 20th Century so it was one of the furnaces that E.J. Levino bought during WWI to produced ferromanganese, which was shipped to companies that made steel. Since the manganese ore came from all around the world, it is interesting that this plant on the river ceased production in the 1920's but the furnace in Sheridan, PA, continued until 1970. [RiverTownes]
This was the last of eight anthracite-fired iron hot blast furnaces built in the flood plain between Columbia and Marietta. Iron ore and limestone was sourced locally and the anthracite coal was initially shipped in from northeastern Pennsylvania via the Pennsylvania Canal System. The coal shipments later used railroads. Then they switched to using coke and had to get iron ore from Maryland and West Virginia as well as from local mines. [MariettaRestoration]
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| Courtesy of Margaret Landis via LancasterOnline "In this photo of Musselman/Vesta Iron Furnace from 1888, the office is on the right and the furnace is on the left." [This site has some additional photos.] |
During the early 20th Century, the iron industry moved from Lancaster County to the Pittsburgh area.
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