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Puddlers removing a ball from an Iron Puddling Furnace

1870/1954

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Puddlers removing a ball from an Iron Puddling Furnace
  • Title
  • Puddlers removing a ball from an Iron Puddling Furnace
  • Identifier
  • MSP33.B008.F03.I03
  • Source Identifier
  • MSP33.B008.F03.I03
  • Description
  • Puddling furnaces were rectangular boxes with a hearth shaped like roasting pan, made of firebrick or stone and lined with iron and slag cinder. At one end was a firebox; at the other was an opening to a tall stack for escaping gases. The end result of boiling iron in a hot furnace was a ball of iron (pictured here) and various impurities, from which the squeezers would remove most of the slag to form a square or flat bar called muck iron. This was then sent to the rollers and others who worked the wrought iron into various shapes by rolling or further hammering, depending on the product desired. Early products were listed in 1858 as iron shapes, nails, and cut and pressed spikes.
  • Genre
  • photographs
  • Subject
  • Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation.Pittsburgh Works.
    Steel industry and trade--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
    Puddling-furnaces--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
    Steel workers--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
  • Source
  • Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Collection Photographs, 1864-1953, MSP 33, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center
  • Contributor
  • Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
  • Collection
  • Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation Photographs
  • Rights Information
  • Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/