Charcoal-iron, railroad car wheels and engine cylinder blocks

auto engine manufacturers used Richmond iron for casting cylinder
blocks claiming they outlasted blocks cast using other iron then
available.

To most readers this may appear unusual as Massachusetts is not
known as an iron producing state. In retrospect, for the first one
hundred years of this country’s history, the Massachusetts Bay
Colony was the leading iron producing section. Saugus, near the
coast, had in 1643 what was then considered a large furnace fired
by charcoal and a large foundry powered by three water wheels; then
as other areas opened more and more small furnaces, some with
foundries started producing what was called charcoal iron (actually
pig iron and/or wrought iron). The ore may be available and
plentiful but without charcoal it could not be converted to iron as
the use of anthracite, the Bessmer system and the famous Pittsburgh
area did not start until after 1860. So charcoal making became a
large and  widely spread business from Colonial times up to
1900 then tapering off to or shortly after World War I.

I was raised in a charcoal-iron section of western
Massachusetts. While the peak of activity was long before my time,
I did witness the close-out and bits of history and hearsay were
absorbed and are condensed in the following brief pictorial
history. While strictly Berkshire County, they applied to similar
areas and times through New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the
Carolinas, wherever the right combination of forest land, iron ore
and limestone was found.

Photo #1. In our small town of New
Ashford I know of the remains of four farm-type kilns as shown. I
have one on my farm. Presently it is a circle in the forest, but if
one kicks aside the vegetation, bits of charcoal may be found. The
demand for coal was ever present. It took a cord of wood to make
twenty to thirty bushels of coal and sixty to one hundred bushes to
make one ton of iron. In the beginning it sold for five cents per
bushel and the last for 30 cents per bushel.

Photo #2. About three miles from here
the commercial charcoal kiln shown operated up to just before World
War I. As a youngster I took this picture in the early twenties.
Actually, there were two identical  kilns. While one was
burning and cooling the other was being loaded; the cycle took
about two weeks. Notice the iron band where the kiln starts to
corbel inward. This was quite a casting and was necessary to
control the expansion and contraction and the occasional small
explosions of accumulated gases. The opening contained two heavy
cast iron doors and a heavy cast iron frame. The frames and doors
were removed soon after they were shut down and re-installed in
lime kilns in a nearby town; both kilns were dismantled for the
brick in 1934.

Photo #3. Wagons of the type shown
hauled the coal to the furnaces. I have heard several stories about
this part of the operation. It seems that at all times they had to
carry several buckets of water hung on the wagon, as charcoal in
most cases was still warm and fire was always a hazard. It seems
that one farmer loaded up his wagon, parked it in the barnyard,
planning to haul it to market in the morning. The next morning
there was nothing left but the ironwork of the wagon and wheels.
Evidently a small spark remained within the load and it silently
burned itself out during the night. History tells of several
incidences of rivalry where loads were deliberately set on
fire.

Photo #4. This is the Richmond
Ironworks Furnace and Foundry in its prime. It started about 1800
and through various expansion stages operated until 1920 and was
dismantled in 1923. This was exceptional as the large Pittsburgh
area steel companies had slowly but surely forced out the small
furnaces and very few operated beyond 1900. The reason this one
kept going was because the car wheels and cylinder walls did wear
exceptionally well. It appears nature gave this mining area just
the right natural combinations of manganese ores with the iron ores
so that the final product was actually a long wearing cast steel;
however, the forest land for miles around was about denuded of
trees and the last few years it did attempt to use substitute fuels
so perhaps it was all for the best. Now I understand the modern
large iron and steel companies are having difficulties.

The surrounding mines of both open pit and shaft and tunnel
types used small steam engines for hoists and pumps and at the
final close-out they were just shut off and left in place and soon
flooded. Now there are numerous rumors, some greatly exaggerated,
about these old machines and the various plans that collectors have
to salvage them; however, I doubt if they will ever see the surface
again as the stripping of overburden and wastes were piled at
random and through years of erosion have settled to the bottoms
covering this equipment making it difficult for divers to locate
them.