“The ovens are built with Webster Firebrick, arranged together
in one stack, each oven being 22' long, 6' high and arched over
the top, and 2 1/2' wide, covering an area of 22' x 100'. The
two outside ovens are supported by substantial stone abut-
ments. There are 20 down flues to each oven and four up flues
leading to a chimney. The 30 down flues lead to the four up
flues, which connect with the chimney, 8' up on each oven. The
gas from the coal enters the down flues, passes around and
under the bottom and through the up flues to the chimneys,
thereby completely surrounding the coal to be coked with hot
sides and bottom.
“The charge of coal is 5 1/2 feet in thickness, or about 180
bushels, and the time consumed in the coking process occupies
about 48 hours. At both ends of each oven are very (heave) sic
iron doors lined with fire clay. When the coal is charged, those
doors are closed and thoroughly luted (sealed) with common
or yellow clay to prevent the access of any air whatever.
“When the coke is ready to be drawn, the iron doors are
opened, and a powerful pushing engine is immediately run in
front of the open oven. The plug of coke is discharged to the
opposite side where it is immediately quenched by a stream of
water. The water, besides preventing combustion, eliminates a
considerable amount of sulphur. The coke is now ready for use
in the furnace and is filled in iron barrows or buggies and run
directly to the tunnel head to be charged into the furnace.”
These dimensions seem to be standard for the Belgian coke
ovens as they are identical to the ones that were built on the
East Broad Top at Rockhill Furnace. 48 of the ovens were built
by McLanahan, Stone and Bayley of Hollidaysburg, PA and
placed in service in 1876, and followed by 20 more in 1878.
The furnace design was ahead of its time. They were the first
to attempt to recapture the gases from the ovens and the first
to use pushers to get the coke out of the ovens.
The weakness with the ovens, which lead to their demise,
was in the quenching of the coke that left the coke very wet,
a major problem in the iron making process. Water had a ten-
dency to make the iron brittle and less usable.
Beginning in 1880, the Rockhill Coal and Iron Company, EBT’s
parent company, began to build the traditional beehive ovens
and by 1889 had 132 in use making the Belgians useless. In
1899, the Belgians were scrapped and their iron salvaged.
While these particular ovens are gone, ruins of others still
stand at the Vinton iron furnace site in McArthur, Ohio. There
are excellent drawings of the Belgian ovens in
Railroad Model
Craftsman,
May, 1990, page 79, as part of “East Broad Top in
the Iron Age, Part III,” by Lee Rainey.
The Lite and Narrow Column - 3
2: Blocton, AL Courtesy of
John Stewart
Collection.
2
MRH-Dec 2013
