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.
2: Blocton, AL Courtesy of
John Stewart
Collection.
2
