Most of what we see still standing today are enclosed bee-
hives. It isn’t known when or how the beehives came to be
enclosed to reduce heat loss to the ovens, however with the
amount of dirt-cheap labor, it isn’t hard to see how quickly this
could have been developed.
After the invention of the Bessemer process for making steel
as the number of beehives skyrocketed from 200 in 1870
to 31,000 by 1905 in just the Pittsburgh area. In 1885, the
Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal and Iron company had the
The Lite and Narrow - 4
3
3: Coke Ovens Battery No. 4 of the Newcastle Coal
Co. in operation at Newcastle, AL Courtesy of
from Ted McCormack Collection
MRH-Dec 2013
