Ironton, article (Evening Courier & Republic, 1873-09-04).jpg

IRONTON.

The Niagara River Iron Works—An Important Manufacturing Enterprise—A New Blast Furnace, a New Railroad Station; and a New Village.

Doubtless many of our readers who have traveled over the railroads connecting the Falls with Buffalo during the past few months, have observed that the trains on the Central road make stoppages at a new locality, a short distance beyond Tonawanda, which is designated as Ironton by the sign attached to a neatly constructed station building. Back toward the river they will have also noticed a cluster of substantial and handsome new buildings, apparently near to completion, and with a tall tower, a giant chimney, and surroundings which plainly indicate that here is to be the seat of operations of a manufacturing enterprise on a large scale. These buildings are the works of the Niagara River Iron Company, and Ironton is the appropriate name of a village which has been newly laid out.

The Niagara River Iron Company was incorporated in Niagara county about a year ago, organizing for the manufacture of pig iron. Its officers are as follows:

President—Pascal P. Pratt.
Vice-President—William P. Letchworth.
Secretary and Treasurer—F. L. Danforth.

Immediately upon the organization of the Company the choice of a site for the erection of works was taken into consideration. Several pieces of land in and near Buffalo were to be had, but none exactly suited the purpose. No site could be found about this city which would afford sufficient room and conveniences. The Company were determined to have room enough, and continued their investigations until their choice fell upon the land immediately adjoining North Tonawanda, where were found extraordinary facilities—facilities more than double those presented by any other location they could obtain. Two hundred and ten acres of land were purchased, having about two thousand feet of water frontage and extending from the river to the well-known farm of Col. Payne. Through this territory the canal and both the Central and Erie Railroads pass, and the river affords deep water navigation to the Company’s dock. Thus there are four different highways for bringing material to the works and sending away the manufactured stock.

On this land, near the river, the works have been erected; the rest has been laid out for a village with three streets, North, Centre and South avenues, running east and west, and six streets, of which three have been graded, running parallel with the railroad tracks and designated as First street, Second street, etc. Centre avenue is a broad well worked roadway leading from the railroads direct to the front of the engine house.

In addition to the works proper, which we are about to describe to some extent, the Company have erected a convenient office building, blacksmith shop, the railroad station before spoken of, and fifteen buildings for the use of employes. Of these last ten are neat frame cottages regularly located toward the easterly line of the village.

Mr. Henry Rumpf, of the Cold Spring Works, located on the Hudson, was employed to design the works for the Niagara River Company. Mr. Rumpf is an architect who has directed a great deal of attention to this particular line of business, and is the designer of a large number of furnaces in different parts of the country. Having been furnished with a ground plan and the necessary directions and information, he prepared the plans and specifications according to which these works have been constructed. They are now so near completion that business will be begun within a month, at which time one of the most perfectly appointed blast furnaces in America will be put into operation.

The ultimate design of the Company is to have two blast furnaces, connected as one establishment. The buildings for but one have been erected, but all the foundations for the other have been laid and the extra engine, hot-oven, etc., provided. When the second furnace shall have been completed the entire pile of buildings will be in perfect symmetry, the engine house at the front and centre.

The engine house is a very handsome structure seventy-two feet square, built of brick with cut sandstone dressings and covered by a hipped iron roof. Viewing it from without the arrangement of windows would indicate it as a two-story building, but within it is but one full story. It contains two upright engines, which may be used either as low or high pressure, manufactured by I. P. Morris & Co., of Philadelphia. The diameter of the blowing cylinders of these engines is 96 inches and the length of stroke 84 inches; the steam cylinders are 54 inches in diameter and 84 inches stroke. The size of these engines may be appreciated when we state that the ponderous fly-wheels, of which each engine has two, are 24 feet in diameter, and weigh about 20 tons.

Under the rear portion of the engine house, are three tanks to contain water pumped from the river, and an iron tank for hot water with which the boilers are supplied. Immediately north of the engine house, and connected with it, is the boiler house, containing a nest of ten boilers, each 55 feet long and 36 inches in diameter. Back of the boiler house is the furnace and casting house. The stack is 60 feet high and the diameter of bosh 16 feet. This furnace is surrounded by an iron shell and rests on twenty iron columns. It has a modern close top by means of which the gases are saved for use in the hot-oven and to heat the boilers.

Back of the engine house is located a Ford hot-oven, by means of which the air may be heated to from 1,000 to 1,200 degrees Farenheit before it is conducted to the furnace. Another oven is on the ground waiting to be put in position when required. These ovens were manufactured at the Cold Spring Works by Paulding, Kemble & Co.

The length of a newspaper article will not allow a detailed description of the apparatus and operations of an establishment of the magnitude of that of which we are speaking, and we can only say in general that every modern appliance for convenience and economy has been brought into requisition. The water supply is obtained from the river and conducted through the works by two of Worthington’s duplex pumps. The boilers are fed by two of Knowles’ pumps.

The mason work for the buildings was done by Mr. Charles Berrick, of this city, and the wood work by Mr. David Phillips, of Niagara Falls. The frame cottages were constructed by Ald. William Baynes, of Buffalo.

Messrs. Clark & Van Allen, of Buffalo, have the contract for the boilers, the stack casing, and all the plate iron work about the buildings. Their engagement is now nearly filled, and the work has been done to the perfect satisfaction of the Company. Since they began the undertaking Messrs. Clark & Van Allen have obtained a contract for the same class of iron work for an extensive blast furnace about to be built at Crown Point.

All the fire brick used has been supplied by Hall & Sons, of this city, who also furnished the red brick for the buildings from their yard at Tonawanda.

Back of the works, and extending along the river bank, the Company have a stock house 341 feet long and 70 feet wide. A track connecting with the main track of the Central runs up a trestle and through the stock house, so that coal may be brought to the very spot where it is wanted, and dumped with the greatest facility. A pier 260 feet long extends into the river until a depth of fourteen feet is reached and then connects with a dock about four hundred feet long. Elevated thirty feet above the dock is a trestle two hundred feet long to which the ore or limestone is hoisted from the vessels by steam power. The buckets are dumped into cars which are run on to scales and weighed, then turned on turn tables and rolled across other trestles to the stock house.

This entire arrangement is one of the best devised systems for unloading that could possibly be invented, and was planned by Mr. Hawley after an inspection of the facilities used by all the leading furnaces of the east. Eight cargoes of ore, averaging about five hundred tons each, have already been received.

What we have written may give our readers some idea of the extent and importance of the establishment which has been located at Ironton. We are led to believe that as a model blast furnace few others can compare with that of the Niagara River Iron Company, and for advantages of location certainly none can surpass it. Mr. E. S. Hawley is the general superintendent, and Mr. Harvey Fuller the manager. The works will have capacity for turning out about forty tons of pig iron per day, which will be doubled in case the project of completing a second furnace is carried out.