Nittany Furnace
Encyclopedia
Hot blast
Hot blast refers to the preheating of air blown into a blast furnace or other metallurgical process. This has the result of considerably reducing the fuel consumed in the process...
iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
furnace
Furnace
A furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin fornax, oven.In American English and Canadian English, the term furnace on its own is generally used to describe household heating systems based on a central furnace , and sometimes as a synonym for kiln, a device used in the...
located in Spring Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania
Spring Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania
Spring Township is a township in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, United States. Placed in operation in 1888 on the site of an older furnace, it was an important feature of Bellefonte
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Bellefonte is a borough in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies about twelve miles northeast of State College and is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
economic life until it closed in 1911, no longer able to compete with more modern steel producers.
Centre Iron Company
Cold blast
Cold blast, in ironmaking, refers to a furnace where air is not preheated before being blown into the furnace. This represents the earliest stage in the development of ironmaking...
charcoal iron
Charcoal iron
Charcoal iron is the substance created by the smelting of iron ore with charcoal.All ironmaking blast furnaces were fueled by charcoal until Abraham Darby introduced coke as a fuel in 1709. The more economical coke soon replaced charcoal in British furnaces, but in the United States, where timber...
furnace lying about a mile south of the town, also on Logan Branch, as well as holdings in local iron ore mines. Both plants were served by the Bellefonte, Nittany and Lemont Railroad, a subsidiary of the PRR
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
. The ironworks and ore lands were bought on August 2, 1886, for $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
400,000, by the Valentine Ore Land Association, whose principals organized the Centre Iron Company to erect a new iron furnace on the site of Bellefonte Furnace, which was to be torn down. A $600,000 mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
was immediately raised on the properties, to supply the purchase money and funds for rebuilding the furnace. The leaders of the company included Edmund Blanchard
Edmund Blanchard
Edmund Blanchard was a lawyer and prominent businessman in Centre County, Pennsylvania. He was an early promoter of rail transportation in the area....
, W. M. Stewart, and B. K. Jamison, a Philadelphia banker. The plant was built in 1887, and the Nittany Valley Railroad
Nittany Valley Railroad
The Nittany Valley Railroad was a Pennsylvania shortline built to haul iron ore to blast furnaces near Bellefonte.The company was incorporated on March 15, 1887. It was controlled by B.K. Jamison, president of the Centre Iron Company...
was built to supply it with ore. It became necessary to raise additional funds, and in 1887, the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
purchased $75,000 worth of bonds in exchange for exclusive rights to rail traffic to and from the furnace. The first load of ore was delivered by the Nittany Valley on February 28, 1888, and the furnace went into blast on March 4, 1888. The company was originally headed by Jamison, but by 1890, James B. Coryell was president and Jamison vice-president. At this time, the furnace had one 70-foot (21-meter) stack and three hot-blast stoves, with a capacity of 30,000 tons (27,200 tonnes) of iron per year. Ore was supplied from local hematite
Hematite
Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is the mineral form of iron oxide , one of several iron oxides. Hematite crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as ilmenite and corundum...
deposits, and the furnace was fuelled by Connellsville
Connellsville coalfield
The Connellsville Coalfield is located in Fayette County and Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, between the city of Latrobe and the small borough of Smithfield, and is sometimes known as the Connellsville Coke Field. This is because the section of the Pittsburgh coal seam here was famous as one of...
coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
. In the same year, however, the failure of Jamison's bank precipitated the closure of the furnace by the sheriff on November 15, 1890. It was subsequently sold under foreclosure
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
.
Valentine Iron Company
The Valentine Iron Company was organized by the bondholders of the Centre Iron Company to take over the furnace, and was incorporated on January 28, 1891. The president was J. Wesley GephartJ. Wesley Gephart
John Wesley Gephart was a Bellefonte, Pennsylvania lawyer and industrialist. Educated in Bellefonte and at Princeton University, Gephart's dilligence and intelligence were already marked when he was admitted to the bar at the end of 1876 and joined the Bellefonte law practice of James A. Beaver in...
, Bellefonte lawyer and industrialist, and the treasurer and manager was Robert Valentine, of the original ironmaking family. A report just prior to the charter records the permanent board of directors as James H. Campbell, of Wayne
Wayne, Pennsylvania
Wayne is an unincorporated community located on the Main Line, centered in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. While the center of Wayne is in Radnor Township, Wayne extends into both Tredyffrin Township in Chester County and Upper Merion Township in Montgomery County...
, Oliver Hazard Reighard, of Williamsport
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. In 2009, the population was estimated at 29,304...
, Charles W. Wilhelm, of Reading
Reading, Pennsylvania
Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
, Daniel Rhoades, Valentine, and Gephart. (Reighard was connected with another Valentine Iron Company, later the Williamsport Iron and Nail Works.)
Beech Creek Railroad
Beech Creek RailroadIn 1890 the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad took out a long term lease of the Beech Creek Railroad yet the Beech Creek maintained independent operations until July 1899...
, controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad's rival, the New York Central Railroad
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...
.
At the beginning of this year, the iron furnace had "re-opened", presumably the result of an upswing in the depressed iron market as the rival Bellefonte Furnace
Bellefonte Furnace
Bellefonte Furnace was a hot blast iron furnace located in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1888, it was the first hot blast, coke-fueled iron furnace to be built in Centre County, Pennsylvania. While its founders hoped to transform Centre County's iron industry with modern technology, the...
did the same. With the construction of the new railroad, the furnace's traffic was rapidly diverted over that line, prompting a lawsuit from the Pennsylvania Railroad to enforce the contract made with the Centre Iron Company. While a lower court initially held the contract not to be binding on Valentine Iron, the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the court of last resort for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It meets in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.-History:...
in 1895, and the furnace was forced to remove its traffic from the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania. Due to this serious setback, Gephart was compelled to step down as president of Valentine Iron and the Nittany Valley, and thereafter devoted himself to the management of the Central Railroad. He was replaced at Valentine Iron by John P. Harris, and by Mortimer O'Donoghue at the Nittany Valley. O'Donoghue also became superintendent of Valentine Iron the next year.
The furnace operated only intermittently under Valentine Iron management, and in early 1899, it was bought by the Empire Steel and Iron Company, along with the Nittany Valley RR and the associated ore lands. Empire Steel renamed the plant "Nittany Furnace," and sent Walter Kennedy, vice-president of engineering, to survey the local ore resources in March 1899. Empire decided to use a mixture of local and Lake Superior
Lake Superior
Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...
ores, and relit the furnace in May 1899. However, Empire shut down the furnace again in April 1900, closing it indefinitely. The furnace and railroad were bought at a sheriff's sale on December 21, 1900 by a Harrisburg
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
bank with a lien
Lien
In law, a lien is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation...
on the property.
Nittany Iron Company
Once again, Gephart appeared on the scene to save the furnace. With the backing of Philadelphia and New York investors, he formed the Nittany Iron Company, which bought and rehabilitated the furnace, returning it to blast on June 5, 1902, under Frank H. Clemson (former chief of mining at Gephart's Bellefonte Furnace Company). Other organizers included Lorenzo Terbal Munson, Gephart's brother-in-law (who was associated with Bellefonte Glass and the Bellefonte Iron and Nail Works), Archer Brown, and William Sampson. However, prosperity did not return to the ironmaking business. The furnace was idle for two months in 1904. As steel production in open hearth furnaceOpen hearth furnace
Open hearth furnaces are one of a number of kinds of furnace where excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of the pig iron to produce steel. Since steel is difficult to manufacture due to its high melting point, normal fuels and furnaces were insufficient and the open hearth furnace was...
s became increasingly commonplace (a method better suited for iron made from Lake Superior ore, while Bessemer converters functioned best with Centre County ore), Nittany Furnace found it increasingly difficult to operate at a profit. The death of Gephart on February 14, 1905 also dealt a blow to the company, which thereafter shared management with the Bellefonte Furnace Company.
When in operation, the furnace continued to receive ore over the Nittany Valley RR, but the Nigh and Taylor ore banks served by that road had begun to play out. Most Lake Superior ore was delivered directly by the PRR, but some was routed from the PRR onto the Central RR of Pennsylvania at Bellefonte, hauled up to Nittany Valley Junction, and delivered over the Nittany Valley. Other local ore from Scotia
Scotia, Pennsylvania
Scotia was a village in Patton Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania, at . Although the community was called Scotia, the name of the local post office was Benore ....
arrived from pits on the Bellefonte Central Railroad
Bellefonte Central Railroad
The Bellefonte Central Railroad was a shortline connecting Bellefonte and State College, Pennsylvania. Constructed in the late 19th century to haul local iron ore to furnaces in the Bellefonte region, it later hauled freight traffic to Penn State and lime for steelmaking from local quarries...
, which was originally delivered to the PRR at Bellefonte. When the PRR raised rates in fall 1906, trying to collect Scotia ore traffic via its Fairbrook Branch, the Bellefonte Central responded by delivering the cars directly to the Central RR of Pennsylvania at Bellefonte Furnace, whence they could travel over the Central and Nittany Valley to Nittany Furnace. In 1905, the furnace began to receive lime from the Whiterock Quarries in Pleasant Gap
Pleasant Gap, Pennsylvania
Pleasant Gap is a census-designated place in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, about 2 miles (3.2 km) along the PRR Bellefonte Branch; a partner in the quarries was Noah H. Swayne II, who had been made general manager of the furnace the previous year when Gephart resigned on grounds of health.
The furnace continued in anemic health until the Panic of 1907
Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on...
. As a result of that crisis, it was idle for most of 1908 and half of 1909. It was operated in 1910 largely to use up its inventory of local ore, and went out of blast on January 23, 1911. Bellefonte Furnace had closed in December. The shutdown of the furnaces was to be temporary, but both facilities were no longer remunerative to operate, and no buyer willing to operate them could be found. Leftover pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
and furnace slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
from Nittany Furnace were shipped out over the Nittany Valley RR in 1912–1913. The furnace and railroad were put up for sale in 1914 and the furnace demolished. The furnace site was later used by the Titan Metal and Manufacturing Company.
Legacy
Passing through the hands of four owners during its troubled 23-year history, Nittany Furnace never fulfilled the expectations developed when it replaced the antiquated (charcoal) Bellefonte Furnace. It should arguably never have been built: by the time it went into blast in 1888, the price per ton of iron had already been driven below $22, a historic low, and it would almost never rise above that figure until the onset of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The sprawling steel works of Pittsburgh, fed by Mesabi Range
Mesabi Range
The Mesabi Iron Range is a vast deposit of iron ore and the largest of four major iron ranges in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. Discovered in 1866, it is the chief deposit of iron ore in the United States. The deposit is located in northeast Minnesota, largely in...
ore, could produce iron more cheaply than the furnaces at Bellefonte ever could. The principal advantage of a Bellefonte location — proximity to local ore deposits — was negated by the availability of easily mined, high-grade Mesabi ore, hauled by rail.
Wes Gephart, though his personal brilliance and ability to attract investment, was able to cover the decline to some extent. By his death in 1905, he had assembled a seemingly puissant empire of two iron furnaces, extensive ore mines, and two railroads. But even during his lifetime, Bellefonte had seen the end of its glory: after 1890, its population, heretofore steadily growing, would decline for the next thirty years. Nor did Gephart's empire long survive him; little more than a decade after his death, the furnaces were demolished, the mines shut down, and one railroad scrapped. Only the Central Railroad remained, staggering to a pauper's grave in 1918, sold for the wartime price its scrap could bring. The era of Nittany Furnace was the twilight of ironmaking in Bellefonte. Though not fully apparent at the time, neither the rising lime industry nor any other would replace ironmaking as the guarantor of the town's prosperity. The fall of the furnaces marked the beginning of a long decline which would see Bellefonte supplanted by State College
State College, Pennsylvania
State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...
as the nexus of activity in Centre County
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Centre County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 153,990....
.
External links
- History of the Bellefonte Central Railroad: mentions Nittany Furnace as a source of traffic for the railroad.
- History of Pleasant Gap: discusses the furnace as a consumer of lime from the White Rock Quarries at Pleasant Gap
- Iron Industry in Centre County: mentions construction of the furnace.
- American Iron and Steel Institute: Keller Collection: portions digitized by the Hagley Library, including two images of Nittany Furnace