142 Frank Carney 



satisfactory. Only one other furnace in this country had antici- 

 pated this use of raw bituminous coal; the Clay Furnace at 

 Clarksville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, had used it the sum- 

 mer before. Even after experiment had demonstrated that raw 

 coal would answer the purpose in blast furnaces, it was a long- 

 time before the majority of plants discontinued the use of char- 

 coal. In many sections they were already cutting the second- 

 growth forests, and in some localities furnaces had insisted on 

 using charcoal, with the result that the woodlands had been cut 

 for the third time. On a small scale, coal was being coked for a 

 blast furnace at Akron in 1837.'* I have not been able to ascer- 

 tain how long coke had been in use. 



Products. I have already shown how local necessity led first 

 to the reduction of iron ores. In many cases the molten iron was 

 cast directly from the furnaces into the molds of cooking utensils, 

 stoves, etc. Other uses w^ere soon discovered; charcoal forges 

 were built usually in close proximity to the blast furnaces. These 

 forges turned out malleable or bar iron. Shortly after this, rolling 

 mills and foundries were built at points more distant from the 

 mines. The charcoal pig iron from the Hanging Rock region in 

 particular early obtained a wide reputation. It was shipped to 

 distant points, and had an extensive use at Pittsburgh for manu- 

 facturing government ordnance, and later for car wheels. 



Decline of industry . By 1856 Lake Superior ores were commenc- 

 ing to be shipped regularly into the northern part of the state. 

 This ore contains a much higher percentage of iron than our native 

 ores. Consequently the furnaces so situated as to conveniently 

 secure the Superior ore gave up entirely the use of the local supply ; 

 and other furnaces were put out of business by the competition. 

 The use of Lake Superior ore spread southward through the state, 

 until eventually the native ores were reduced only in the Hanging 

 Rock and Ironton regions. Among the iron-ore producing states 

 in 1907, Ohio ranked seventeenth, supplying but five per cent 

 of the bulk and three per cent of the value of the country's out- 

 put. 



* Geological Survey of the State of Ohio, First Ann. Rep., p. IS, 1S38. 



