278 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 
at little expense, as it is, in nearly all cases, taken from the top of the bed; the inclined position 
of the slates being highly favorable to this mode of extracting it. The mining, therefore, is gener- 
‘ally little more than quarrying in open trench. In a few cases shafts have been sunk, but rarely 
below water level. 
There are, in the State, about eight blast furnaces. 'T'wo of these belong to the South Carolina 
Manufacturing Company, and are situated in Spartanburg District. 
They have a furnace on 
Cherokee Creek, and own the mines near the Cowpens. 
The dimensions of this furnace are as 
follows. 
Height, o-.- )-4oc -yin om ot 7 tt ot oe 28 feet 
Width at boshes, - - - - - - - - - - (a Sores 
Hearth, SPT 6 Se ae anomie 6S Bei. Ih. iL) 
And the charge is, 
Ore, (brown hematite.) - - 12,000 Ibs. 
Charcoal, - - - - - - - - - - - - - 600 bushels. 
Limestone, - - - - - - - -.- = - - =1,500 Ibs. 
The . isabout, - - - - - - - - - - 6,000 Ibs. of iron. 
The price of charcoal is 
o and a half cents per bushel; and cost of raising the ore, one dollar 
and fifty cents per ton. 
The principal part of this company’s works is on the Pacolet, where they have a blast furnace, 
bloomery, and puddling furnaces, rolling mills, and a nail factory in operation. ‘The annual product 
is about 600 tons.* 
The King’s Mountain Company have a high fumace on King’s Creek, but their principa’ works 
are on Broad River, a mile or two below Cherokee Ford, where they have a high furnace, bloomery, 
forges, fineries,and a rolling mill. 
290 bushels of charcoal. 
The Cherokee Manufacturing Company’s works are situated on the right bank of Broad River, 
at Cherokee Ford, and consist of four high furnaces, with fineries, puddling furnaces, and rolling 
mills in proportion, together with an extensive nail factory. No expense has been spared in render- 
ing this establishment complete, so far as the works are concerned. 'The work-shops are spacious 
and well constructed. About 900 tons of iron are the annual product of these works, and the con- 
sumption of charcoal 260 bushels per ton. 
bushel. 
In 1840 the cost of pigs was eighteen dollars per ton, made with 
Charcoal is delivered at the furnace at four cents per 
If iron is not manufactured in the State as successfully as elsewhere, it is certainly not due to 
any deficiency in natural advantages; for water power is abundant and unfailing, fuel is as cheap 
as itis any where else, where charcoal is used, and the superiority of the iron manufactured from 
this fuel ought to compensate for any advantage in cost, in favor of stonecoal. 
The price of common English bar iron, manufactured with coke, is $30 per ton, whilst the Swe- 
dish and Russian bar, manufactured with charcoal as fuel, sells for $75 to $125 per ton, or even 
higher. This is a vast difference in favor of chareoal-made iron, and worthy of the most serious 
attention of iron-masters. The cost of transportation is a cousiderable item in the market value 
of the South Carolina iron. Now, such articles as this iron is fitted to make—as boiler-plates, pis- 
* For these statistics I am indebted to Mr. Clarke. 
