510 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
The number of men employed around these charcoal furnaces is from 
14 to 20. | 
The method of removing slags from the furnace is usually to allow 
the slag to run over the top of the dam continuously after it has reached 
that level. From its acid and viscid character it runs out in thick, 
pasty masses or streams for a short distance from the furnace ; it is then 
caught by an iron grapnel, drawn away from the furnace, then broken 
up and carted off. 
The grapnel is attached to a chain, which is wound around a drum 
worked by a man-power arrangement, consisting of a large wheel 8 or 10 ft. 
in diameter, provided with spokes or pegs, which a man treads like a con- 
tinuous ladder—a prime mover more characteristic of the 15th than 
the 19th century. 
The charcoal furnaces are mostly built with an open top, or, rather, 
with a simple conduit, by which the gases are conducted to the boilers, 
and the ore is charged through an opening in the side of this channel ; 
the number of charges is regulated by the speed with which the stock 
descends, its level being ascertained by inserting an iron rod and thus 
measuring the depth. ‘The fluxes used are charged with the ore, the 
charcoal charge, separately. 
The throat of the furnace is usually bright or burning, which, with 
its extremely contracted character, may possibly partly account for the 
large amount of charcoal used in these furnaces. 
The iron produced at most of these charcoal furnaces is of a high 
grade, the cold-blast furnaces producing car-wheel iron of a wide repu- 
tation. The following analyses will indicate the character of some of 
the principal irons: 
1 2 3 4 5 6 
Goniterous carbone 2.027) “ea | Ota | $ 8645 | umdet. | undet. | 3.245 
SUNT Geld Ao8b ccc ete aenee enee ce ere 433 3.92 1.045 | .766 2.795 2.330 
heLbU) 0) OVO eae mePeNB SeaneHetsiiad cating oaseNG 024 04 | undet. 027 .068 037 
LEADERS) NOTES oooo09svososca0c.e3 500000000 .340 521 422 251 .802 .619 
Manganese) ince): ) ogate. eee 581 | undet. .616 | undet. | undet. £720 
