Cornwall iron mine amd furnace (metal related!!)

Did you get to meet Charlie Voglesong?

The guy giving the tour was named Patrick. The only other guy was running the whole operation, tours, volunteers, and gift shop/museum. I never did see or hear his name.
Paul

Hi Paul,
So you would recommend a visit to this site? I'd be driving from NY for a day trip.
What types of furnaces/process did they use there? Charcoal or Coke?
Did they puddle the pig iron as well as bloom it there? Did they have forges for producing wrought iron also?
I've been looking for more information on mid-19 century wrought iron nails.
I found a few large wrought iron nails/spikes along side the Delaware, after a flood receded, just downriver of Roebling's iron-wire suspension canal aqueduct.
I'd love to know more about their origin/manufacture. Might even have come from the Cornwall iron works I suppose.
Thanks,

That's too bad. But not unexpected, I guess, as they cosed down about 2 years ago.
But for 65 years, Charlie was the leading source for 4130, aluminum and AN hardware - probably in the world.

"We pride ourselves on keeping the customer happy, that way they keep coming back. Our advertising budget is exactly $15 a month for a listing in the classifieds of Sport Aviation, but, right now, we have 10,000 active accounts we are serving listed in the computer. They are all over the world and all came in via word of mouth." Charlie speaks in a quiet, quick tone that picks up speed as his enthusiasm catches up with him. And no where is he more enthusiastic than when explaining Dillsburg's business.

June 9, 2011 ?Charlie Vogelsong is getting out of the aircraft tubing business, but it won?t be easy. The World War II B-17 pilot started selling aircraft bolts, hardware, and eventually 4130 steel tubing after the war to support his fellow pilots who still wanted to fly for fun. Some 65 years later Vogelsong has built Dillsburg Aeroplane Works near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, into a multi-million-dollar business that is the leading supplier of certified aircraft grade tubing, as well as a leading worldwide supplier of metal materials to Indy Car and NASCAR.
In addition to providing aircraft grade tubing, Dillsburg supplies all of Indy Car and NASCAR worldwide.

If you ever get to the Boston area, the Saugus Iron Works is also impressive. I never knew about "bog iron" before my visit there.
The original model for colonization of North America was that the colonists would send raw materials to Britain and get manufactured stuff back -- things like iron works were going against that model and were, I think, made illegal by the Brits at some point (I can't remember exactly, though).

They always used charcoal for fuel. Claim it took an acre of woodland per day. The museum is located in the charcoal storage building.
The furnace produced pig iron that was shipped to other parts of the East. Later they sand cast iron sheet for cast iron stoves. During the Revolutionary war and Civil war, they produced iron canons.
They did wrought iron on promise for their tooling and repair. They had many wooden carts to haul material and all had iron tires.
They were as self sufficient as possible, so probably made nails.
I lay awake last night trying to understand how it all worked and the errors made in the tour guide talks. One big question is what they used to bind the sand and clay to make molds. Could they have used lard oil, or other animal products?
Paul

On Fri, 25 Oct 2013 16:56:40 -0700, Paul Drahn
wrote: --------------------------------- Sand casting is relatively cheap and sufficiently refractory even for steel foundry use. In addition to the sand, a suitable bonding agent (usually clay) is mixed or occurs with the sand. The mixture is moistened, typically with water, but sometimes with other substances, to develop strength and plasticity of the clay and to make the aggregate suitable for molding. see section on green sand

Normally the clay is enough. For fragile internal cores molasses, flour, linseed oil can be added, and baked to harden it.
jsw

Ok, sounds like that would all have been available in 1776.
They cast lots of cannon. Assume the buried the mold in the sand so the molten iron could flow into the end of the mold. What did they use to form the bore of the cannon? Did they mold a ceramic ( tiles stacked up) or some other material?
Paul