Mining for Souls
Page 49a =74
Standish Furnace page 4
.... this change took place, the furnace was making approximately
35 to 40 tons a day; after the change to 100 tons a day. The furnace
and the operation remained the same until 1923 when again the furnace was
enlarged. They installed a 3,500 cubic foot steam turbine, a new pig machine
conveyor automatic top and skips, a new trestle, and put a modern foundry
where the sand casting had taken place . In the foundry they also added
a bessmer convector for steel making. Grates for the Lyon Mountain
sintering plant, pig machine parts, and the runners for the famous bob-sled,
oon sidered at that time the fastest in the world, were casted here. Cross
section of Foote two pass side combustion hot blast stove. -Foote two pasB
Bide co I ustion hot blast stove. Formerly all iron was casted in sand
beds. By means of wooden patterns, a series of parallel, adjacent depressions,
about 40 inches long, four inches wide and four inches deep are molded in
loose moist sand. These depressions were connected to the main runner which
lead from the tap hole by means of a cross runner which connected with one
end of each depression. Into these depressions the molten iron was led. Owing
to a similarity in appearance, the iron in the cross runner was known as
the ~~sow" and that in the parallel depressions as the '~pigs'~. As soon
as the iron was fairly set, it was covered with a layer of sand which was
scattered over it by the shovel- ful. Then by means of bars and sledges,
the pigs were broken from the sow, and the sow was broken into convenient
lengths. The purpose of the sand covering was for two reasons; to protect
the worker from the intense heat of the iron, and to retard the cooling,
thereby making the iron breaking easier and increasing the size of the grain.
The pigs were then cooled by a spray of water, loaded on hand truck and taken
to the storing yard where they were broken and piled, ready for shipment
to the steel mill. As the furnace increased in size and capacity, it produced
so much iron at each cast that the pig bed system became impracticable.
It was also cheaper to cast directly into a large ladle and then poured
into a pig-machine. The ladle bowl is made of heavy riveted plates set in
a steel cast trunnion-ring and lined with firebrick. The trunnion is supported
on two standard double trucks connected by a steel cast frame. This
ladle when clean, would hold approximately 75 tons of iron. For the use of
the ladle system of handling iron, it was necessary that the iron runner
should run into a spout to the ladle. The spout was at such an elevation
that the ladle was stationed on tracks beneath. When the ladle was filled
or at the end of the cast, whichever came first, the iron was covered with
coke dust to keep it molten until poured into the molds. A pig casting machine
consists of a series of molds which are made to pass repeatedly under a spout
into which the molten iron in the ladle is poured. The machine consisted
of a pair of endless chains, supported by wheels which run on a track, and
which carry a series of cast iron molds. The tracks way is approximately
horizontal, except at the delivering end, where it rises so that the pigs
may fall into railroad cars as the molds reverse themselves. Before reaching
this point the molds pass under water sprays which cools the pigs enough
for handling and to prevent the molds from becoming too hot. The molds
were coated with a white wash made of lime after each cycle. This mach could
easily handle 60 tons of iron a day. Since the tapping hole is approximately
level with the bottom of the hearth, the first that flows from the furnace
is iron which is practically free from slag. Later and especially toward
the end of the cast, the slag comes freely. Since it is about one-third
the weight of the iron, it floats upon it, and can easily be separated by
skimming. The skimmer consisted of a permanent cast-iron.....
Sources:
Adirondack Museum photos, Blue Mountain Lake, NY;
History of Clinton County, New York;
from History of Mining of Chateaugay
Ore and Iron Company.
Go to Page 1 of The History of Lyon
Mountain.
Go to Page 3 of The History of Lyon
Mountain.
Go to Mining History for The History
of Mining in the North Country.
Go to Page 5 of The History of Lyon
Mountain.(for article on Lyon Mt. and Mineville)
Go to Page 50 of Mining for Souls.
Back to Page 48 of Mining for
Souls.
Go to Page 1 of Mining for Souls.(cover
page)
Rod Bigelow
Box 13 Chazy Lake
Dannemora, N.Y. 12929
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
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