Scranton's Iron Furnace

In August of 1840 William Henry, Seldon and George Scranton, and Stanford Grant found abundant outcroppings of coal and iron ore while prospecting in the Nay Aug Ravine, prompting the purchase of 503 acres and the beginning of blast furnace construction by September, an event that marked the birth of industry in Scranton, then known as Slocum Hollow and containing only a schoolhouse, gristmill, sawmil, cooper shop, the Slocum house, and five dwellings. After three failed attempts to blow in the furnace, it was started on January 18, 1842 and produced 75 tons of pig iron before shutting down five weeks later; local coal proved to be a good fuel, but inferior iron ore required imports from Danville, while limestone used as flux was hauled from Lime Ridge fifty miles away. Iron from the plant was shipped to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore by a combination of mule teams, canal routes, and railroads, and the incorporation of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company in 1853 and completion of the railroad to Scranton in 1855 gave the firm the first of a series of rail outlets for its products. Construction of the first blast furnace had begun on September 11, 1840, with Roaring Brook supplying water power for the blast machinery until stationary steam engines replaced it to provide the high blast pressures needed to smelt iron ore with anthracite coal. During the next two decades four additional furnaces were built, and the addition of rolling mills in 1846 and 1867 made the plant one of the largest producers of iron in the nation, employing over 5,000 men during peak years. In 1846, when construction of the New York and Erie Railroad had stopped and the line faced bankruptcy, New York State offered to release its claim of $3,000,000 if the road were completed to Binghamton within a specified time; the firm then known as Scrantons and Platt contracted to deliver 12,000 tons of T rails within two years, brought machinery from Philadelphia, and rolled iron T rails here on July 23, 1847, among the earliest rails rolled in the nation, allowing the railroad to complete its contract four days before the deadline. Steel rail production began in 1875, and by 1890 the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Co. was one of the country's foremost steel plants. In 1901 the plant was moved to Lackawanna, New York, nearer ore supplies, and in 1902 the Scranton mills were closed.

Scranton, Pennsylvania · United States