Charcoal

Charcoal production began in the forests surrounding the furnace, where woodcutters felled trees for conversion into fuel. Because each ton of iron required six cords of wood, forests around many iron furnaces were soon depleted. After the wood was cut and stacked, colliers cleared and leveled an area thirty-five to forty feet in diameter, stacked lengths of wood around a central stake, covered the pile with soil and leaves, ignited it, and let it burn for about twelve days. During the burn, a collier constantly tended the fire by opening and closing vents in the earthen cover to control the process. When the smoke turned blue, the process was complete, the vents were sealed, and the charcoal was allowed to cool. Once cooled and uncovered, the charcoal was loaded onto wagons and taken to the furnace, where it was first piled in the stockyard until no live embers remained, then moved into a building to protect it from weather until needed. Unlike iron ore and limestone, which were weighed in pounds on company scales, charcoal was measured by volume in bushels. Wagons hauling charcoal were all built to the same dimensions and capacity, and at the company store inspectors measured the distance from the top of the wagon bed rails down to the top of the charcoal; each inch represented a certain number of bushels deducted from the wagon's total capacity.

Ohio · United States