Cornwall Furnace EC EarthCache

The historic Cornwall Furnace was built by the Confederate States of America. In 1862, the 35-foot high furnace became the first to supply iron for the construction of Confederate cannons during the Civil War. It took a thousand men seven months to construct the furnace using limestone from the nearby Chattooga River. Though General Sherman twice ordered the furnace destroyed in 1864, it still stands in its original location. 

 

 

James Noble Sr. and his five sons operated the the Noble Brothers & Co. foundry located in Rome, GA.  They had been in business since the 1855 and manufactured iron goods of all types.  When the Civil War started in 1861, they began manufacturing cannon, caissons and other war materials for the Confederacy.  The first cannon they manufactured was in 1861 and was made of iron from Round Mountain Furnace in Cherokee County, Alabama.  In order to increase the supply of iron to the foundry, the Confederate government offered financial assistance.  On August 13, 1862, the government signed a contract with the Noble Brothers. The Confederate government would provide $20,000 to the Noble Brothers for the building of 2 furnaces.  The loan would be payed back with iron and materials that the Nobles provided to the government.  

 

 

The Nobles would name their new furnace Cornwall after the town in England where James Noble Sr. had immigrated from.  The location they choose for their furnace was on the Chattooga River in Cherokee County Alabama.   The materials necessary for the production of iron were all in close proximity to the area including wood for charcoal and large deposits of iron ore.  It had already been demonstrated that a furnace could operate successfully in this area as the Round Mountain Furnace had already been operating in the county since 1852. Construction of Cornwall likely started shortly after the contract was signed.  A canal was dug from upstream on the Chattooga and a tunnel was cut through the ridge behind the furnace.  The tunnel would have came out next to the furnace where the water would have traveled through a water wheel that powered the air blast to the furnace.  The canal would have then continued back to the Chattooga river. There would have been numerous other buildings on the site including the 30 foot high stone stack.  

 

 

Samuel Noble is thought to have overseen operations at the furnace Production started in late 1862 or early 1863.  Iron ore, charcoal, and limestone would have been fed into the top of the furnace to produce the iron. There would have been a charging bridge coming from the top of the ridge to the top of the furnace stack to facilitate the loading of the raw materials.  Iron was then extracted from the bottom of the furnace and ran into sand molds to produce pig iron ingots.  The ingots were marked "CORNWALL". Slag, a glass like rock, was a waste product of the process.  The pig iron ingots were then transported to the foundry in Rome, GA.  Once the bars were in Rome, they were transformed into various products that supported the war effort.  The furnace was knocked out of production by Union troops in 1864. After the war, the furnace was rebuilt and put back into production in 1867. In 1870, a pile of charcoal next to the stack ignited and caused the stack to collapse.  The furnace was rebuilt again and put back into production. Cornwall Furnace was finally blown out permanently in 1874.  The site changed hands many times after that and eventually the site was overtaken and preserved by jungle like conditions.  

 

 

For 15 years, the Society sought to purchase and create a war memorial park at Cornwall Furnace. They got the site listed on the National Register of Historic places on September 27, 1972.  On September 25, 1975, the Cherokee County Commission was able to purchase the site including 5 acres from a private owner at public auction for $17,500.  The Alabama Historic Commission had pledged half of the purchase price which came to $8750.00. The Cherokee County Historical Society gave $5000.00 which it had raised through donations from interested organizations and citizens.  The money the Society raised involved approximately 900 donors.  The Cherokee County Commission was responsible for the remaining $3750.00. The Cherokee County Commission created a committee to oversee the development of the site into a park.  The work of clearing the site and completing the park was carried out by the the Soil Conservation Service. A ceremony was held to dedicate the park on April 24, 1977.

 

 

The very word brings images of fire and steel. Only man has bent fire to his bidding, using the destructive power of the primal flame to transform raw ore into iron and steel. Wrenched fresh from the earth, using alchemy and science, man has established the ability to create wondrous items from iron ore. From plowshares to armour and sword, from cast iron stoves to skyscrapers and bridges, the advancement of mankind is inextricably linked to fire and steel.

 

 

Cornwall Furnace is a blast furnace used for the smelting of iron ore to produce pig iron. Pig iron is an intermediate product used for the production of iron and steel. In a blast furnace, fuel and ore are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions take place throughout the furnace as the material moves downward. The end products are usually molten metal and slag, which are tapped from the bottom, with gases exiting through the top of the furnace stack. Supervisors could differentiate between the molten iron and the slag, and readily diverted the slag to a side opening where it was broken up and disposed or recycled.

 

 

The type of iron produced at Cornwall Furnace was given the nickname pig iron because of its appearance during the molding and cooling process. The molten iron was poured into a mold with a large central runner, from which several spurs emptied into smaller oblong areas. The workers said that it looked like piglets suckling on sow. The large central piece was called sow iron, and the smaller ingots were called pig iron.

 

 

 

Iron ore, was abundant this region. There were three main layers available: one that was close to the surface, another layer that could be found on the cliff sides or on a washout, and a layer that was deeper in the ground over a layer of limestone. In order to improve the quality of the ore, it was "burned". When the burn was complete, the ashes were raked for the burned ore. This process removed 16 percent of the volatile matter.

 

The plentiful forests surrounding the furnace provided the fuel supply. The men who made the charcoal, known as colliers, cut wood to size, and place it in pits. The pile was ignited and then covered with earth to prevent it from burning to ash. The burning process took about a week and required great attention and skill. Colliers were some of the best-paid workers at the furnace. The charcoal was then transported to the furnace by wagons and stored on site. The furnace needed a substantial amount of fuel to smelt the iron; requiring the charcoal made from two acres of land per day.

 

The charcoal and iron were put into the furnace in layers, the charcoal providing heat as well as reducing the iron oxide to iron. The iron was poured into molds on the floor of the casting house. The pig iron was transported to nearby forges to be manufactured into wrought iron. The molten iron was also directly cast into a variety of other goods such as pots, stoves, skillets for home use, as well as gears, cogs, and cams for machinery.