This is an Earthcache which has special logging requirements that may be found at the end of the description. I must receive your answers within 48 hrs of logging the cache or it may be removed. DO NOT CLIMB ON OR ENTER THE OVENS OR THE SURROUNDING GROUNDS. YOU CAN SAFELY VIEW AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS FROM THE PARKING AREA BELOW THE BANK OF OVENS.Thanks for visiting and have fun!
A beehive oven is a type of oven in use since the Middle Ages in Europe. It gets its name from its domed shape, which resembles that of an old-fashioned beehive. Its apex of popularity occurred in the Americas and Europe all the way until the Industrial Revolution, which saw the advent of gas and electric ovens. These ovens were used in industry, in such applications as making tiles and pots and turning coal into coke.
The Manufacture of Coke was, and still is, used as an important fuel in the manufacture of iron in smelters, blast furnaces, and foundries. How is Coke Made? Coke is made by heating coal in a controlled atmosphere, driving off most of the impurities, and leaving a porous structure strong enough to support the iron ore that coke is often used to heat. Most grades of coke are from 86 to 93 percent pure carbon and produce a clean, intense heat when burned.
The Beehive Coke Oven Beehive coke ovens were called that because they were built in a beehive-like hemispherical shape, and then covered with earth. The Beehive Ovens were built in banks of ovens, called a battery, with a strong retaining wall in front, and then covered with earth. The ovens were usually built into a hillside.
Beehive Coke Ovens are found throughout the Western Pennsylvania coal region, wherever a good coking coal was found. In Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania we have many surviving examples of banks of beehive coke ovens although most are in a sad state of abandonment. Most of these ovens were built before 1918 and abandoned fifty to seventy years ago or more. To locate these coke ovens, you have to travel the back roads in the vicinity of the old mining towns. If you see a row of holes sticking out of a hillside, these are, in all probability, a bank of coke ovens.
A Coke Oven Battery consisted of a great many ovens, sometimes hundreds of ovens, in a row. Some mines also employed parallel batteries as is seen at this Earthcache location. To heat a coke oven, a fire was first started and then gradually increased in intensity. Lump coal was added within 2 to 4 days to gradually heat a cold oven. Heating the ovens too quickly would crack them. Once the ovens were heated, they would burn continuously seven days a week until the fire brick in them burned out. Then they would have to be rebuilt with new brick, and the heating process would begin again.
As the next step in the process, a small charge of coal was dumped in through the "trunnel head" (the hole at the top of the oven), and the front door was partially bricked up, leaving a gap for draft. The product of this first small charge, used to finish heating the oven, was called "black jack;" and it could be used to start other ovens. By about the fourth or fifth day, the oven was heated sufficiently. The "black jack" was removed, about two-thirds of the front door was closed off with firebrick, and the oven was ready for a full charge of coal.
The "Charger," running a "Larry," would bring the washer coal to the ovens. An average charge for a 12-1/2 foot diameter beehive oven was 5 to 5-1/2 tons of fine coal. About 1-1/2 tons of coal would yield about 1 ton of coke. The electric "Larry" a small electric-powered coal car used to transport coal to the coke ovens was powered from the small trolley pole offset to one side from an overhead wire containing 250 volts DC power from the company's generator unit. The "Larry" contained a traction motor, a controller, and a hand brake. The operator, the "Charger," stood on a small wooden platform with a wooden roof over the operator. This gave him a small measure of protection from the elements and falling coal lumps when the car was filled with coal at the tipple. It is certain that today OSHA would never have approved this vehicle for operation.
The "Larry" ran on the tracks which were on top of the coke ovens, charging the coke ovens with coal through the "trunnel head" (the hole on top of the oven). The "Leveler" leveled the charge with a tool which resembled a large, toothless rake. A typical leveler consisted of a 3" x 16" iron bar welded at right angles to a 15 foot long pipe with a loop handle at the end. The loop handle enabled the "Leveler" to pull the charge from side to side in the oven. Once the first oven was leveled, the "Leveler" would move on to the next oven and so on.
Once the charge was leveled by the "Leveler," the door was bricked up by the "Mason" up to within 1-1/2 inches of the top and the brick was daubed with clay to make it airtight. An oven attendant regulated the small opening. The burning time varied from 44 to 72 hours, depending upon the size of the charge and the oven temperature. It was common practice to operate 6 days a week, alternating the ovens to keep both ovens and crews productively employed. Larger charges would often be loaded on Friday and Saturday, allowing for an extra burning day.
The gases generated by the intense heat of the ovens ignited and burned slowly downward, lighting up the sky at night and emitting the pungent smell of rotten eggs. When sufficient burning had taken place, the door was closed tightly, and the trunnel head was closed either partially or completely. Once the controlled burning was complete, the "Puller" would open the door and insert a spray pipe connected to a water hose. About 800 gallons of water would quench the finished coke. Too much water would excessively cool the oven, and it would take longer to start it up again. The coke "Puller" then used a slash bar to break up the coke and a "beaver" to draw it out through the door onto the wharf. A typical beaver was similar to the T-shaped leveler but had a larger 5" x 20" head and a long handle made of 3/4" iron rod about 18 feet long.
After the coke is pulled by hand from the bee-hive coke ovens, it is piled on the wharf ready for loading into railroad cars. Loading the coke Workers loaded the drawn coke into wheelbarrows or wagons, using large fork-like coke shovels and took it to a loading wharf or loaded it directly into railroad cars. Special coke cars were often used; but so were gondolas, hoppers, and boxcars. The men shoveled the coke with forks to sift out small impurities and to keep from crushing the coke.
In order to Log this Earthcache you must complete the following tasks: NOTE you DO NOT and SHOULD NOT enter or climb on the ovens. You may have to do additional research to answer some questions. Via EMAIL to me, please send me the answers to the following questions:
1. Why do you suppose this coke oven battery was located here?
2. Why do you think earth was used to cover the constructed ovens??
3. How many remaining ovens do you easily observe?
4. What readily available natural resource do you think was used to fire the coke ovens?
5. Where do you think the water came from that was used to cool the ovens.
6. Using information provided in Description above, calculate how many tons of coal will yield 5 tons of coke?
br /> OPTIONAL 7. Take a picture of you and your crew with GPSr in hand in front of the ovens and post it to your log.