Furnace Cover Campaign Launch–October 2010

Editor’s Note:  Friends of Taconic State Park launched its furnace cover campaign in October 2010 at a gathering of neighbors, friends and other supporters concerned about the preservation of the historic Copake blast furnace.   J. Winthrop Aldrich, retired New York State Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation, was the keynote speaker at that event.  We are proud to have completed both the fundraising campaign and the construction project on time, thanks in part to his inspirational remarks which follow.
Friends of the Taconic State Park October 23, 2010
I’m delighted to be back at this wonderful park which, as you know, is one of the original State Parks in the Taconic Region, dating back to 1928. It marvelously combines all three elements that are proclaimed in the agency’s name: parks, recreation and historic preservation. To put it another way, you could adopt as the Friends’ motto one that I heard the other day on the radio: “history is in our nature.”
And indeed it is – for it was nature in the form of iron ore, water power and firewood that made the industrial history of this place, and it is nature in a much more nurturing manner that has been making it a beloved site of public recreation for campers, hikers and swimmers for over 80 years. This then-and-now, bifocal, history of Copake Falls and of the environs of romantic Bash Bish summons up the image beloved of students of American history: the “machine in the garden.”
I must tell you that personally I love this sort of synergy. For over 35 years, first at the Environmental Conservation Department and then at State Parks, I have espoused the convergence of culture and nature as one unified precious environment demanding our protection and enjoyment. It seems to me that you as a Friends group are very much on this same mission.
Even in these tough economic times the stewards of this park do a terrific job and I am happy to add my word of praise for all that Ray has done to foster Taconic State Park, to your good fortune (he is now promoted to Region-wide responsibilities but continues here as well); Garrett Jobson, who has efficiently advanced the plans for the splendid new building at the Ore Pit swimming area, and who also has now been given larger responsibilities; and it is great to see a Commission member here, Art Gellert, and a soon-to-be Commission member, carrying on a grand family tradition, your own Edgar Masters.
But these ARE tough times, and the stabilization plans for the historic furnace that Larry Gobrecht, Tom Schofield and others developed years ago have languished. They languish no longer! It is truly wonderful news that this iconic structure from the 1870’s will be getting a sheltering cover that will greatly slow its deterioration and assist in telling the story of industry in this place.
Make no mistake – it is an important story: the iron industry hereabouts was one of the earliest extractive and manufacturing enterprises in the country, dating back to the mid-18^th century and Philip Livingston, Second Lord of the Manor. But what arose at Copake Falls in the 1840’s was a sophisticated, well-financed, state-of-the-art business that took advantage of the railroad and created what was a company town. A glance at the published maps or at the diorama leads us to explore for the remnants underfoot (such as the old narrow-gauge railbed) or in plain sight (Upjohn’s lovely Episcopal chapel). The remnants are here. Industrial archaeology is increasingly championed as an important element in our American heritage.
Here we are within the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, which celebrates the region as a “corridor of commerce” among other signal attributes. Yet we can point to remarkably few actively promoted, publicly accessible heritage sites associated with industry and commerce. You have one of the few right here, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, and the Greenway folks should be promoting it along with your efforts and those of State Parks.
Another nice then-and-now link is the fact that an important product of the company was iron ploughshares, many of which were put to work on neighboring lands such as the still-operating Langdonhurst Farms in this breadbasket valley now vitalized by C.S.A.s.
Fifty years ago Freeman Tilden came up with a credo that I think applies beautifully here at this park and this heritage site:
Through interpretation comes understanding;
Through understanding comes appreciation;
Through appreciation comes protection.
Viable iron mining and manufacturing may have departed our region for the Mesabi Range in Minnesota and elsewhere in the 1890’s, but we must nevertheless understand, appreciate and protect what remains from this heritage. Emphatically that is what this exciting project is about.
I am deeply impressed that a third of the estimated $150,000 cost is already committed as in-kind services – skilled labor, materials, use of equipment. This project is doable, and it is really important that it be done. I congratulate the Friends’ board, members and advisory committee on all that they have already achieved, and for receiving the 2010 Heritage Award from the Columbia County Historical Society for your commitment to this industrial heritage.
I relish the notion of families coming to camp, swim and hike in these beloved lands, and returning home with their imagination enhanced by visions of man’s long-ago very different use of these same resources. It is from such a bifocal vision that a true understanding and appreciation of nature and culture will emerge.
Our parks and historic sites have never needed their friends more surely than they do today in in this bleak and problematic political and fiscal climate. We must all be grateful that your Friends group is on the job. I wish you all success in this grand endeavor!
J. Winthrop Aldrich
(retired as New York State Deputy Commissioner for Historic Preservation on October 1, 2010)

How Much Does a Ton of Iron Weigh? by Victor Rolando

Editor's Note:  One of of our favorite "Ironmasters" is good friend Victor Rolando whose love of all things related to industrial archeology is an inspiration to the leadership of Friends of Taconic State Park in their work preserving the Copake Iron Works.  In this fascinating article, Vic asks the time honored question...

How much does a ton of iron weigh? (or, “Let the researcher Beware!”)

                                                                 by Victor R. Rolando

Vic Rolando, Friend to Troubled Furnaces Everywhere!

   One of the problems in attempting to compare the tons of iron made by 19^th-century blast furnaces are the various definitions of a “ton.” There was, for example, an English long ton, which weighed 2,240 pounds (also called a “gross ton”) and contained 20 hundred-weights (cwt) of 112 pounds (lbs) each. Although called a “hundred-weight,” it weighed 112 lbs so it could be evenly divided into halves, quarters, and eights (an eighth of a cwt is 14 lbs, called a “stone”). This weight system carried over to Colonial America and continued in use for the iron industry well into the early to mid-1800s. After the American Revolutionary War, the 112-lb cwt was dropped in favor of a 100-lb hundredweight, which translates into a 2,000-lb ton, avoirdupois (advp), also known as the short ton (some in Britain call the US hundredweight a “cental”).

   It’s not unusual to see tonnages of early blast furnaces listed in 19^th-century hand-written ledgers as, for example: 2T, 14Cwt, 2Q, 18 lbs, or simply “2.14.2.18” (4,000  + 1,400  + 50 + 18 lbs) which totals 5,468 lbs or 2.734 short tons. Although the US and Europe adopted various “weights & measures standards” by the 1860s, many local industries that did little or no interstate or foreign trade maintained their own archaic bookkeeping systems. By the late 1800s the European iron industry was using a “centner” as the common unit of pig iron measure, in which 1 centner = 110.23 lbs, or exactly 5% of a metric ton that equals 1,000 kilograms (kg) or 2,204.6 lbs advp. The metric ton is used in today’s commodities market for iron and steel.

   History books abound with tonnages of various commodities without identifying which tonnage systems they refer to. Even books relating specifically to the iron industry rarely make the distinction. And although most iron researchers realize that the long ton has long been the rule for the iron industry, paragraphs dealing with tons of iron, ore, charcoal, blasting powder, lumber, and molding sand beg the question whether the actual weights of all those items are based on 2,000-lb, 2,204.6-lb, or 2,240-lb tons. By reading closely how some tonnages are described in terms of value per ton and total values, whether they are short or long tons can sometimes be estimated, at best. Using this scrutiny of data, one 1966 history of the early iron industry in downstate New York was found to quote furnace outputs in terms of short tons. On the other hand, a 1911 survey of Maryland ironworks was found to define outputs in long tons. If one is unaware of these differences, direct comparisons of pig iron production and furnace efficiency could be difficult at the least, or completely erroneous at worst. 

   For example: of the various historical accounts of how much iron was made at the Copake blast furnace, the only two reliable detailed 19^th-century accounts come from reports by William G. Neilson (1842-1906) and J.P. Lesley (1819-1903).

   In Neilson’s report on the charcoal iron industry in New England, compiled for the American Iron and Steel Association in 1866, he stated that the furnace “at Copake Station” made “about 2800 tons (gross)” in 1865.  His tables of various furnace specifications elsewhere in the report indicate the furnace made from 1743 tons in 1854, 505 tons in 1855, and 1513 tons in 1856 (among tonnages up to 3387 tons in 1866 with none made from 1857 through 1860). To his credit, his tables also identify tonnages listed at 2,000 lbs, so then why did he write “about 2800 tons (gross)” above, possibly inferring short tons?

   Lesley, an earlier chronicler of the US iron industry and Secretary to the America Iron Association in 1857, reported iron production at Copake at 160 tons “more or less” for each of 1854, 1855, and 1856 without identifying whether long or short tons. But in his 1859 report he stated that 1,556½ tons were made during 41 weeks in 1854; 451 tons during 14 weeks in 1855, and 1,350½ tons during 38 weeks in 1856. Analyzing the weekly output one finds the 3-year average is 35¼ tons/week, or essentially 5 tons a day within a very acceptable +7.7% to -8.5% variance, indicating an unexpectedly consistent level of production – “unexpectedly” given the number of things that could go wrong in a mid-19^th-century blast furnace operation. But attempting to apply this interesting piece of data is complicated by neither of Lesley’s 1857 nor 1859 publications identify whether his numbers reflect long or short tons. Although most of Lesley’s tonnages are smaller than Neilson’s, Lesley’s probably being long tons, unfortunately not nearly enough of Lesley’s tonnages convert very close to Neilson’s short tons. So whose are the more accurate figures?

   Starting in 1873, The American Iron & Steel Assn (founded in 1864 as successor to Lesley’s 1859 American Iron Assn), initiated publication of the biannual Directory of Iron and Steel Works of the United States. However comprehensive the publications were, vague references to tonnages persisted and comparisons between nearby like-capacity furnaces elude dependable conclusions. Regardless, the following on page 8 of the 1884 Directory under the heading of Charcoal Furnaces in New York State proves interesting:

Copake Iron Works, Frederick Miles, . . .  One stack, 32 x 9, built in 1872; open top; warm blast; steam and water power; ore, limonite, mined near the furnace; Specialty, car-wheel iron; annual capacity, 4,500 net tons. Brand: “Copake.”

There’s new one - a “net” ton!