Existing comment:
Bluff Furnace Historic Site:
Site of the first coke-fired blast furnace in the southern Appalachian iron-producing region.
Entered in the National Register of Historic Places, 1980.
In front of you is the archaeological site of Bluff Furnace. Originally built in 1854 as a charcoal-fired, hot-blast furnace by the East Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company under the direction of Robert Cravens and James A. Whiteside, this iron smelter was converted in 1859-60 by James Henderson and Giles Edwards to burn processed coal or coke.
When put into blast in May 1860, this plant was the first in the south to use coke in the primary production of iron ore. Because coke was a more efficient fuel than charcoal, its use permitted the building of larger-capacity stacks. Using hot exhaust gases from the furnace top to preheat the blast air increased the amount of iron recovered from the ore. This cylindrical stack design at the heart of the plant was advanced for its day; only a handful of plants in the United States were built in such a manner in 1860.
Trial runs were in process at the plant as the nation headed toward civil war, but due to a shortage of coke, the first production run of pig iron, begun in May 1860, was halted prematurely.
The second blast of November 1860 took place during the election of Abraham Lincoln, but a structural failure in the hearth of the furnace shut down operation and was note restarted prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.
As the Civil War progressed and Federal armies invaded Tennessee, the machinery and other reusable components of the facility were moved to Oxford Furnace in Alabama. In April 1863, the East Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company liquidated its assets, never to resume the production of iron.
Occupation of Chattanooga by Federal troops in September 1863 resulted in the demolition of all standing structures at the site except the lower portion of the stack, which was used as a lime kiln. By the end of the Civil War, all above-ground traces of the plant had been destroyed or buried.
In the late 1970s, the walls of the casting shed of Bluff Furnace were exposed by erosion, and subsequent excavations by archeologists at the site have revealed a wealth of information about the operations of the historic plant. |