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Interior view. Philadelphia Furnace. Florence. showing sand beds in foreground. PHILADELPHIA FURNACE Florence, Lauderdale County 1891 THEFlorence Land, Mining and Manufacturing Company was incorporated August 31, 1886. Its avowed purpose was "encouragement to all manufacturing." The Florence Land Company, a division of the aforementioned company, donated a tract of 128 acres in the city of Florence on the Tennessee River to the W. B. Wood Furnace Company, which was organized on March 18, 1887, largely by local citizens. During that year construction of a blast furnace was begun on the donated 128 acres and in its Jan. 14, 1888, issue, the Florence Wave confidently predicted that "the new furnace will be in blast in six months." Shortly after that optimistic notice, however, work was suspended. On January 11, 1889 the Florence Cotton and Iron Co. was organized with a stated capital of $2,000,000. Three men from Virginia and three from Alabama constituted the incorporators. As an inducement to complete the furnace begun by W. B. Wood Furnace Company, the Florence Land, Mining and Manufacturing Co. contributed to this new company -,o"'!J{ 111 }~o_ ALABAMA BLAST FURNACES 1000 acres of brown ore lands in Wayne County, Tenn. Work was resumed and the furnace was put into operation early in 1891. Brown hematite from the Wayne County property was used and coke was brought from Virginia. The furnace, 75' high and 17' in the bosh was rated at· 45,000 tons annually. A substantial portion of the output was shipped via the Tennessee River to Northern foundries. The plant had been in operation for little more than a year when financial difficulties arose. The Florence Cotton and Iron Co. issued $150,000 of 6% bonds on Jan. 1, 1892 to a Philadelphia bank. The depression of 1893 caused the furnace to shut down. The bonds became due and the property was foreclosed. At a public sale Feb. 10, 1897 on the court house steps in Philadelphia, the furnace and lands were bid in for the sum of $25,000. On June 15, 1899 the property was bought by J. C. Maben of New York City for $107,750. Maben, acting as agent for the Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co., transferred it to that concern on Nov. 8, 1899. In 1900 the Sloss Company remodeled the furnace which had been idle since 1892, thereby increasing its annual capacity to 70,000 tons. The remodeled furnace went into blast early in 1901. Brown hematite was supplied from company owned lands in Franklin County as well as from Tennessee. Red ore was brought from Jefferson County to augment the local brown ore supply. Alabama coke from the Sloss mine was used instead of Virginia fuel. In 1906 the plant was again rebuilt and a modern skip hoist installed . The Philadelphia Furnace, like all of the North Alabama furnaces of that period, was a high cost operation due to the heavy expense of fuel transportation from the Birmingham District. Nevertheless the Philadelphia operated more or less regularly until 1926. In 1928-29 the stack was dismantled. ...

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