Alabama Blast Furnaces

Thomas Furnaces: Jefferson County, near Birmingham

THOMAS FURNACES Jefferson County, near Birmingham No. I-May 15, 1888 No.2--Feb. 22,1890 No. 3-]une 13, 1902 ~HORTLY after the Civil War, Giles Edwards, "iron-maker" at the l)) Shelby furnace during the war, advised his friend, David Thomas of Pennsylvania, to purchase ore and coal lands in Alabama. The Thomas family were iron-masters of Pennsylvania who had been connected with the iron business for several generations. Edwards was familiar with the location and extent of much of the lands and Thomas delegated him to make certain purchases, among which were the Tannehill site and the brown ore deposit at Goethite, a few miles distant. On Dec. 30, 1868, the Pioneer Mining and Manufacturing Co. was formed as a land holding company with a capital of $500,000. Among its organizers were David and John Thomas and Giles Edwards. Baylis Grace, an early settler at "Grace's Gap", acted as Thomas' agent in the acquisition of additional ore property in Jefferson County. Twenty years later the Hawkins cotton plantation was purchased by the Pioneer Company and the town of Thomas laid out some four miles southwest of Birmingham . During the great Alabama "Iron Boom" of the 1880's, Mr. Thomas began the erection at Thomas of his first furnace, which was put into blast May 15, 1888. Edwin Thomas, grandson of the founder, was placed in charge of the operation. The first stack was 75' x 17' and used eight 5" tuyeres. The original burden was figured to be 1/2 to 2/3 red ore and 1/2 to 1/3 brown ore from the Tannehill section. At the outset the Pioneer Company was unable to mine and coke sufficient fuel and the Cahaba Coal Company supplied it until a battery of 150 beehive ovens could be built at the plant to coke the company coal, mined at Sayreton. The Pioneer Company blew in a second duplicate furnace Feb. 22, 1890. A feature of these two furnaces is the long inclined skip bridge from stock house to furnace "top. In 1898 an option was secured on the Pioneer capital stock and in 1899 was exercised" by the Republic Iron & Steel Co. A new furnace, the Thomas No.3, blown in on June 13, 1902, was the largest in the Birmingham district at that time. Capacity of this furnace was rated at 250 tons per day. There was much speculation as to whether a furnace of such size could be operated on Alabama red hematite. In 1903 the No.2 -,o~~f 142 r~~o,- ALABAMA BLAST FURNACES was enlarged to 90' x 18', the same size as the new No.3. The No.1 was likewise rebuilt to 85' x 20'. Since 1903 the furnaces have been remodeled several times. In 1939 the smallest stack, the No.3, was dismantled. Both the No.1 and No.2 now have 16' hearths, furnace No.1 being 83'-41 /2" high and No.2, 88'6 " measured from iron notch to top platform. On Oct. 21, 1925 a battery of 57 Koppers-Becker by-product coke ovens with a daily capacity of 1200 tons was put in operation at the furnaces. In April 1930 all the properties of the Republic Iron & Steel Co. were taken over by the Republic Steel Corporation. Since 1937 the Thomas Furnaces have been supplying iron to the Republic Steel Corporation's steel plant at Alabama City. ...