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Battelle Furnace. This view was made just before completion of furnace in 1904. Lookout Mountain in background. BATTELLE FURNACE DeKalb County-near Georgia Line Sept. 10, 1904 THE Lookout Mountain Iron Co. was organized In April 1902 with a capital stock of $1,000,000 with the intent of developing a tract of 15,000 acres of ore and coal land. Most of this capital was raised in Ohio and some of the best known men in the iron business invested in the company and served on its board or directors. The Lookout Mountain Iron Co. was the last company organized in Alabama to erect a merchant blast furnace. The site chosen for the blast furnace was in Wills Valley in eastern DeKalb County not far from the Georgia line. At this point the valley is about one-quarter mile wide, with Lookout Mountain on one side and Ore Ridge on the other. The coal (Eureka or Rattlesnake seam) outcrops on the side of Lookout Mountain and the ore (fossiliferous red hematite) outcrops on the Ore Ridge. Adjacent to the furnace was built a battery of beehive ovens. The raw material haulage distance at this plant was the shortest in Alabama, being not more than a half mile. On _.'..g{ 40 ):,+,.- BATTELLE FURNACE paper the Battelle Furnace (named for the president of the company) was the most economical plant in the South and perhaps in the world. However, within eighteen months after being blown in, the furnace was shut down and never again operated. Abandonment was due in part to the "squeezing out" of the coal from 36" on the outcrop to less than 24" at 1000 feet, and in part to the discovery that the ore was excessively high in alumina. The Battelle Furnace) was begun in the Spring of 1903 and put into blast Sept. 10, 1904. Tpe stack was 85 feet high and 19 feet in the bosh. "The bosh jacket is provided with four auxiliary tuyeres to be used in the removal of scaffolds, should these occur." In 1905 the Battelle property was acquired by Cincinnati interests. The furnace was blown out in 1906 and remained idle until 1917 when the plant was dismantled, sold and shipped to the Tata Iron Works of India. Approximately $1,000,000 was expended at Battelle and a total of 80,000 to 85,000 tons of pig iron were produced. ...

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