Alabama Blast Furnaces

Ensley & Fairfield Furnaces: Ensley and Fairfield, Jefferson County

Battery of first four Ensley furnaces as they appeared in 1890. Note log cabins of employees in the foreground. ENSLEY AND FAIRFIELD FURNACES Ensley and Fairfield, Jefferson County Ensley Furnaces No.1-April 29, 1889 No.2-December 1888 No.3-June 1888 No.4-April 11, 1888 No.5-November 15, 1900 No.6-April 26, 1905 Fairfield Furnaces No.5-June 25, 1928 No.6-September 27, 1928 I N 1885 the Pratt Coal and Coke Company was the largest holder of coal lands in Alabama and furnished almost all the coke then being consumed in the Birmingham District. In 1886 an option which had been secured on the Pratt holdings by a group of Tennessee capitalists headed by Enoch Ensley of Nashville, was exercised. The Alice Furnace Company and the Linn Iron Works were also acquired by these Tennesseans and a new company was formed, called the Pratt Coal and Iron Co. -'-(1 65 ~..- ALABAMA BLAST FURNACES Within a year (in 1886) the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company , which was then operating coal and ore mines and blast furnaces in Tennessee, acquired the Pratt Coal and Iron Co. and increased its capital stock to $10,000,000. Acquisition of the Pratt Coal and Iron Co. marked the entrance of the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co. into Alabama and this combination thereby became the largest and most important factor in the Southern iron and steel industry. During 1886 (under the Pratt Coal and Iron Co.) a battery of four blast furnaces had been begun in the newly founded town of Ensley, a few miles southwest of Birmingham and within a short distance of the Pratt Coal Mines. Their construction was completed by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. The four stacks were identical, 80' high and 20' in the bosh, with a daily capacity of 200 tons each. The first of these furnaces, the No.4, went into blast April 9, 1888. The second stack, the No.3, was blown in on June 5, followed by the No.2 on Dec. 1, 1888 and the No. 1 on March 9, 1889. The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Co. was now operating six furnaces (two Alice and four Ensley furnaces). On June 1, 1892 seven more stacks were acquired with the purchase of the DeBardeleben Coal and Iron Co., the five furnaces at Bessemer and the two Oxmoor Furnaces, making a total of thirteen stacks, the annual capacity of which in 1895 was rated at 633,400 gross tons. In order to supply this number of furnaces, new coal mines were opened on the Pratt Seam and additional beehive ovens were built at the mines. Through consolidation and purchase a large tract of ore land had also been acquired on Red Mountain. In the Fall of 1897 the first battery of by-product coke ovens was begun in Ensley by the Semet-Solvay Company. This battery of 90 fiveton ovens was the first in the South and one of the first such operations in the nation. The ovens were built and operated by the Solvay Company. In 1899 thirty more ovens were built by this same company and in 1902 an additional battery of one hundred and twenty 6 1 /2 ton ovens was constructed . In 1895 it was proved that basic iron could be produced in the Birmingham District and new markets were found among the independent steel manufacturers of the North and East. Shortly after basic iron was made commercially at the Alice Furnace, the Ensley steel mill was begun and went into production in November 1899. Success of this mill necessitated the erection of two additional blast furnaces to supply the iron for steel making. I The old Sewanee Furnace in Cowan, Tennessee, was dismantled in 1899 and removed to Ensley where it was set up as the Ensley No.5. -,o~~i 661E~o,- ENSLEY AND FAIRFIELD FURNACES This stack, smaller than the other Ensley furnaces, went into blast sometime in 1900. A sixth furnace was built at Ensley and blown in on April 28, 1905. A year later the small No.5 was rebuilt to the same size as the new No.6, 86'-7" x 20'-9", and blown in April 17, 1906. The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company had not been a financially sound company for some years prior to the time the panic of 1907...