The research collections of both the Northampton County Historical Society and the Hugh Moore Historical Park and Museums, Inc., contain a fascinating typescript entitled, "Reminiscences Connected with the Manufacture of Cut Nails and Iron and Steel Wire at South Easton, Pennsylvania, in the Last Seven Decades of the Nineteenth Century."
This detailed account of an early Easton area industry was written by Charles Stewart, the eldest son of John Stewart of Stewartsville, N.J.
John Stewart had co-founded in 1835, the nail and wire manufacturing enterprise that became know as Rodenbaugh and Stewart & Co., with a large plant at the Abbott Street industrial area.
In an earlier article on Charles Stewart's memoirs, I concentrated on Stewart's recollections of his workers. However, his memoirs also contain detailed descriptions of the manufacturing process that was utilized at his factory to produce iron wire and other products.
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Little things went a great way in manufacturing establishments in those far away days, when foremen were frequently without any scientific training or knowledge leading in that direction, and were doubtless chosen for their mechanical skill in working in wood, iron, and steel. An incident proving this occurs to me.
Mr. James Kidd, a foundryman of South Easton, sent down to our mill for several tons of our very best Juniata billets, 1-1/2-inch square, for the purpose of making them into bolts for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Co.
We had some Curtins billets in stock which were too heavy for this purpose. I instructed our foreman to cut them in suitable lengths and have them reduced to the size wanted. He had them heated and rolled, and when sent up to Mr. Kidd, it was our surprise when the carter returned with the billets pronounced good-for-nothing, as many had broken into pieces in dumping them. Our foreman danced and swore, and sweated and kept saying, "By Jing! By Jing! It was our very best Curtin's Juniata and no mistake."
I told him to go down into his office and think the matter over, and meanwhile I would also do some thinking. In half an hour, he came to me, and said, `I am so worried I can't think. One thing I do know, there was no trickery about it. It was nothing but the best Juniata billets.'
I then catechized him as to the amount of heat he had given the billets when put through the rolls. "I'll stand for that for I watched them carefully, and they were hot enough I assure you."
"That is just it," I said. "I think there is where you erred; you should have heated them just to the degree of heat they had when rolled to that size and no hotter, for the little subsequent reduction in the rolls did not compress the molecules of iron together again that had been separated by the excess of heat given them, and consequently, the result was brittleness. Now," I said, "try one piece, heating it to a dull cherry red, roll it, and see if it becomes brittle."
He did as directed, then rolled the full order, and it was pronounced first quality, couldn't be better, and yet it was the same iron.
I want to mention a simple device I read of in the Scientific American, which I applied at our works to keep the water down so we could put in the walls of our tail-race, and excavate for a large turbine wheel of driving our rolls at Rolling Mill No. 2.
I had noticed the futile efforts of our predecessors in the ownership of the property, in trying to get rid of the water by means of a large pump, loaned them by the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co. stationed out in the Lehigh on their boat. The device referred to consisted of a wooden trunk bound about with strap iron, which carried the water from the forebay to a similar trunk set perpendicularly, that was provided with a chute about 18 inches from its lower end, and with a spur-like attachment in the rear leading down to the water that we wished to get rid of. The rush of the water from the forebay 20 odd feet above, down out of the chute created by its rapid passage such a powerful section, that it not only threw out the water, but large stones as well, and enabled us to do our work easily and comfortably.
On a Monday morning at 1 o'clock our watchman at Mill No. 3 aroused me to say he couldn't start the fan wheel (a burgine) to fire up the furnace.