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76-692: Frank H. Buhl and associates broke ground for the Sharon Steel Co. plant in 1900 in the City of Farrell, Pennsylvania . Sharon Steel Hoop, American Sheet and Tin Plate and the American Steel and Wire companies opened plants nearby, leading to population growth in the Shenango Valley . During the late 1920s, the four plants of U.S. Steel and Sharon Steel Hoop employed around 10,000 workers. Its predecessor company

152-408: A steam engine replaced a horse-powered pump in 1742. Such engines were used to pump water to a reservoir above the furnace. The first engines used to blow cylinders directly was supplied by Boulton and Watt to John Wilkinson 's New Willey Furnace. This powered a cast iron blowing cylinder , which had been invented by his father Isaac Wilkinson . He patented such cylinders in 1736, to replace

228-542: A blast furnace to melt the iron and remove the gangue (impurities) unless the ore is very high quality. The oxygen blast furnace (OBF) process has been extensively studied theoretically because of the potentials of promising energy conservation and CO 2 emission reduction. This type may be the most suitable for use with CCS. The main blast furnace has of three levels; the reduction zone (523–973 K (250–700 °C; 482–1,292 °F)), slag formation zone (1,073–1,273 K (800–1,000 °C; 1,472–1,832 °F)), and

304-413: A bloomery does not. Another difference is that bloomeries operate as a batch process whereas blast furnaces operate continuously for long periods. Continuous operation is also preferred because blast furnaces are difficult to start and stop. Also, the carbon in pig iron lowers the melting point below that of steel or pure iron; in contrast, iron does not melt in a bloomery. Silica has to be removed from

380-472: A minor branch of the industry, but Darby's son built a new furnace at nearby Horsehay, and began to supply the owners of finery forges with coke pig iron for the production of bar iron. Coke pig iron was by this time cheaper to produce than charcoal pig iron. The use of a coal-derived fuel in the iron industry was a key factor in the British Industrial Revolution . However, in many areas of

456-450: A model factory, often as large as the church and only several feet away, and waterpower drove the machinery of the various industries located on its floor." Iron ore deposits were often donated to the monks along with forges to extract the iron, and after a time surpluses were offered for sale. The Cistercians became the leading iron producers in Champagne , France, from the mid-13th century to

532-595: A park and playground that was named Buhl Park . He built the Buhl Club for about US$ 350,000 and assisted in the erection of an addition to the Buhl Hospital. He was considered Sharon's "first citizen" and the city honored him with an annual "Buhl Day" in the fall months. He donated to churches and society despite not being affiliated with any church. He donated a three-story building to the Sunshine Society and built

608-423: A substantial profit. In 1983, Posner was serving as both CEO and chairman of Sharon Steel. After going in debt $ 145 million in 1984 during a downturn in the steel industry, in 1985, Sharon Steel lost $ 64 million, at which point it had a negative net worth of $ 197 million. In 1986, it was reported that Sharon Steel was in default on bond interest payments and that it was considering seeking protection from creditors. At

684-531: Is believed to have produced cast iron quite efficiently. Its date is not yet clear, but it probably did not survive until Henry VIII 's Dissolution of the Monasteries in the late 1530s, as an agreement (immediately after that) concerning the "smythes" with the Earl of Rutland in 1541 refers to blooms. Nevertheless, the means by which the blast furnace spread in medieval Europe has not finally been determined. Due to

760-544: Is located in Fengxiang County , Shaanxi (a museum exists on the site today). There is however no evidence of the bloomery in China after the appearance of the blast furnace and cast iron. In China, blast furnaces produced cast iron, which was then either converted into finished implements in a cupola furnace, or turned into wrought iron in a fining hearth. Although cast iron farm tools and weapons were widespread in China by

836-458: Is possible that the technology reached Sweden by this means. The Vikings are known to have used double bellows, which greatly increases the volumetric flow of the blast. The Caspian region may also have been the source for the design of the furnace at Ferriere , described by Filarete , involving a water-powered bellows at Semogo in Valdidentro in northern Italy in 1226. In a two-stage process

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912-408: Is used to make cast iron . The majority of pig iron produced by blast furnaces undergoes further processing to reduce the carbon and sulphur content and produce various grades of steel used for construction materials, automobiles, ships and machinery. Desulphurisation usually takes place during the transport of the liquid steel to the steelworks. This is done by adding calcium oxide , which reacts with

988-757: The Chinese examples, were very inefficient compared to those used today. The iron from the Lapphyttan complex was used to produce balls of wrought iron known as osmonds , and these were traded internationally – a possible reference occurs in a treaty with Novgorod from 1203 and several certain references in accounts of English customs from the 1250s and 1320s. Other furnaces of the 13th to 15th centuries have been identified in Westphalia . The technology required for blast furnaces may have either been transferred from China, or may have been an indigenous innovation. Al-Qazvini in

1064-526: The Industrial Revolution . Hot blast was patented by James Beaumont Neilson at Wilsontown Ironworks in Scotland in 1828. Within a few years of the introduction, hot blast was developed to the point where fuel consumption was cut by one-third using coke or two-thirds using coal, while furnace capacity was also significantly increased. Within a few decades, the practice was to have a "stove" as large as

1140-529: The Ironbridge Gorge Museums. Cast iron from the furnace was used to make girders for the world's first cast iron bridge in 1779. The Iron Bridge crosses the River Severn at Coalbrookdale and remains in use for pedestrians. The steam engine was applied to power blast air, overcoming a shortage of water power in areas where coal and iron ore were located. This was first done at Coalbrookdale where

1216-481: The Lehigh Crane Iron Company at Catasauqua, Pennsylvania , in 1839. Anthracite use declined when very high capacity blast furnaces requiring coke were built in the 1870s. The blast furnace remains an important part of modern iron production. Modern furnaces are highly efficient, including Cowper stoves to pre-heat the blast air and employ recovery systems to extract the heat from the hot gases exiting

1292-673: The convection of hot gases in a chimney flue . According to this broad definition, bloomeries for iron, blowing houses for tin , and smelt mills for lead would be classified as blast furnaces. However, the term has usually been limited to those used for smelting iron ore to produce pig iron , an intermediate material used in the production of commercial iron and steel , and the shaft furnaces used in combination with sinter plants in base metals smelting. Blast furnaces are estimated to have been responsible for over 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions between 1900 and 2015, but are difficult to decarbonize. Blast furnaces operate on

1368-855: The fuel efficiency of the bloomery and improves yield. They can also be built bigger than natural draught bloomeries. The oldest known blast furnaces in the West were built in Durstel in Switzerland , the Märkische Sauerland in Germany , and at Lapphyttan in Sweden , where the complex was active between 1205 and 1300. At Noraskog in the Swedish parish of Järnboås, traces of even earlier blast furnaces have been found, possibly from around 1100. These early blast furnaces, like

1444-459: The iron sulfide contained in the pig iron to form calcium sulfide (called lime desulfurization ). In a further process step, the so-called basic oxygen steelmaking , the carbon is oxidized by blowing oxygen onto the liquid pig iron to form crude steel . Cast iron has been found in China dating to the 5th century BC, but the earliest extant blast furnaces in China date to the 1st century AD and in

1520-564: The 'dwarf" blast furnaces were found in Dabieshan . In construction, they are both around the same level of technological sophistication. The effectiveness of the Chinese human and horse powered blast furnaces was enhanced during this period by the engineer Du Shi (c. AD 31), who applied the power of waterwheels to piston - bellows in forging cast iron. Early water-driven reciprocators for operating blast furnaces were built according to

1596-636: The 13th century and other travellers subsequently noted an iron industry in the Alburz Mountains to the south of the Caspian Sea . This is close to the silk route , so that the use of technology derived from China is conceivable. Much later descriptions record blast furnaces about three metres high. As the Varangian Rus' people from Scandinavia traded with the Caspian (using their Volga trade route ), it

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1672-411: The 1550s, and many were built in the remainder of that century and the following ones. The output of the industry probably peaked about 1620, and was followed by a slow decline until the early 18th century. This was apparently because it was more economic to import iron from Sweden and elsewhere than to make it in some more remote British locations. Charcoal that was economically available to the industry

1748-495: The 17th century, also using the phosphate -rich slag from their furnaces as an agricultural fertilizer . Archaeologists are still discovering the extent of Cistercian technology. At Laskill , an outstation of Rievaulx Abbey and the only medieval blast furnace so far identified in Britain , the slag produced was low in iron content. Slag from other furnaces of the time contained a substantial concentration of iron, whereas Laskill

1824-479: The 4th century AD. The primary advantage of the early blast furnace was in large scale production and making iron implements more readily available to peasants. Cast iron is more brittle than wrought iron or steel, which required additional fining and then cementation or co-fusion to produce, but for menial activities such as farming it sufficed. By using the blast furnace, it was possible to produce larger quantities of tools such as ploughshares more efficiently than

1900-656: The 500 acres were owned by Gennaro Paving, while the mill itself had been dismantled for scrap. In 1964, Sharon Steel was utilizing the basic oxygen steelmaking process in its manufacturing, including at its mill in Sharon, Pennsylvania . Under chairman Victor Posner , in January 1981, Sharon Steel Corporation held 5.1 percent of the GAF Corporation common stock. That May, Sharon Steel sold its holdings in Foremost-McKesson for

1976-508: The 5th century BC , employing workforces of over 200 men in iron smelters from the 3rd century onward, the earliest blast furnaces constructed were attributed to the Han dynasty in the 1st century AD. These early furnaces had clay walls and used phosphorus -containing minerals as a flux . Chinese blast furnaces ranged from around two to ten meters in height, depending on the region. The largest ones were found in modern Sichuan and Guangdong , while

2052-633: The Buhl Armory for the Independent Buhl Rifles. By his will he gave US$ 2,000,000 to assist the injured in northern France and Belgium and US$ 100,000 to accident victims in Sharon. Buhl married Julia Anna Forker on February 8, 1888. They had no children. He lived at the Buhl Mansion on East State Street in Sharon. He visited California in the winters. In 1909, Buhl's nephew, William Whitla

2128-763: The Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp., Sharon Steel for 60 years operated an integrated steel mill in the location, creating steel used in Army helmets during World War II. According to the Sharon Herald, as " foreign competition mounted, Sharon Steel found itself the victim of low steel prices and ownership that didn’t modernize the plant [in Farrell]." Sharon Steel Corporation closed a plant that employed 1,100 workers in Lowellville, Ohio in 1960, with all workers fired. In 1977

2204-512: The Corsican, was used prior to the advent of Christianity . Examples of improved bloomeries are the Stuckofen, sometimes called wolf-furnace, which remained until the beginning of the 19th century. Instead of using natural draught, air was pumped in by a trompe , resulting in better quality iron and an increased capacity. This pumping of air in with bellows is known as cold blast , and it increases

2280-510: The EPA agreed to drop the fines if Sharon handled the hazardous waste cleanup itself. In June 1983, Fairmont officials passed an ordinance targeted at Sharon, which banned the permanent disposal of hazardous waste in the city limits. Sharon contested the law to higher courts, arguing it preempted state and federal regulations. In 1985, a judge gave the company an order to control its pollution in Fairmont. It

2356-504: The Farrell mill purchased slabs and rolled them into steel coils, but did not use either a blast or electric furnace. Caparo Group owns the land next to Duferco, and demolished a number of antiquated Sharon Steel buildings around 2024. In 2024, NLMK revealed a new walking beam furnace at the plant in Farrell, which had 750 employees. The furnace was manufactured by Tenova. lants to install the furnace dated back to 2006 when Duferco Corp. operated

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2432-548: The United Kingdom. The Farrell plant was renamed Caparo Steel Co. and steel production resumed using an electric furnace , while the blast furnace was demolished as scrap. After Sharon Steel Corp. was purchased by Caparo Steel , In 1998, after more financial trouble, much of the steel equipment in the Farrell mill was sold to Duferco Group, and it was renamed Duferco Farrell Corp. . When Duferco, based in Switzerland, bought

2508-520: The West from the High Middle Ages . They spread from the region around Namur in Wallonia (Belgium) in the late 15th century, being introduced to England in 1491. The fuel used in these was invariably charcoal. The successful substitution of coke for charcoal is widely attributed to English inventor Abraham Darby in 1709. The efficiency of the process was further enhanced by the practice of preheating

2584-589: The area with higher temperatures, ranging up to 1200 °C degrees, it is reduced further to iron metal: The carbon dioxide formed in this process is re-reduced to carbon monoxide by the coke : The temperature-dependent equilibrium controlling the gas atmosphere in the furnace is called the Boudouard reaction : The pig iron produced by the blast furnace has a relatively high carbon content of around 4–5% and usually contains too much sulphur, making it very brittle, and of limited immediate commercial use. Some pig iron

2660-432: The blast furnace, such as the Swedish electric blast furnace, have been developed in countries which have no native coal resources. According to Global Energy Monitor , the blast furnace is likely to become obsolete to meet climate change objectives of reducing carbon dioxide emission, but BHP disagrees. An alternative process involving direct reduced iron (DRI) is likely to succeed it, but this also needs to use

2736-475: The bloomery. In areas where quality was important, such as warfare, wrought iron and steel were preferred. Nearly all Han period weapons are made of wrought iron or steel, with the exception of axe-heads, of which many are made of cast iron. Blast furnaces were also later used to produce gunpowder weapons such as cast iron bomb shells and cast iron cannons during the Song dynasty . The simplest forge , known as

2812-434: The combustion air ( hot blast ), patented by Scottish inventor James Beaumont Neilson in 1828. Archaeological evidence shows that bloomeries appeared in China around 800 BC. Originally it was thought that the Chinese started casting iron right from the beginning, but this theory has since been debunked by the discovery of 'more than ten' iron digging implements found in the tomb of Duke Jing of Qin (d. 537 BC), whose tomb

2888-402: The combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure . In a blast furnace, fuel ( coke ), ores , and flux ( limestone ) are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while a hot blast of air (sometimes with oxygen enrichment) is blown into the lower section of the furnace through a series of pipes called tuyeres , so that the chemical reactions take place throughout

2964-424: The combustion zone (1,773–1,873 K (1,500–1,600 °C; 2,732–2,912 °F)). Blast furnaces are currently rarely used in copper smelting, but modern lead smelting blast furnaces are much shorter than iron blast furnaces and are rectangular in shape. Modern lead blast furnaces are constructed using water-cooled steel or copper jackets for the walls, and have no refractory linings in the side walls. The base of

3040-403: The company announced that its main mill and two smaller operations would be permanently closed. The United Steelworkers of America had pushed for the designation of permanent closure to allow pension payments to 720 fired Sharon Steel workers. The workers who had been employed by Sharon Steel for at least 20 years were to receive pensions, while another 900 fired workers were without, according to

3116-1002: The company was sold to National Steel and Buhl retired. The South Sharon operation would later become the Farrell division of Carnegie Steel. Along with Dan Eagan, Buhl is credited with being one of the first to manufacture steel casting. He did this at the American Steel Castings Company (later the American Steel Foundries) in Sharon. After retiring, Buhl and Peter L. Kimberly formed the Buhl-Kimberly Corporation and served as its president. The company promoted an irrigation project in Twin Falls, Idaho . The effort helped develop 300,000 acres (120,000 ha) of land. The corporation also engaged in gold, silver and copper mining and building streetcar lines in Manila . He

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3192-468: The electric furnaces. In 2007, Sharon Coating LLC (formerly Sharon Steel Corp.) in Farrell was acquired in a joint venture by Russia’s Novolipetsk Steel , or NLMK, and Switzerland’s Duferco. NLMK purchased the Farrell mill in 2014. In 2023, after being previously owned by Caparo Steel Corp. and then Duferco Steel Corp., Sharon Steel was owned by NLMK Pennsylvania, a division of NLMK Group in Russia. In 2024,

3268-410: The first being that preheated air blown into the furnace reacts with the carbon in the form of coke to produce carbon monoxide and heat: Hot carbon monoxide is the reducing agent for the iron ore and reacts with the iron oxide to produce molten iron and carbon dioxide . Depending on the temperature in the different parts of the furnace (warmest at the bottom) the iron is reduced in several steps. At

3344-519: The former Sharon Steel in 1999, it continued to employ several hundred employees in Farrell. In 2006, it was reported that demolition workers had failed to bring down an abandoned building at the old Sharon Steel mill; the electric arc melt furnace building withstood two major demolition attempts in several weeks. It was being cleared for redevelopment. The electric furnaces had been run by Caparo, until it sold much of its steel equpiment to Duferco Group in 1998 and ceased production. The sale did not include

3420-479: The furnace as the material falls downward. The end products are usually molten metal and slag phases tapped from the bottom, and waste gases ( flue gas ) exiting from the top of the furnace. The downward flow of the ore along with the flux in contact with an upflow of hot, carbon monoxide -rich combustion gases is a countercurrent exchange and chemical reaction process. In contrast, air furnaces (such as reverberatory furnaces ) are naturally aspirated, usually by

3496-467: The furnace has a chair shape with the lower part of the shaft being narrower than the upper. The lower row of tuyeres being located in the narrow part of the shaft. This allows the upper part of the shaft to be wider than the standard. The blast furnaces used in the Imperial Smelting Process ("ISP") were developed from the standard lead blast furnace, but are fully sealed. This is because

3572-464: The furnace is a hearth of refractory material (bricks or castable refractory). Lead blast furnaces are often open-topped rather than having the charging bell used in iron blast furnaces. The blast furnace used at the Nyrstar Port Pirie lead smelter differs from most other lead blast furnaces in that it has a double row of tuyeres rather than the single row normally used. The lower shaft of

3648-469: The furnace next to it into which the waste gas (containing CO) from the furnace was directed and burnt. The resultant heat was used to preheat the air blown into the furnace. Hot blast enabled the use of raw anthracite coal, which was difficult to light, in the blast furnace. Anthracite was first tried successfully by George Crane at Ynyscedwyn Ironworks in south Wales in 1837. It was taken up in America by

3724-475: The furnace. Competition in industry drives higher production rates. The largest blast furnace in the world is in South Korea, with a volume around 6,000 m (210,000 cu ft). It can produce around 5,650,000 tonnes (5,560,000 LT) of iron per year. This is a great increase from the typical 18th-century furnaces, which averaged about 360 tonnes (350 long tons; 400 short tons) per year. Variations of

3800-674: The increased demand for iron for casting cannons, the blast furnace came into widespread use in France in the mid 15th century. The direct ancestor of those used in France and England was in the Namur region, in what is now Wallonia (Belgium). From there, they spread first to the Pays de Bray on the eastern boundary of Normandy and from there to the Weald of Sussex , where the first furnace (called Queenstock) in Buxted

3876-400: The iron's quality. Coke's impurities were more of a problem before hot blast reduced the amount of coke required and before furnace temperatures were hot enough to make slag from limestone free flowing. (Limestone ties up sulphur. Manganese may also be added to tie up sulphur.) Coke iron was initially only used for foundry work, making pots and other cast iron goods. Foundry work was

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3952-449: The leather bellows, which wore out quickly. Isaac was granted a second patent, also for blowing cylinders, in 1757. The steam engine and cast iron blowing cylinder led to a large increase in British iron production in the late 18th century. Hot blast was the single most important advance in fuel efficiency of the blast furnace and was one of the most important technologies developed during

4028-523: The molten iron was tapped twice a day into water, thereby granulating it. The General Chapter of the Cistercian monks spread some technological advances across Europe. This may have included the blast furnace, as the Cistercians are known to have been skilled metallurgists . According to Jean Gimpel, their high level of industrial technology facilitated the diffusion of new techniques: "Every monastery had

4104-399: The particle size of the coke or charcoal is of great relevance. Therefore, the coke must be strong enough so it will not be crushed by the weight of the material above it. Besides the physical strength of its particles, the coke must also be low in sulfur, phosphorus , and ash. The main chemical reaction producing the molten iron is: This reaction might be divided into multiple steps, with

4180-457: The pig iron. It reacts with calcium oxide (burned limestone) and forms silicates, which float to the surface of the molten pig iron as slag. Historically, to prevent contamination from sulfur, the best quality iron was produced with charcoal. In a blast furnace, a downward-moving column of ore, flux, coke (or charcoal ) and their reaction products must be sufficiently porous for the flue gas to pass through, upwards. To ensure this permeability

4256-579: The plant, but it was never given final approval. It was revisited when NLMK purchased the mill in 2014. Concerning funding the cleanup of the Sharon Steel tailings site in Midvale, Utah , in 1990, the largest Superfund cleanup settlement ever made with a company in bankruptcy court was announced. The settlement was between Sharon Steel, the EPA, and the state of Utah. The Sharon Steel Corp. Superfund site in Midvale

4332-404: The principle of chemical reduction whereby carbon monoxide converts iron oxides to elemental iron. Blast furnaces differ from bloomeries and reverberatory furnaces in that in a blast furnace, flue gas is in direct contact with the ore and iron, allowing carbon monoxide to diffuse into the ore and reduce the iron oxide. The blast furnace operates as a countercurrent exchange process whereas

4408-419: The reaction zone. As the material travels downward, the counter-current gases both preheat the feed charge and decompose the limestone to calcium oxide and carbon dioxide: The calcium oxide formed by decomposition reacts with various acidic impurities in the iron (notably silica ), to form a fayalitic slag which is essentially calcium silicate , Ca Si O 3 : As the iron(II) oxide moves down to

4484-479: The structure of horse powered reciprocators that already existed. That is, the circular motion of the wheel, be it horse driven or water driven, was transferred by the combination of a belt drive , a crank-and-connecting-rod, other connecting rods , and various shafts, into the reciprocal motion necessary to operate a push bellow. Donald Wagner suggests that early blast furnace and cast iron production evolved from furnaces used to melt bronze . Certainly, though, iron

4560-646: The time, it was 86% owned by the company NVF, which in turn was largely owned by Posner and Posner's family. In 1987, it was the 12th largest steel producer in the United States. Posner was "ousted" as chairman in 1988, according to Reuters . It first filed for bankruptcy in April 1987. When the company emerged from bankruptcy protection in November 1990, it was owned by the Castle Harlan Group . In May 1992, Sharon Steel

4636-427: The top, where the temperature usually is in the range between 200 °C and 700 °C, the iron oxide is partially reduced to iron(II,III) oxide, Fe 3 O 4 . The temperatures 850 °C, further down in the furnace, the iron(II,III) is reduced further to iron(II) oxide: Hot carbon dioxide, unreacted carbon monoxide, and nitrogen from the air pass up through the furnace as fresh feed material travels down into

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4712-547: The union. Under state law Act 47 , Farrell was declared distressed after Sharon Steel, then its largest employer, filed for bankruptcy. As the first town in Pennsylvania to be given that classification, the town was afforded a loan of $ 650,000 from the state of Pennsylvania. After shutting its operations, Sharon Steel was unable to convince the bankruptcy court to resume production, and was sold in December 1994 to Caparo Group in

4788-746: The world charcoal was cheaper while coke was more expensive even after the Industrial Revolution: e. g., in the US charcoal-fueled iron production fell in share to about a half ca. 1850 but still continued to increase in absolute terms until ca. 1890, while in João Monlevade in the Brazilian Highlands charcoal-fired blast furnaces were built as late as the 1930s and only phased out in 2000. Darby's original blast furnace has been archaeologically excavated and can be seen in situ at Coalbrookdale, part of

4864-583: The zinc produced by these furnaces is recovered as metal from the vapor phase, and the presence of oxygen in the off-gas would result in the formation of zinc oxide. Blast furnaces used in the ISP have a more intense operation than standard lead blast furnaces, with higher air blast rates per m of hearth area and a higher coke consumption. Zinc production with the ISP is more expensive than with electrolytic zinc plants, so several smelters operating this technology have closed in recent years. However, ISP furnaces have

4940-571: Was also president of the Twin Falls (Ida) Land and Water Company. After gaining substantial fortune after the sale of his businesses at the turn of the century, Buhl invested in the social fabric of the Shenango Valley. Due to his philanthropy, several sites in the twin communities of Sharon and South Sharon bore his name. Prior to 1916, he donated at least US$ 1,000,000 to the city of Sharon. In 1916, he donated his 300 acres (120 ha) farm for

5016-574: Was based in Farrell, Pennsylvania and employed around 2,700 people. Financial losses forced the company to close in November 1992, and later that month file for bankruptcy a second time. In November 1992, the company laid off its last 500 unionized employees. Around 100 employees remained. In response to filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy , it closed its large mill in Farrell in November 1992, as well as two steel finishing operations in Howard, Ohio . On July 20, 1993,

5092-476: Was born on August 3, 1848, in Detroit , Michigan, to Christian H. Buhl . His father was the first Republican mayor of Detroit and later the founder of Sharon Iron Works in Sharon, Pennsylvania . He graduated from Yale University . Buhl worked as a clerk in the offices of Sharon Iron Works. He then became a manager and later bought a controlling interest. In 1896, Buhl Steel Company was organized in Sharon and he

5168-417: Was built in about 1491, followed by one at Newbridge in Ashdown Forest in 1496. They remained few in number until about 1530 but many were built in the following decades in the Weald, where the iron industry perhaps reached its peak about 1590. Most of the pig iron from these furnaces was taken to finery forges for the production of bar iron . The first British furnaces outside the Weald appeared during

5244-419: Was elected the first president. The following year, the open hearth department opened and then the blooming mill followed. In March 1898, it was absorbed by National Steel Corporation and later was a division of Carnegie Steel Company . In 1899, alongside John Stevenson Jr., Buhl built the Sharon Steel Works and in February 1900, the Sharon Steel Company began operation in South Sharon (now Farrell ). In 1902,

5320-426: Was essential to military success by the time the State of Qin had unified China (221 BC). Usage of the blast and cupola furnace remained widespread during the Song and Tang dynasties . By the 11th century, the Song dynasty Chinese iron industry made a switch of resources from charcoal to coke in casting iron and steel, sparing thousands of acres of woodland from felling. This may have happened as early as

5396-421: Was its lower cost, mainly because making coke required much less labor than cutting trees and making charcoal, but using coke also overcame localized shortages of wood, especially in Britain and eleswhere in Europe. Metallurgical grade coke will bear heavier weight than charcoal, allowing larger furnaces. A disadvantage is that coke contains more impurities than charcoal, with sulfur being especially detrimental to

5472-592: Was kidnapped. He reportedly offered a $ 10,000 reward for the boy's safe return and $ 20,000 each for his abductors. Buhl died on June 7, 1918, at his home in Sharon. He was buried in a mausoleum in Oakwood Cemetery. The mining town of Buhl, Minnesota , and the town of Buhl, Idaho , were named after him. Blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron , but also others such as lead or copper . Blast refers to

5548-600: Was on a list by the EPA to potentially be reopened to the public in 2018, under EPA head Scott Pruitt . Sharon Steel operated a large works site in Fairmont, West Virginia , dubbed the Sharon Steel / Fairmont Coke works site. It had been built in 1918 by the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey , and in 1948, purchased by Sharon Steel. It closed in May 1979. Sharon had been facing $ 300 million in federal fines for pollution, although, in 1982,

5624-550: Was placed on the Superfund list in 1996. In 2016, the EPA was in talks over addressing contaminated land at the works site. In 2022, the Fairmont City Council was considering developing the land. Frank H. Buhl Frank Henry Buhl (August 3, 1848 – June 7, 1918) was an American businessman and philanthropist from Sharon, Pennsylvania . He is the namesake of Buhl, Minnesota , and Buhl, Idaho . Frank Henry Buhl

5700-624: Was probably being consumed as fast as the wood to make it grew. The first blast furnace in Russia opened in 1637 near Tula and was called the Gorodishche Works. The blast furnace spread from there to central Russia and then finally to the Urals . In 1709, at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, England, Abraham Darby began to fuel a blast furnace with coke instead of charcoal . Coke's initial advantage

5776-468: Was the Sharon Steel Hoop Company. In March 1936, $ 6 million of issues was used to finance Sharon Steel by a banking group headed by Speyer Co. and Hemphill, Noyes Co. In 1953, Henry A. Roemer was chairman of Sharon Steel Corporation. In the late 1960s, the Farrell mill had around 10,000 employees, operating melt shops, blast furnaces, and open hearths. At the mill, which was originally named

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