An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks .
8-613: The Shelby Iron Company was an iron manufacturing company that operated an ironworks in Shelby, Alabama . The iron company produced iron for the Confederate States of America and was destroyed towards the end of the American Civil War . The company continued to produce iron until the early part of the 20th century. The genesis of Shelby Iron Works (also known as Shelby Iron Company) dates back to December 29, 1842, when Horace Ware
16-618: A day because of its capacity. The lone furnace stack was built out of brick and stone and only stood 30 feet high. During the American Civil War , iron plating from the iron works was used on the CSS Tennessee , CSS Huntsville , and CSS Tuscaloosa , and in making cannons and shells manufactured by Churchill and Sons in Columbiana. The ironworks was connected to Columbiana by the Shelby Iron Company Railroad , which allowed
24-553: Is derived from the Greek words sideros - iron and ergon or ergos - work. This is an unusual term in English, and it is best regarded as an anglicisation of a term used in French , Spanish , and other Romance languages . Historically, it is common that a community was built around the ironworks where the people living there were dependent on the ironworks to provide jobs and housing. As
32-475: The 19th century usually included one or more blast furnaces and a number of puddling furnaces or a foundry with or without other kinds of ironworks. After the invention of the Bessemer process , converters became widespread, and the appellation steelworks replaced ironworks. The processes carried at ironworks are usually described as ferrous metallurgy, but the term siderurgy is also occasionally used. This
40-414: The following: The mills operating converters of any type are better called steelworks, ironworks referring to former processes, like puddling . After bar iron had been produced in a finery forge or in the forge train of a rolling mill, it might undergo further processes in one of the following: Most of these processes did not produce finished goods. Further processes were often manual, including In
48-479: The iron works to be connected to the Alabama and Tennessee River Railroad . A detachment of General Emory Upton 's division of Wilson's Raiders destroyed the ironworks on March 31, 1865. 33°06′44″N 86°35′41″W / 33.1121°N 86.5946°W / 33.1121; -86.5946 Ironworks Ironworks succeeded bloomeries when blast furnaces replaced former methods. An integrated ironworks in
56-425: The ironworks closed down (or was industrialised) these villages quite often went into decline and experienced negative economic growth. Ironworks is used as an omnibus term covering works undertaking one or more iron-producing processes. Such processes or species of ironworks where they were undertaken include the following: From the 1850s, pig iron might be partly decarburised to produce mild steel using one of
64-447: Was able to purchase land south of Columbiana, AL from Green B. and Sara Seale. Today this site is known as the town of Shelby, Alabama . Horace Ware was also able to acquire timberland and hematite ore properties throughout Shelby County . With the acquisition of these materials Horace Ware began to build a cold blast iron furnace. The Shelby Iron Works Company started with meager beginnings by only producing 5 tons of cold blast iron
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