Ironworkers & Blast Furnace Practice

Each blast furnace had an operating crew of about 12 men, including some as young as 12 years of age. The original furnace design called for the raw materials: iron ore, coke and limestone to be manually dumped in to the furnaces from the high level charging platform.  

The Bridge Stocker was in charge of a gang of Chargers who were responsible for tipping their loaded barrows in to the furnace. It was quite a skilled job because they had to arrange a very even and mixed composition of the materials (the burden) on to the bell. They were in control of when the bell was lowered although the operation was performed from ground level.  The Carnforth furnaces were known for not being gas tight so gas was an ever present danger. It wasn't an unusual state of affairs at other works.  It was customary to suspend a basket of burning charcoal above the bell to ignite the gas, being a relatively safer option. When the bell was lowered there would usually be a flash of flame. The gang were working outside in all weathers, 24 hours a day, under the constant threat of gassing. Contemporary newspaper reports claimed that sometimes three or four men each day were rendered insensible by the sulphurous fumes.

In other ironworks, the same gang filled their barrows at ground level and accompanied them to the top of the furnace to dump them but not at Carnforth.

Over time, as the furnaces were rebuilt, hoisting and dumping the materials was automated, adopting technology pioneered in America.

The Stock Taker was in charge of a gang of Fillers  working at ground level beneath the high line (bunkers). They weighed and shoveled limestone and iron ore in to one barrow and coke in to another barrow, and placed the barrows in the hoist for lifting to the Charging gang above. From the time when a charge is put in at the bell to when the iron is tapped, is said to average about sixty hours.

Also working at ground level were the Cast House crew. The Keeper is the senior man in charge of the furnace. He judges when to tap the furnace and supervises preparation of the pig beds with assistance from the Helper. The Slagger is a young man of about 13 years of age responsible for monitoring and drawing off the slag floating above the molten iron in the hearth.  The slag was drawn off through a hole called the slag notch (or dam). As more molten iron accumulates in the bosh it will approach the level of the slag notch and when the slag has been run off and flames exit the slag notch, the Keeper will take the furnace off blast and break open the clay stopper in the iron notch below. The Helper brings a sharp tanged pike and three or four men will drive it into the clay and break it open.

The molten iron will be guided by sand lined troughs to the pig beds and upon completion, the tap hole will be closed with a fresh plug of clay. There is an excellent video on Youtube of Pig Beds operations at Newcastle filmed in 1900. Look out for the hammer used to break up the pigs from the sow that needed three men to lift it, and watch how the crew walk over black hot pigs with thick wooden clogs tied to the underside of their shoes.

35cwt of ore, 10cwt of limestone, and 21cwt of coke were used to make 1 ton of pig iron. That is very similar proportions to those in use at Barrow-in-Furness where they calculated that 5.5 tons of air was needed and were tapping slag every 2 hours and iron every 5 hours.

All of the furnacemen are paid wages which vary with the quantity and quality of the metal produced. The earnings of a keeper or a charger averages 8s. per day; 5s.9d is certain, while the remainder is variable. One keeper, scarcely more than a youth, had drawn that day as his fortnightly wage the sum of £7.10s.

The men here, as at all blast-furnaces, work Sundays as well as week days. There is no change - night and day, year after year, the same routine goes on. The shifts of work at Carnforth are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.; and 10p.m. to 6 a.m. 

A team at ground level filling barrows beneath the blast furnace bunkers at Oldside works, Workington in 1900. Points of note are:

1 Some of the men are wearing clogs, some not. Everyone has a flat cap, most of the men have mutton cloth tied around their necks.

2 It is no surprise to see children at the workplace. They were likely delivering food and drink to members of the family. 

3 In the background are a barrow, a gas light, blast furnace stoves and pipes and a hoist (right) for carrying loaded barrows to the charging gantry at the top of the furnaces. There is a part hidden barrow behind the bench (centre). 

4 The plated steel floor in this area to ease the movement of barrows. I'd guess that the gentlemen to the left are standing on iron ore and behind large limestone blocks. 

Millom ironworks Pig lifters.  Typical attire for those working the pig beds at the turn of the century. Protective aprons, knee pads, shin guards and clogs. The locomotive is a Neilson product built in 1897.