Scranton Iron Works

by Jim Cook

Title

Scranton Iron Works

Artist

Jim Cook

Medium

Photograph - Photography Infrared Digital

Description

Scranton Iron Works
The furnaces of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company are an important part of the story of Pennsylvania and Scranton and the Lackawanna Valley in particular. As in many stories this has heroes and villains. Heroes were the work force that helped usher America into the Industrial age. Villains of course were the owners who paid no heed to the environment, paid little enough to the workers and as soon as more lucrative opportunities arose such as coal they sold off the furnaces and began strip mining the Lackawanna Valley so much so that the scars of strip mining are still evident today.
During Colonial times charcoal was used in furnaces but experiments were taking place trying to switch to Anthracite Coal. It was a long difficult time before that became reality. Once that happened pig iron could then be successfully produced and as luck would have it they happened to be in right place and the right time of history. Britain was the only supplier of railroad T rails urgently needed for the burgeoning rail industry. Scranton�s furnaces soon had access to the iron and coal necessary to manufacture the iron, and the Scranton family soon built massive rolling mills to produce the rails. At one time, it is estimated that 1 of every 6 rails produced in the United States originated from the Scranton Iron Works.
Through the year events are held including �Arts On Fire� that draws thousands to see the �Iron Pour�. In October �Fire at the Furnaces� highlights downtown�s First Friday celebration. These events are just the beginning of a resurgence of the arts in this part of town as well as developing the area into the Iron District that will run from the 500 Block of Lackawanna Avenue through the 700 block of Cedar Avenue in South Side. This site will be the gateway to downtown Scranton and the furnaces will be the highlight.
The first of these four massive furnaces was built by 1841. In 1991 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
More of my art can be viewed here in FAA at http://1-jim-cook.pixels.com/

Uploaded

June 30th, 2016

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