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 Blowing Engine - Pittsburgh, PA Posted by:  Lat34North
N 40° 26.000 W 080° 00.169
17T E 584579 N 4476332
It was literally the lungs of a blast furnace. Located along Pittsburg’s Riverwalk of Industrial Artifacts Iron and Steel at the Smithfield St. bridge and Carson St.
Waymark Code: WMHX6X
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 08/22/2013
Views: 11
"This machine is a blowing engine. It was literally the lungs of a blast furnace. The air that it pumped enabled the blast furnace to burned its fuel (coke) at a temperature hot enough to reduce iron ore to molten iron. This 600 ton engine, built about 1900, is one of a battery of six that was once used at The Shenango Furnace Company in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania.
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- Air chamber contains piston which pumped air out of the engine.
- Piston rod connects piston in air chamber with driving piston in steam cylinder below.
- Air intake admits fresh air into the chamber.
- Steam cylinder contains driving piston that moves up and down is steam is pumped into cylinder.
- Valve gear operates the valves which control admission in exhaust of steam.
- Bevel gears turned by flywheel shaft provide power to valve gear.
- Connecting rods the drive flywheels are moved up and down like cross piece of piston rod.
- Flywheels provide constant momentum so the engine pumps steadily.
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William Penn Snyder ( 1861 – 1921), a partner in an iron brokerage firm at 19, soon created his own iron ore mining operation with Henry W Oliver. They were the first to use pure Masabi ore in a blast furnace. My the turn of the century, Mr. Snyder had combined his iron holdings, or carrying freighters, and blast furnace operations to form The Shenango Furnace Company. It was one of the strongest integrated iron companies of the time.
The location of the Shenango iron making plant, where this blowing engine stood, was along the Shenango River near Sharpsville - 60 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Later, plants were added at Dover, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and Neville Island, Pennsylvania.
In Shenango’s huge blowing engine house, six engine stood in a row, pumping a continuous flow of air to blast furnaces some 600 feet away. Workers kept watch and maintained the engines.
Interesting facts about Shenango’s blowing engines:
- Each one pump enough air in one hour to inflate three Goodyear blimps.
- There flywheels are 24 feet across and made of cast iron.
- This engine was made in Milwaukee and then shipped to Sharpsville by water.
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Furnace companies like Shenango reduced iron ore into molten iron, then cast it into “pigs.” The pigs, seen here in a pile just behind the railroad cars, were Shenango’s only product. They were re-melted to produce castings, or converted to steel products. The company covered more than 200 acres along the Shenango River and employed more than 200 people around 1912."
Source: The marker located next to the "blowing engine"
The Riverwalk of Industrial Artifacts is a project of the Pittsburg History and Landmarks Foundation
The blowing engine and this panel are a gift of the Shenango Furnace Company and two Snyder family foundations.
More information:
Wikipedia: Blowing engine
Wikipedia: Blast furnace
Type of Machine: blowing engine
Year the machine was built: 1900
Year the machine was put on display: Not listed
Is there online documentation for this machine: Not listed
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