Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-03-23
Interesting Facts Concerning Its
Celebrated Iron Furnace.
THE QUARRY A CURIOSITY
The Output Amounts to 10000
Tons Per Month The Pay Roll
Also Heavy Quite a Number Of
Augusta People Reside There.
(staff Correspondence Of The Spectator

(Staf Correspondence Of The Spectator.)
Low Moor. Va, March 21.-It mat
tiers not whether the stranger arrives
here during the night or day, or from
the. east or west, he is sure to be IA
vorably impressed with the place at
once. And when he strolls about the
grounds of the big furnace property,
and takes in the immensely OF the
plant, this impression grows. l have
been here before in years past when
the price of iron was low-when the
bottom had dropped OUTPUT the fur
mace was always in blast and the coke
ovens aglow. So it has been, that
whatever the v1cissitudes of the coun-
try, Low Moor has continued to make
money and has given steady employ
ment and good pay to its hundreds OF
workmen. When there was no market,
pig iron was piled on the yards, and
when good prices returned the ship
ments were tremendous. Since the
big advance in iron the company has
stimulated every energy to increase
the output, till today the figure haf
reached 1900 tons per week. To pro
duce this quantity 5000 tons of coal il
converted into 1000 tons of coke. I'm
agine what a fire 5000 tons of coal viii
keep going. 1t feeds 1874 ovens, the
flames from which, together with tue
glare from the furnace blast, can be
seen against the sky at night for miles
around. l have seldom seen Q
pfettier or more animated sight
than is presented here af
ter nightfall. During a most inter
esting inspection of the works l was
under the courteous care of a former
Stauntonian, Mr.. j. Kinney Brown,
who but recently came here from Cliff
ton Forge. He is special police officer
for the company and is proving a most
competent and efficient man for the
work. He pointed out the water works,
the electric plant. the two furnace
stacks rs and 80 fleet high and the
stoves or gas generators that tower 81
to so feet and are 10 feet in diameter,
and finally the engine house, wherein
three monster engines of 500 horse
power each r pounding away with
out cessation year in and year out.
At the company's office | learned
much OF interesting detail and from
which source the figures given ema-
nate. Hew many of our readers ever
imagined that this corporation operates
seven distinct mines scattered through
out this section, and besides their home
plant here, the furnace at Covington.
The undertaking is immense and SO is
the capital employed. Last month
the pay roll aggregated Q $1,000. On
the yard here three locomotives are
kept constantly in use, and counting
the locomotives and cars used at the
other mines and the miles of track.
this company has really a well equipped
railroad line.
In charge of the scale house l found
another Augusta man, Mr.. Jos. A.
HILBERT. The scales ih his charge
are different from anything of the kind
l have yer seen, and he Informed me
they are different from any other in
this section of the State. Their frame
work is overhead. 80 feet from the plat
form and more resembles a steel over
head bridge than a weighing machine.
1t is of the Fairbank make and is
known as the suspension scale, with
capacity for holding two cars at once
Mr.. Hilbert declares they are infinitely
correct and will weigh anything from
10 to 1876, 600 lbs. With him here is bis
father, MI. Titus Hilbert, IN engineer,
and his brother, Edward, in the Office.
No one should visit Low Moor with
out taking a look at the limestone
quarries. The people are SO used to
the wonder that they often fail to speak
of them to strangers, SO l stumbled
upon them quite by accident. They
are we'll worth a trip here to see, and |
can hardly understand why their fame
has not gone more abroad. The quar-
ries are just above the village and are
at the base of a low mountain. A vein
or Strata of gray lime stone IS feet
thick runs back under the mountain
for an indefinite distance. This the
workmen have been digging and blast
ing out for the past Is years, so the s.
feet of stone has been removed from
field of over Z acres leaving the
mountain top suspended IS feet in air.
supported here and there by huge pill
airs of rock left there by the workmen.
Under this canopy the workmen are !,
protected from weather changes and
ian work in comfort the year round.
n winter tits warm and in summer
tbs cool. Daylight floods the place and
/ most wonderful and interesting effect
8 produced. Railroad tracks run
pack under the big canopy and the
hriek of the locomotive resounds
trough the lofty chambers. Above
Ill they blast and tumble hundreds of
ons of rock here every day with never
fear that the top may come down
lpon them. In charge of this artificial
vonder is Mr. B. j. Shirley, a brother
+ Mr.. j. J. Shirley, for so many years
dry goods merchant at Staunton.
Jnder his guidance my visit was
enjoyed from every point Of
He assured me most earnestly
hat no amount of blasting had ever
the big field of earth and rock
verhead, though at times the whole
fountain top had seemed to vibrate
the terrific shock. Said
.ths biggest blast l ever put
e shot out $500 tons Of stone. The
oncussion fairly lifted me off my feet.