The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1921-07-13
The HARTFORD HERALD
AIRDRIE

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: lenberg County, Kentucky. known
as the McLain survey, being the
!. same land on which McLain opened
coal mine some years previous to
selling to Alexander. McLain
mined coal. loaded 1t on fat boats,
and fioated it to New Orleans. The
Coal was known as No. IL. Alex
ander brought some fifty or sixty
families over from Scotland and es-
tablished homes for them about one
half-mile below or north of Para
disc They Immediately went to
work building dwellings, stores.
barns and other necessary buildings
for permanent homes. All the men
were expert mechanics. engineers,
stone masons, carpenters, business
men and architects.
After their
homes were made comfortable they
I turned to the work of preparing for
elaborate iron works, patterned af-
ter the works owned by Alexander
in Scotland. They built a dressed
stone house for an engine room. 1t
was two stories high. had solid
stone wall across the center, and
was covered with slate. Every stone
in the building was dressed by hand
and hoisted to place by windlasses
turned by man power. They had an
engine built in Scotland, as were
the boilers, and shipped to New Or
leans, then up the Mississippi, Ohio
and Green rivers in barges. and dis
charged within few hundred feet
of the engine room. The engine was
about seven feet long and twelve
or fourteen inches in diameter. 1t
was set on end in the north east
corner of the room. the UPPER end
being level with the floor. The
boilers were two-fued, and there
were eighteen of them, set in two
batteries of nine each. They were
placed near the south end of the
ShS AhS iOOh ~ INC lOOJ vi q ulSuI
of stone steps running to the level
of the tunnel through the hill.
There was a casting weighing tons
balanced on the center wall of the
engine room, one end Of which was
attached to the piston of the engine
and the other to fy-wheel that
ntt- to- to
Pump pistons for water and air
were attached to this casting Call
ed walking-beam.) Between the
engine-room and the bluff there was
large water reservoir, that would
hold thousands of gallons of water,
also large tank for storage OF ali, i
which was forced into it by the
pumps. The tank was about forty
feet long and in the shape Of
huge boiler. On this tank was a t
safety-valve that would open at a
certain pressure. and the escaping Il
air from this, valve could be heard v
for miles. 1t annoyed the whole i
country for ten miles around and I
was very disagreeable, disturbing '
the rest of the people. especially the
sick. From this tank the air pass :
ed through a furnace where it was, b
heated to an extremely high tenn v
perature. A small hole was made in v
one of the pipes to test the hot air g
before it was forced into the smelt-
near by. The hole was v
not larger than a cambria needle. f
Open it and pass a bar of lead p
across it and the hot air would cut g
it in two so quick that you could not 7
see it. II
The smelting-stack was built a
up level with the mine open p
ing and the ore and coal were a
wheeled by hand from the yard and 81
dumped into it. The coal was b
charred before it was used, The b
ron-ore was mined something like RI
a half-mile west of the furnace and d
was trammed through the hill by a
mule power. After the ore was b
melted, the stack was tapped, the ii
molten mass run out through a II
hitch or canal made of sand. into Il
he moulding yard, where it was al g
owed to cool in the moulds. The Of
Yard was located between the stack b.
md the river. in front Of the stack. 81
When the iron cooled they broke off Ell
he pig from the main lead, and
stacked 1t up ready for shipping. d,
rhe stone that was used for build al
ng the engine-room and the stack W
vas quarried from the ground nj
where they now stand. A large mill X
vas built south of the engine-room: tt
I was about 100 feet long and SO n
eet wide. A saw-mill. brick-mill tll
md other N, a oh inarv wara nlaead In m