BIRMINGHAM-TYRONE.

105

the greater portion of the time until within two or three years past. It is a charcoal furnace, as are also all the others. Compared with more recent furnaces this affair is quite a curiosity. It is of small calibre, and its life was prolonged from time to time, with additions, supports, and patches, until finally it could stand it no longer, and yielded up its fiery breath. Mr. Ritts, to whose hospitality and that of his amiable wife we must make, as we do with grateful pleasure, our acknowledgments, is the present proprietor, and was the last to work it. Should the iron trade revive, it is probable it may again be set in operation, with such improvements and additions as its decayed condition may call for.

But we cannot enter into the spirit of iron manufactures until we shall have seen BIRMINGHAM-Our Birmingham. Though not so large as its great namesake in England, it still occupies high ground, and is at least in the midst of a tremendous iron country. It is a village of four hundred population, more or less, and is romantically situated, if nothing more can be said of it. The scenery all around it is varied, but wild beyond measure. Speaking of Birmingham, suppose we run over to Ironville-a strong name, to be sure, for a small village; yet, standing on an iron foundation, it is properly an iron village. Bridges! bridges!-is there to be no stop to these bridges? This is the most

rascally little river we have yet met with; having crossed during the last five miles at least a dozen of these elegant iron structures, there is yet no end to 'em, for here we are again perched seventy feet in air, over the same stream, looking down at Ironville, nestling there on the

hill! We dash on, and wind around through a deep cut, when-confound the stream-here it is again with another bridge! But holdhere is Blair County, and before us one of the prettiest villages we have yet seen. This is TYRONE, two hundred and twenty-six miles from Philadelphia, one hundred and thirty-nine from Pittsburg, and eight hundred and eighty-six feet above tide water. So, sir, you see we are "getting up in the world," as the saying is. We already breathe the fresh air of the Alleghany, and it will not be long ere we find ourselves on the top of its loftiest summit. Here then, within sight of old iron-bound Huntingdon, let us indulge some observations in reference to the manufacture of iron, of which this place is in many respects the principal theatre. These extensive works include a furnace at Bald Eagle, a few miles distant, a forge a few hundred yards above, at the water-station, the forge below the railway, (indi

The name

cated in the picture,) and some other works scattered over the land connected with them, embracing several thousand acres. of the firm is Lyon, Shorb & Co., and the business is conducted here by J. T. Matthias, Esq., a son-in-law of Mr. Shorb. This is, in our opinion, a model iron establishment. There are upwards of two hun

LEBANON

FURNACES.

107

dred hands regularly employed, averaging ten dollars per week, each; and a more cheerful set of men we never saw-every one, too, we should judge, a sincere admirer of Mr. Matthias. We are probably diverging from the straight line of our object in alluding thus, en passent, to a gentleman occupying a position purely private. But it is so unusual a circumstance to hear overseers complimented by their workmen, that for the novelty of the thing we must beg to be excused for mentioning it. When we see a village of cheerful and contented people-neat, intelligent, industrious and orderly; when we see the manager in his store, "busy as a bee" in attending to the wants of his hard-working customers, and only leaving it to dispense the sweet little courtesies of hospitality in his dwelling; when we see all this, nothing could prevent us from believing that everything is just as it should be! And if we are not greatly mistaken, the success of these works is as much the result of their careful and judicious management as anything else that could be suggested; while it is notorious that for the want of such management, many of the best establishments are often rendered unproductive and comparatively worthless. While upon iron, we should allude to

THE CORNWALL ORE BANKS.-This celebrated deposit of iron ore, situated in South Lebanon township, Lebanon County, the largest in the State of Pennsylvania, or perhaps in the United States, has been worked for upwards of a century, and has long been celebrated for the quality of the iron produced from it. Mr. Richard C. Taylor, in a report made in 1851, thus speaks of them:

"I need scarcely mention here the well known fact, that the ore banks of Cornwall have acquired no slight celebrity in times past by reason of the peculiar physical features which they exhibit, and on account of the immense quantity of black magnetic iron ore which they contain, and which, for a long series of years, they have furnished to the adjacent furnaces, and even now present unmistakable evidence of a far greater supply as yet untouched, above the ordinary level of the surrounding country."

The largeness of this deposit, and the cheapness with which it is mined, for it requires no underground work, but merely to be quarried, makes it the most valuable mine of iron ore in the State. The average per centage is fifty, though there is much of it that will yield sixtyfive or seventy per cent., being the pure magnetic oxide of iron.

LEBANON FURNACES, situated on the summit of the Union Canal, in

North Lebanon township, Lebanon County, are owned by G. D. Coleman. They consist of two blast furnaces, capable of making ten thousand tons of pig iron per annum, and a large foundry for the manufacture of cast iron pipe. These works, when in full operation, consume about twenty-five thousand tons of anthracite coal, and twenty thousand tons of iron ore; the latter is obtained from the

MALLET.

PICK.

Cornwall Mines. The coal used is from the Pine Grove region. This region of country, on account of the cheapness and richness of the ore of the Cornwall Mines, and its great abundance, must become

one of the great centres for the manufacture of iron, as it presents facilities unequalled in any part of the State.

The instruments or tools for mining are here annexed. The pick,

SHOVEL.

made, according to circumstances, of various forms; but one point is generally edged, and the other pointed. The mallet is used for driving wedges, and striking the hand-drill. The wedge is driven into crevices,

or small openings, made with the pick to detach pieces from the rock or mine. The sledge is a mallet of from five to six pounds weight, and