Crane Iron Works
Catasauqua, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The first long-term, commercially successful anthracite iron furnace opened July 4, 1840, here in Catasauqua. Built for the Lehigh Crane Iron Co. by David Thomas, it soon made 50-60 tons of pig iron a week. By 1868 the works had six furnaces; production ceased, 1930.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On the Fourth of July, 1840, Welsh ironmaster David Thomas fired up a furnace in Catasauqua that finally proved anthracite coal could smelt iron on a commercial scale. Earlier attempts had failed, but Thomas's hot-blast furnace for the Lehigh Crane Iron Company soon turned out 50 to 60 tons of pig iron a week, and the works grew to six furnaces before closing in 1930. The success helped shift American iron production away from charcoal and toward the hard coal of Pennsylvania's mountains.
Why it matters
This furnace launched the anthracite iron era, fueling America's railroads, bridges, and industrial rise in the mid-nineteenth century.
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Related people
- · David Thomas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
David Thomas
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David Thomas carried a hard-won secret across the Atlantic from Wales: how to smelt iron using abundant, slow-burning anthracite coal rather than scarce charcoal. Settling in the Lehigh Valley, he built the Crane Iron Works, widely credited as the first anthracite iron furnace to succeed both technically and as a business. His breakthrough transformed eastern Pennsylvania's hard-coal region into an industrial powerhouse and earned him the title "father of the American anthracite iron industry."
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