ætna furnace, Tuckahoe

[Jerseyman]

Ætna Furnace, Tuckahoe

Folks:

I just received a recent acquisition from ebay and I thought I would share it with all of you:

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[c1nj]

Can you go into detail what is depicted on the postcard?

 

[Teegate]

Nice catch Jerseyman. Not quite the same there now.

Guy

 

[Spung-Man]

A Blast from the Past...

Jeseryman,
This is an interesting view of (A)Etna. At first glance I thought the post card mislabeled. The edifice looks nothing like the classic hearth-view of Etna (see below). Then it clicked. Your photo may have been taken from the ramp-side, which is looking southward towards the river. Charcoal, ore, and flux would have been dumped from a banked incline into the chimney hole, and the pig castings would have been drawn off below. Right? I’ve seen several photos dated c.1900 that provide river-backed views that look very much like the drawing below (i.e., looking northwards). Alternatively, your photograph may be an image of Concord Forge, which was sited a couple miles upriver from the furnace. I doubt the latter’s ruins had survived to 1900.

Thanks for a provocative post!
Spung-Man

 

[Jerseyman]

Can you go into detail what is depicted on the postcard?

c1nj:

The post card shows the furnace stack and the view is probably from the back side of the structure. It has the appearance of a peeled-back onion because locals began stripping the brick and stone to build other structures—an inexpensive way to gain good quality materials!

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Jerseyman]

Jeseryman,
This is an interesting view of (A)Etna. At first glance I thought the post card mislabeled. The edifice looks nothing like the classic hearth-view of Etna (see below). Then it clicked. Your photo may have been taken from the ramp-side, which is looking southward towards the river. Charcoal, ore, and flux would have been dumped from a banked incline into the chimney hole, and the pig castings would have been drawn off below. Right? I’ve seen several photos dated c.1900 that provide river-backed views that look very much like the drawing below (i.e., looking northwards). Alternatively, your photograph may be an image of Concord Forge, which was sited a couple miles upriver from the furnace. I doubt the latter’s ruins had survived to 1900.

Thanks for a provocative post!
Spung-Man

Spungman:

I concur with your first supposition about the image being taken from the ramp side of the furnace. If you look closely at the top of the stack, you can see what appears to be a cantilevered appendage, which would be the charging platform. I think I see at least one vertical wooden support holding up the said platform.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Jerseyman]

Nice catch Jerseyman. Not quite the same there now.

Guy

Thanks for providing the modern image of the furnace site! I see it features the usual mound of detritus.

Best regards,
Jerseyman

 

[Ben Ruset]

Interesting how similar it is to the Allaire furnace stack, except that the chimney itself looks more insulated at Aetna. Maybe because it was built earlier?

Also interesting to see a round stack when most furnaces seemed to be shaped like pyramids.

 

[Boyd]

This is an interesting view of (A)Etna. At first glance I thought the post card mislabeled.

Reminds me a bit of the ruins up in Wawayanda State Park too...

http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/parks/loc18.htm

 

[Spung-Man]

Interesting how similar it is to the Allaire furnace stack, except that the chimney itself looks more insulated at Aetna. Maybe because it was built earlier? QUOTE]

Maybe this figure will help. Both structures are the same furnace from about the same time period, except opposite sides are shown. The postcard exposure had its carapace plundered down to the firebrick. In stone-poor terrain like South Jersey's, old structures become easy pickin's for reuse as construction material. Note tree positions shown by red or blue arrows are mirror images of each other from image to image. I suspect the drawing may have been done from a photograph that was slightly earlier than the postcard image.

 

[Teegate]

And it is interesting that various maps show two different spellings of the name.


Guy

 

[Spung-Man]

Encyclopaedia - encyclopedia

And it is interesting that various maps show two different spellings of the name. Guy

I still have that cursed battle today with wind-action’s Latin dipthong Æ !

Aeolian – Eolian

 

[Ben Ruset]

Why does the stack in the drawing look much smaller than in the photograph?

 

[Ben Ruset]

Also, the Clinton Rd. iron furnace. Built like a pyramid.



From http://lostinjersey.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/clinton-road/

 

[Spung-Man]

Why does the stack in the drawing look much smaller than in the photograph?

Only the inner firebrick lining remains intact in the postcard photo, and the outer ironstone "pyramid-shaped" structure has been pilfered since the sketch was imaged. The sketch date may be spurious, indicating the date drawn but its "whole" image was copied from an older photograph. Alternatively, the postcard photo is newer than posted. An orange arrow has been added to show the corresponding stack neck-ring position on each. The upper stack portion on the postcard picture is missing, indicating a younger date than the sketch.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Ah, okay, I get it now.

 

[bobpbx]

I don't get the tree. Is that a small tree growing out of the detritus that fell off the charging carts and pooled into a soil pile big enough to support a tree?

 

[manumuskin]

Folks:

I just received a recent acquisition from ebay and I thought I would share it with all of you:


Best regards,
Jerseyman

I've often sat on top of what used to be the furnace wondering what it looked like in the past.
Thanks jerseyman.
Al

 

[Pine Baron]

The hill there is still a good 12'-15' above the grade. Very picturesque from the top of it, with views of the river.

On page 220 of Forgotten Towns, Father Beck writes, "From the midst of these rises the old furnace chimney, sixty feet high, still possessing a certain majesty. It is of Jersey stone and brick construction, the bricks retaining an unusually vivid red hue."

That must have been an awesome sight coming around the bend and seeing the stack rising up through the trees. There is still plenty of broken brick and half-brick pieces all around that area, although not as red as they once were. I'm guessing Beck visited in the mid-late 20's or early 30's, and there was still 60' left. There must have been a tremendous amount of brick used in the original construction if they already had started "borrowing" by 1900, and the chimney was still that high 25-30 years later. It's a shame none of it survived to the present.

John-

 

[pinelandpaddler]

Awesome thread. Thanks, Jerseyman, Spungman, et al.