"Mike Spencer" wrote in message
...

Larry Jaques writes:

On Sun, 3 Feb 2019 13:54:17 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

New England has preserved some of that history. We took a school
trip
to this place not long after it was restored and they demonstrated
the
waterwheels and trip hammer and explained the tedious process of
squeezing the slag out of a bloom of iron, one of which they had
on
display.
https://www.engr.psu.edu/mtah/photos/photos_saugus.htm

The Saugus Ironworks is really cool. After the American Iron &
Steel
Institute paid for the archaeology and restoration, they ran the
blast furnace and finery/chafery at least once. They made a docu
movie which has footage of the furnace running and operating the
huge
helve hammer. (Sadly, only about 30 sec. of each.) Then they turned
it
over to the US National Park Service which allowed everything to
deteriorate. When I visited, late 80s IIRC, the hammer could be run
but much of the works was inoperable. The water wheels run on water
pumped from the river below because the former mill pond is now a
heavily built up residential area. Big ol' pump concealed in the
restored "coal shed".
..........
--
Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada

I remember thinking the hammer drive didn't seem built to withstand
much use, as I had made toy wooden models of machinery and seen how
fast wood rubbing surfaces wear.

The Taylor mill had more iron reinforcement on its wooden linkages and
much of it had worked loose, making the operation quite clanky. The
operator told me it had been assembled from salvaged mill parts and
wasn't really historically accurate. IIRC the fittings had been cast
instead of forged.

While he watched the saw the operator was splitting wooden shingles
with a ragged excuse for a froe. There was no maintenance fund to buy
a decent one. My first attempt to make them a froe is far below museum
quality. At least I got the parts I'd collected for a heat treating
oven assembled and working.

My father had an old Audel Millwrights and Mechanics Guide from his
time in the cotton mills so I had an idea of the work involved. If you
mastered all the skills in that book you could recreate civilization.

-jsw