America's First Iron Puddling Furnace

America's First Iron Puddling Furnace is a Pennsylvania historical marker in Smock, Fayette County, dedicated 2017.

Fayette County · dedicated 2017 · 519 Laurel Hill Rd., at PA 51, Smock

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In 1817 ironmaster Isaac Meason and Welshman Thomas Lewis built a puddling furnace and bar rolling mill here using a process from Wales that revolutionized the iron industry. It removed carbon from brittle pig iron creating malleable wrought iron in one step, making iron production much more efficient and less costly. Later, "puddlers" in Pittsburgh formed the first metals union, the Sons of Vulcan, fore-runner of United Steelworkers.

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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Marker data: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission via data.pa.gov

America's First Iron Puddling Furnace

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