10/12 Saugus Iron Works

We went to Saugus Iron Works in Hammersmith, Mass. This was the start of the metal working in the United States.


Furnace and foundry

The Puritans wanted to be self sufficient community. So, the puritans decided that they would make a Iron Works. They asked so puritans supporters in England help or money and to help them. The puritans got a work force of Scottish prisoners of war and a non-puritan commander to lead them he chose the place of the Iron Works. The place of the Iron Works was along the Saugus River which gave it the name for the Saugus Iron Works.

The Iron Works is powered by only charcoal and water. It has bellows that are powered by water wheels that turn the cogs that power the bellows. The water comes from channels or sluiceways then . In the Iron Works there are 3 stages the iron could go thought. The first was the blast furnace, where the iron is heated to it’s melting point and is pored into a mold to cool down. Then some of the iron is taken to the forge, where the iron is warned up and pounded into flats or other things. Then the flats are taken to the slitting and rolling mill where the flat are flattened more and cut into nail rod. Then Nailery and Blacksmith shops get the metal coming out of the mills. There was a Blacksmith shop on the campus for making the things the mill needed.

After two decades, the Iron Works stopped making the metal products because of the Iron Works terms of work and the expenses of doing this effected the puritan colony. The business of Iron Working sprend all over the United States In the 1940 some preservationists dug up the Iron Works and rebuilt them to the best calculations.