Making Hot Air

The large building to the left is the Blower House. This is where giant gas-powered engines pumped pressurized air into the blast furnaces. Every ton of iron takes about 200,000 cubic feet of air to produce!
1 Building Pressure
The blowing engines pumped air at 30 PSI (pounds per square inch). Flywheels of 24 or 28.5 feet in diameter helped the engines maintain momentum. These engines date as far back as 1911, when they replaced steam-powered blowing engines.
2 Through The Pipes
Some of the giant pipes you see overhead and along the blast furnaces carried the pressurized air. Cold blast air was transported from the Blower House to stoves. Hot blast air was carried from the stoves to a bustle pipe surrounding the lower part of the blast furnace.
3 Fuel For The Fire
When the air passed through the gas-fired stoves, it was heated to about 1800°F. The hot, pressurized air was then blown into the furnace where it burned the coke to create extreme temperatures and produce carbon monoxide.

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Bethlehem Built
The Bethlehem Beam
A Community of Workers
Hot, Loud, & Dangerous
A Legacy of Steel
One Of The Hardest Jobs In The World
Making Iron
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Air Products
Blast Furnace

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