Brandywine Iron Works - Early 1800s - Coatesville, PA
N 39° 58.829 W 075° 49.316
18S E 429819 N 4425914
This interpretive was erected to commemorate and explain the first mill site which led to the eventual success and fame of Lukens Steel Company.
Waymark Code: WMHA95
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 06/14/2013
Views: 2
There are a series of markers scattered throughout this small historic district, especially in front of all the contributing structures, and those which were once here, including this one. The markers are the standard interpretives, held horizontally, thick black, frame, tilted for good viewing and maybe 3 or 4 feet off the ground. This marker is 131 feet from South 1st Avenue if traveling southeast along the road, the marker being on the right or west side. Brandywine Mansion is exactly 100 feet due east of this position. The interpretive reads:
The Lukens National Historic District
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BRANDYWINE IRON WORKS - EARLY 1800s
Issac Pennock, properly considered the founder of the business which became
the Lukens Steel Company, began his career in the manufacture of iron in the
early 1790s when he erected a mill at a place called Rokeby on the Buck Run
in Chester County, about four miles south of Coatesville. This operation, called
the Federal Slitting Mill, produced blacksmith iron, barrel staves, and
miscellaneous iron products.
In 1816 Dr. Charles Lukens, the son-in-law of Isaac Pennock, came into the
business of iron making. Dr. Luken is remembered for having rolled the first
boiler plate in America, documented in 1818, thus setting the company's
course as a speciality plate producer. Dr. Lukens died in 1825 leaving his
widow, Rebecca, to run the mill.
The plates were made from single charcoal blooms which were made in an
old-fashioned forge fire, the re-heated over an ordinary grate fire and rolled into
plates or sheets. The plate rolls were about 16" to 18" in diameter and from
3' to 4' long, driven by an overshot water wheel. As the increase in demand for
Lukens plate required greater power, the overshot water wheel was replaced
by a breast wheel and a flywheel was also introduced. This the led to larger
rolls of 21" in diameter and 66" in length.
There are also two pictures of the old mill on the left side of the interpretive, a view from the east side and a second view from the west side, both black and white photos, The lower right side features an 1820 map of the site.