Beehive Coke Oven Memorial - Fultondale, AL
N 33° 35.760 W 086° 47.898
16S E 518714 N 3717380
Beehive Coke Oven Memorial, Fultondale, AL
Waymark Code: WMDE0K
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 12/31/2011
Views: 11
Fultondale's Beehive Coke Oven Memorial is a four-sided, 8 to 9 feet tall cast iron sculpture located at the edge of the sports park in front of Fultondale Middle School. The panels of the memorial contain some beautiful cast iron artwork.
Beehive coke ovens, so named because of their shape, usually were placed in parallel rows and built into hillsides. The brick-lined ovens were filled with washed, crushed coal through a hole in the top of the oven (cars on narrow gauge tracks transported the coal). The coal was burned in an oxygen-deprived condition so that the coal did not burn, but changed into a higher carbon content, less waste, product. When the coke was ready, the oven was opened on the side, and the coke was pulled out into railcars. The coke would be burning in the railcars so some method had to be used to quench out the fire.
Marker Name: Beehive Coke Oven Memorial
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
Text from two of the panels:
In the 1830s the banks along Jefferson County’s Five Mile Creek exploded with coal mines and mining camps. Uniquely situated, the Birmingham Industrial District was one of the only places in the world where the necessary components for iron and steel production – iron ore, limestone, and coal – were centrally located. Coal was crushed, washed, and then baked in the beehive ovens to remove impurities leaving a nearly pure form of carbon, the fuel that ran Birmingham’s iron furnaces and steel mills.
Constructed between 1889 and 1910 from locally quarried stone and lined with fire brick, three rows of beehive ovens wrapped around the Lewisburg hillside. The ovens were replaced in the 1920s by a modern facility in North Birmingham.
Date Dedicated / Placed: Unknown
Marker Number: None
|
Visit Instructions:
Please post a photo of you OR your GPS at the marker location. Also if you know of any additional links not already mentioned about this bit of Alabama history please include that in your log.