I got a great opportunity on August 15th. I was invited to Mittal Steel (formerly Bethleham Steel) to collect pig iron for an exhibit we are trying to construct. Oregon Ridge used to be an iron ore mining town, which is where the name came from (Ore-gone). At Mittal, I got to see the modern way that pig iron is made.
Pig iron got its name from the formation that it made when poured. Workers thought that the iron followed the main pour into a mold that looked like a sow with suckling piglets. These molds used to be simple and dug out of the ground. Today, the mold is like a "moving ice tray" that the molton iron is poured into. Bars are molded and moved up a conveyer belt to an end where they fall out onto the ground.
The new exhibit is still in the early stages of planning, but it will describe how the furnace at Oregon Ridge functioned. It will also show the workers and the end product of the whole firing process. Of course, I will advertise when this exhibit is finished, but for now you can look at these terrific pictures that the employees of Mittal Steel were kind enough to supply me.
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