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| Progress Ending Way of Life, As Era of Coke Ovens Passes |
| The following article was written by Stephen
Franklin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Staff Writer, First published in the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, PA, ca.1972, and in "Mount Pleasant Township
Bicentennial April 6, 1773-1973, Westmoreland County, Penna. " published
by the Mt. Pleasant Township Bicentennial Committee, ca.1973. (Coke Works Article reprinted courtesy of the Mt. Pleasant Township Bicentennial Committee) |
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Eugen Gowton watches the crumbling brick
bee-hive coke ovens and waits for his turn to work at a vanishing way of
life, with his partner John Sanner, at one of the last remaining bee-hive
coke oven operations, the Calumet Coke Works, Mt. Pleasant Township, Westmoreland
County, Pennsylvania. The burly, soot-covered partner in the Calumet, Westmoreland County, coke operation glances down the range of turn-of-the-century ovens and admits the work is out-of-date. "It's an obsolete way of doing things, but it's the only way we have to do it," he said. |
| John Sanner tends one of Calumet's last remaining operating
bee-hive coke ovens. (Photo courtesy of The Mt. Pleasant Township Bicentennial Committee) |
[The following photos accompaning the text at right were not part of the original article, but are from the Coal Mining Archive collections of the Latrobe Area Historical Society.] |
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Gowton said he and his partner took home $7,000 last year after all the bills were paid. It hardly seems worth the work, he added. |
| Bee-hive coke oven battery at Calumet Coke
Works, with Calumet Mine Slate Dump (Bony Dump) in background. (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). |
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The pollution people (the D.E.P.), he said, talking about the county and state anti-pollution officials, want him to quit, but he sees no reason to stop right now. |
| Calumet Coke oven battery being first fired,
the smoke pours from the trunnel head (the charging hole in the top of the
oven) The air is filled with the smell of rotten eggs, the sulfur in the
coal burning off, as the ovens first start to burn (ca.1972). (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection) |
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Gowton said that as long as neighboring homes in the small former mining town of Calumet continue burning coal, he will keep on burning coal in his bee-hive ovens at the Calumet Coke Works. |
| The last ovens are just starting up, the next
ovens are finishing their burn. The pile of bricks stacked near the
ovens are for bricking up the oven doors (ca.1972). (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). |
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The most polluting part of the work is when the ovens are first filled and the fire starts, he said. "That's the only time we get the smoke and we can't control it at all," he said. |
| The smoke from the operating coke ovens drifts over the
valley (ca.1972). (Photo ca.1972 Courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). |
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From the oven where David Prinkey, a part-time worker who earns $3. an hour, is sealing up the face, black smoke pushes skyward through a hole in the oven's roof. |
| The remaining coke oven battery at Calumet Mine, the far
right ovens are still in operation. (ca.1972). (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). |
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There's a sharp, uncomfortable pungent smell in the air as the smoke leaves the intensely hot oven. It flows away from the small valley crossroads and the tall, black slag heap (Slate Dump), which is the waste left behind from an abandoned deep mine. |
| The loader and truck are pulled into position to pull
the ovens. (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). |
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With the 17 ovens still working in the double row built in 1900 by the H.C. Frick Coke Company of U.S.Steel, Gowton and his partner need 72 hours to cook the coke. They can use an oven twice a week. |
| (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). | |
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As the coal fills up the oven, the pressure and heat from the permanently hot brick walls ignite a flame that reaches a temperature of about 2,800 degrees. |
| (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). | |
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Under the intense heat, the soft coal is turned into coke inside the sealed oven. There are about four bee-hive oven operations left in Western Pennsylvania (ca.1972). |
| (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). | |
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It take about a ton and a half of coal to yield a ton of coke, Gowton said. |
| (Photo ca.1972 courtesy of the Latrobe Area Historical Society Coal Mining Archives Collection). |
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