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Friday, October 18, 2019 - Meeting Review
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Meeting Review Provided by Frank Pokrywka (Pgh. AIHA Secretary) & Josh Maskrey (Pgh. AIHA Director)
I must be getting old; naa not me! Almost 40 years ago I started working at the Carrie Blast Furnace along the Mon River in Rankin and I still claim it was the best job I ever had. Third generation to work at the USS Homestead Works, I can fondly remember the special people, places and smells of that historic mill. Now a national historic landmark, walking the grounds of that preserved iron making facility reminded me of the life and death struggles of a place many people thought was “Hell on Earth”.
The men (and a few women) that worked at the Homestead Works were a breed apart. Tough, no nonsense, loyal and hardworking people that cared for each other, their families and their communities with the hopes that the “company” would treat them fairly (not always the case as we learned at lunch and on the tour).
The afternoon of Friday October 18th began with an ethnic inspired lunch at the Bulgarian-Macedonian Ethnic and Cultural Center where 20 AIHA Pittsburgh members and three students from Slippery Rock were present. While we dined on pierogis, halushki, and stuffed cabbage, Keith our historian and guide schooled us on the basics of iron and steel making, the inherent dangers therein and deadly Homestead Strike of 1892.
After lunch and filling their pockets from the Pittsburgh Cookie Table, members had a fun opportunity to tour the Carrie Blast Furnaces, a National Heritage Site. It was a unique opportunity to cross historical education with iron processing science.
We received some history about the site and then toured the well-maintained remains of furnaces 6 and 7, built in the 1890’s which last produced iron in 1978. We learned about the process supply route, how incoming ore was handled by massive cranes and rail cars, the chemistry of the iron ore, coke and limestone flux fed into the furnace, and how heated air was “blasted” in to fuel the iron-making reactions. It was amazing to realize that once a blast furnace is started it will run 24/7 for 10 years or more until it needs rebuilt; tapping every two or three hours to extract the molten iron and skim off the “slag”.
On site were two of the hot metal rail cars used to transport the molten iron across the river to the Homestead Works, at one time the world’s largest steel mill, where it would be refined and shaped into steel products used throughout the world.
It was exciting to learn about such an important part of Pittsburgh’s industrial history and heritage but also to realize that the Carrie Furnace is more than a rusting grave yard of the past. Full of great ideas, The Rivers of Steel is striving to make this site a destination for culture, education and entertainment. For the past five years the site has hosted concerts, Shakespearian festivals, the Pittsburgh Ballet, car cruises, artist workshops and most recently the “Festival of Combustion”, celebrating industrial arts and American crafts by showcasing the creativity and innovation our region’s artists, makers, and builders. Please visit their amazing website at riversofsteel.com
Thanks to the following Pittsburgh AIHA Members and Slippery Rock Students for attending this event. Thanks to Frank Pokrywka for organizing this awesome event!
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Thanks to Deanna / Stan Kiska and Matt Zock for photos.
I must be getting old; naa not me! Almost 40 years ago I started working at the Carrie Blast Furnace along the Mon River in Rankin and I still claim it was the best job I ever had. Third generation to work at the USS Homestead Works, I can fondly remember the special people, places and smells of that historic mill. Now a national historic landmark, walking the grounds of that preserved iron making facility reminded me of the life and death struggles of a place many people thought was “Hell on Earth”.
The men (and a few women) that worked at the Homestead Works were a breed apart. Tough, no nonsense, loyal and hardworking people that cared for each other, their families and their communities with the hopes that the “company” would treat them fairly (not always the case as we learned at lunch and on the tour).
The afternoon of Friday October 18th began with an ethnic inspired lunch at the Bulgarian-Macedonian Ethnic and Cultural Center where 20 AIHA Pittsburgh members and three students from Slippery Rock were present. While we dined on pierogis, halushki, and stuffed cabbage, Keith our historian and guide schooled us on the basics of iron and steel making, the inherent dangers therein and deadly Homestead Strike of 1892.
After lunch and filling their pockets from the Pittsburgh Cookie Table, members had a fun opportunity to tour the Carrie Blast Furnaces, a National Heritage Site. It was a unique opportunity to cross historical education with iron processing science.
We received some history about the site and then toured the well-maintained remains of furnaces 6 and 7, built in the 1890’s which last produced iron in 1978. We learned about the process supply route, how incoming ore was handled by massive cranes and rail cars, the chemistry of the iron ore, coke and limestone flux fed into the furnace, and how heated air was “blasted” in to fuel the iron-making reactions. It was amazing to realize that once a blast furnace is started it will run 24/7 for 10 years or more until it needs rebuilt; tapping every two or three hours to extract the molten iron and skim off the “slag”.
On site were two of the hot metal rail cars used to transport the molten iron across the river to the Homestead Works, at one time the world’s largest steel mill, where it would be refined and shaped into steel products used throughout the world.
It was exciting to learn about such an important part of Pittsburgh’s industrial history and heritage but also to realize that the Carrie Furnace is more than a rusting grave yard of the past. Full of great ideas, The Rivers of Steel is striving to make this site a destination for culture, education and entertainment. For the past five years the site has hosted concerts, Shakespearian festivals, the Pittsburgh Ballet, car cruises, artist workshops and most recently the “Festival of Combustion”, celebrating industrial arts and American crafts by showcasing the creativity and innovation our region’s artists, makers, and builders. Please visit their amazing website at riversofsteel.com
Thanks to the following Pittsburgh AIHA Members and Slippery Rock Students for attending this event. Thanks to Frank Pokrywka for organizing this awesome event!
- Timothy Beck - NIOSH
- John Bell CSP, CIH - Watco Companies, LLC
- Barbara Cummings, CIH - AM Health & Safety, Inc.
- Carol Delfino CIH, CSP - SE Technologies, LLC
- Natalie Gaydos, CIH - PPG Industries, Inc.
- Laura Hallett - Cardno ChemRisk
- Robert Hemp, CIH, CSP - BWX Technologies
- Jennifer Kapp, CIH - PPG Industries, Inc.
- Dennis Kelly- Energy Transfer Partners
- Stan Kiska - Integra Engineering
- Deanna Kiska, Ph.D. - U.S. Micro-Solutions, Inc.
- Jonathan Koger - FedEx Ground
- Delwyn Kubeldis, CIH, CSP, ARM - Amerisafe Consulting & Safety Services
- Joshua Maskrey, CIH - Cardno ChemRisk
- Frank Pokrywka Ed.D., CIH - KTA-Tator, Inc.
- Nick Ravotti - Slippery Rock University Student
- Hunter Riddle - Slippery Rock University Student
- Alina Schlichtkrull - Slippery Rock University Student
- Sarmed Shareef, CIH, CSP - University of Pittsburgh
- Michael Swintek, CSP, CIH - Eastern Alliance Insurance Group
- Adrianne Watkins, CIH - Montrose Environmental
- Matt Zock, CIH - FedEx Ground
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Thanks to Deanna / Stan Kiska and Matt Zock for photos.