1841 Harrisburg PA Letter - HIRING A COLORED MAN TO SEARCH FOR IRON ORE

Description

2 pg. letter, approx. 8" x 10", dated at
Harrisburg, Pa., April 25, 184
1, from J. Kinsman to Nathaniel Bosworth, at Shepherdstown, Cumberland County, PA.
The stampless folded letter has a red HARRISBURG/Pa. cds postmark and manuscript "6" rate.
Great content
regarding iron ore mining, best ore for making iron bars, best methods to make bar iron in blast furnaces, shipping 20 tons of ore to Middletown, Pa. and of special interest is his asking Bosworth to
tell "Adley the colored man" to search for ore between Gorgas' farm, (which is three miles from here) and the Susquehanna River..."
.
The letter includes:
"Dear Sir,
I have had a long talk with Mr. McAllister, who appears to know everything about ore &c. He says that the ore which Coleman uses so successfully to make bar Iron, is entirely different from this sample that I have - it is a very light ore, taking some three tons, for a Ton of Iron - but he says this Magnetic is used by Grubb at the Manady furnace to mix with Chestnut Hill ore &c., and in conversation in the matter which we were talking about, he says that a run-out fire is the thing for it & can be put up at Middletown very cheap & the blast taken from the present bellows. But he is in favor of having you send 20 Tons of the ore to Middletown soon as you can, and try it in our present blast furnace in different proportions, and then you can try it in the Run out fire also. He would like you to come there and stay, so write me about getting the ore out. It appears to me that it will suit the people in your place to be told that  you are going to take a quantity of ore down here to make trial to see what size furnace will be best, & then you will know what improvements will best answer...
I ought to have said, that the new shaft was put in yesterday, & the bellows, as you predicted, works much better without the fly wheel, than it did with it. So much for Mr. Thom's knowledge.
If you see Adley the Colored man, tell him to search for ore between Gorgas' farm (which is three miles from here) and the Susquehanna River, for such ore as they are taking out at Gorgas's. There is the same vein on Hursh farm, one mile from the River, but that is leased - there must be plenty more somewhere between the River & Gorgas - or beyond Gorgas. If you do not see him, it is no matter.
Yours truly, J. Kinsman
N.B. The Magnetic ore from Cornwall is the same which Professor Rogers told me he had found there."
Very Fine.
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