Special Assignments for Tour Activity Sheet

Using the list of iron products below:

1. Ask students to identify each product

2. Have students investigate each product and its use

3. Ask students to think about why the list is different for each decade

4. Ask students to think of other iron products that are not included on this list

5. Have students research a related topic and write an essay, write a story, draw a diagram or picture, or create a graph or chart. Possible research topics:

• Primary industries/ways people made a living in Pennsylvania (by decade?). The United States Manufacturing census can help with this topic
• How a grist mill works
• Kitchen implements and changes in technology in the early 19th century
• Agricultural tools and equipment in Pennsylvania in the early 19th century
• Transportation

List of Iron Products

1780s: Hammers, anvils, pots, forge castings

1800s: Dutch ovens, hollow ware, pots, skillets, kettles, lids, flat irons, wheelbarrow wheels, sash weights, wagon boxes, mill screws, mill nuts, teakettles, irons, clock weights, forge castings, anvils, bake plates

1810s: Backs and jambs, clock weights, sash weights, street grates, stew pans, pots, mortars, hardware, waffle irons, hollow ware, fireplaces, mandrels, wagon irons, skillets, anvils, cabooses, moldboards, mill gudgeons, bake plates

1820s: Grindstone wheels, mortars and pestles, corn-plow machines, turning lathes, apple-drying kilns, sash weights, small wheels, tires, anvils, rolling mill castings, landslides, wing gudgeons, moldboards, plaster mills

1830s: Furnace grates, sash weights, plow castings, mold boards, oil troughs, anvils, threshing machines, griddles, shelling machines, wagon boxes, bake plates, landslides, sifter grates

1840s: Plow castings, iron blocks, plow handle pieces, beams, moldboards, landslides Iron products list source: Walker, Joseph E. Hopewell Village: The Dynamics of a Nineteenth-Century Iron-Making Community. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966.)