ABSTRACT
The Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad's original destination was Rothrocksville, a distance of 9 miles from the Lehigh Valley Railroad track just below The Thomas Iron Company's furnaces. In 1867 several stockholders in The Thomas Iron Company commenced the building of a blast furnace at Alburtis under the corporate charter of the Lock Ridge Iron Company. The expansion of furnace facilities was not a haphazard development but rather the result of a policy enunciated by President Luckenbach in 1857. In Pennsylvania the company purchased a number of brown hematite mines, the most important being the Balliet Mine. Like other producers, The Thomas Iron Company suffered setbacks in production during the several periods of business depression in 1857, 1861, and 1873–75. The firm's cost of producing a ton of pig iron generally fluctuated with the business conditions of the period, but the make-up of the total cost varied somewhat over time.
