Lehigh Crane Iron Company - End of Independence

End of Independence

In 1889, No. 3 stack was raised, and No. 4 went out of service in July 1890. The Crane and Thomas Iron companies leased the C&F to the Reading Railroad on December 8, 1893, and Crane Iron sold off its share to the Reading entirely from June 5, 1896, leaving the line-haul railroad business. During the 1890s, Crane Iron also participated in the experiments of Thomas Edison, who was attempting to rejuvenate the then-moribund Eastern magnetite mines by magnetic beneficiation. Initial attempts were frustrated by the dusty nature of the finely-ground ore (which made it susceptible to losses both in transit and during the furnace blast), and the process ultimately proved uneconomical in competition with cheap Mesabi Range ores, which came to replace locally-mined ore. In 1899, the company was sold to the Empire Steel and Iron Company and became their Crane Works. The works was gradually dismantled, last making iron in 1930. It was scrapped in 1932.