The building next to the furnaces is the blowing engine house. Combustible gases extracted from
the blast furnaces supplied multi-cylinder combustion engines to supply pressurized air for the
blast process. The air was preheated in "stoves" which extracted heat from the blast furnace
exhaust to preheat the air. The hot air was injected low in the furnace via water cooled nozzles.
Prior to about 1911, steam driven blowing engines were in use. This structure was then built to
house 17 blowing engines, each about eighty feet in length, to supply over 400,000 cubic feet of air
per minute. The engine/compressor units had 100 ton flywheels. As of a few years back, twelve of the
engines are said to remain, and in relatively good condition. We can hope they appear as museum pieces.