In its supplement The New South, Harper’s Weekly ran a photo touting “The Great Industry of Birmingham, Alabama – A Pig-Iron Furnace.” It’s not known where this 1887 photo was taken, but Sloss Furnaces was a major pig-iron producer starting in 1882 and through the beginning of the 1970s. Pig iron is the raw iron produced by blast furnaces. Photo courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
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This article appears in the May 2025 issue of Business Alabama.
