200 Years of Soot and Sweat: The History and Archeology of Vermont’s Iron, Charcoal, and Lime Industries by Victor R. Rolando

Abstract

408 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE tious readers can go see and study the same wood planers, furnaces, or factories for themselves. Not surprisingly, Gordon and Malone wrote from their areas of strength, so the volume is arguably too heavy with discussions of the generally well-documented iron and textile industries, and too light on fully developed discussions of more obscure topics. While some industries and technologies or their attendant artifacts are discussed too often—and in too many chapters—others are so cursorily covered as to beg for elaboration on the one hand, or elimination on the other. For instance, a disappointing chapter 3, “Wood and Water,” contains a whole host of underdeveloped topics, covered all too briefly in just one or a few paragraphs. Also, the text is sometimes redundant, as when it tells the reader, several times, that the shift to coal, coupled with transportation improvements, allowed industry to move away from streams and natural resources and into cities. On the whole, however, it does succeed in its appointed task of showing the importance of reaching historical conclusions after reading both words and things. Larry Lankton Dr. Lankton is professor of history at Michigan Technological University, which now offers a graduate program in industrial archaeology. 200 Years ofSoot and Sweat: The History and Archeology of Vermont's Iron, Charcoal, and Lime Industries. By Victor R. Rolando. Burlington: Vermont Archaeological Society, 1992. Pp. viii + 296; illustrations, tables, glossary, bibliography, index. $32.95 (paper). 200 Years of Soot and Sweat, an industrial archaeologists’s study of Vermont’s forgotten iron, charcoal, and lime industries, is clearly a labor of love. Since 1978, Victor Rolando has tramped over much of Vermont, ferreted details out of local historical societies and libraries, and talked to many people. The result is a book that highlights a side of Vermont’s history known to few people. In form, the book adopts a structure typical of many industrial archaeology studies. Separate introductory chapters offer historical overviews of each industry, including general developments, summa­ ries of technological processes, and the history of the industry in Vermont. Each overview chapter is followed by short histories of the sites in Vermont. The organization of this material is by county, using the numbering system of the Vermont Division of Historic Preserva­ tion. Rolando was determined to find every site he could—and he also lists those he could not find. He has identified ninety-nine ironworks, seventy-one charcoal kilns, and 118 limekilns—288 sites in all—and found the remains of twenty-two blast furnaces, eighteen bloomery forges, five foundries, 130 charcoal kilns, fifty-one charcoal mounds, and ninety-three limekilns. Each site is described in a thumbnail his­ TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 409 torical sketch which rests on solid research. The sketches also include descriptions of iron and lime operations for which no remains exist. Tables list all sites by county, while historic and contemporary photo­ graphs supplement the text. This work succeeds as an inventory (although I wish the important and interesting sites were more easily separated from those with no remains). But the title suggests that the book covers the history and archaeology of these industries. Unfortunately, this goal is less fully met. The problem is not the research. Overall, Rolando knows and makes good use of traditional 19th-century treatises (Frederick Over­ man and James Lesley on iron, for example), state reports, insurance maps, and other published literature, including secondary sources. He also relies on material from local historical societies and librar­ ies—clippings, local histories, and old photographs. The results are apparent in nice accounts of Vermont’s iron stove industry; of Silas Griffith, Vermont’s “charcoal baron”; and the transition of lime pro­ duction from local activity to concentrated, regional commercial en­ terprises by the end of the 19th century. Throughout, Rolando offers understandable descriptions of technical processes and furnishes a good glossary. But there are problems. First, the historical overviews are written as if they, too, were lists. The transitions between sections are often abrupt, jumping quickly to different subjects, some of which are far removed—at least geographically—from Vermont. Thus, John Deere’s plow works in Illinois and...