Do you mean Hopewell Furnace Natl. Historic Site? If so it was a blast
furnace not a foundry. But like many early blast furnaces it produced
not only pig iron, but cast directly into molds. I have not heard that
it ever deliberately remelted pig iron for casting (what a foundry
does). The present heavily reconstructed site has blowing tubs (large
wooden pistons) rather than bellows.

On Nov 8, 2004, at 1:31 PM, George Myers wrote:

> sic transit gloria mundia:
>
> Incidentally, the Hopewell Village Foundry in Pennsylvania (cast
> cannons for Washington and produced its own unit and supplies for the
> Valley Forge encampment, later a 1840's box stove producer from molds)
> used to use aluminium in the old hearth on Sundays, the water driven
> bellows (two with a race from far away) would be used in the blast and
> the aluminum allowed to come out on the casting floor (where little
> "pigs" once were of iron) and into sandbox molds for the box stove
> parts, impressed form the original. Erroneously (?) also called
> "franklin stoves" they were small boxes that sat on the floor and
> changed cooking habits its said somewhere.
>
> George Myers
>