Lake Superior ores, and relit the furnace in May 1899. However, Empire shut down the furnace again in April 1900, closing it indefinitely. The furnace and railroad were bought at a sheriff's sale on December 21, 1900, by a Harrisburg bank with a lien on the property. Nittany Iron Company Once again, Gephart appeared on the scene to save the furnace. With the backing of Philadelphia and New York investors, he formed the Nittany Iron Company, which bought and rehabilitated the furnace, returning it to blast on June 5, 1902, under Frank H. Clemson (former chief of mining at Gephart's Bellefonte Furnace Company). Other organizers included Lorenzo Terbal Munson, Gephart's brother-in-law (who was associated with Bellefonte Glass and the Bellefonte Iron and Nail Works), Archer Brown, and William Sampson. However, prosperity did not return to the ironmaking business. The furnace was idle for two months in 1904. As steel production in open hearth furnaces became increasingly commonplace (a method better suited for iron made from Lake Superior ore, while Bessemer converters functioned best with Centre County ore), Nittany Furnace found it increasingly difficult to operate at a profit. The death of Gephart on February 14, 1905, also dealt a blow to the company, which thereafter shared management with the Bellefonte Furnace Company. When in operation, the furnace continued to receive ore over the Nittany Valley RR, but the Nigh and Taylor ore banks served by that road had begun to play out. Most Lake Superior ore was delivered directly by the PRR, but some was routed from the PRR onto the Central RR of Pennsylvania at Bellefonte, hauled up to Nittany Valley Junction, and delivered over the Nittany Valley. Other local ore from Scotia arrived from pits on the Bellefonte Central Railroad, which was originally delivered to the PRR at Bellefonte. When the PRR raised rates in fall 1906, trying to collect Scotia ore traffic via its Fairbrook Branch, the Bellefonte Central responded by delivering the cars directly to the Central RR of Pennsylvania at Bellefonte Furnace, whence they could travel over the Central and Nittany Valley to Nittany Furnace. In 1905, the furnace began to receive lime from the Whiterock Quarries in Pleasant Gap, about along the PRR Bellefonte Branch; a partner in the quarries was Noah H. Swayne II, who had been made general manager of the furnace the previous year when Gephart resigned on grounds of health.