The Saylor Cement Kilns in Coplay will be scaled Nov. 4 and 5.

The project will be completed by an engineer utilizing a high-rise lift to conduct a thorough inspection that most likely will determine what is needed for the restoration of the historic 1892 brick kilns.

Rick Molchany, Lehigh County director of public services, said the county has commissioned an analysis of the Saylor kilns.

Molchany said the review of the kilns could be completed before the end of this year, or shortly after. The review, however, marks only the first step in having the kilns brought back to their former grandeur.

"We will hold public meetings in Coplay with borough officials and residents," Molchany said.

The findings of the inspection will be detailed and input from elected officials and the public will be received.

"The meetings will be about how to rehabilitate the kilns and listen to those there," Molchany added.

He said the focus will be on what is required to restore the kilns, whether incrementally or via fundraising.

Funding for the kilns restoration can partially come from grants. Borough officials in the 1970s were successful in having Coplay Cement Company turn over the kilns to Lehigh County. The county turned the kilns into a museum with cement related artifacts under a Plexiglas roof.

However, several years later moisture damaged the artifacts resulting in the museum's closure and roof removed.

A previous county administration sought to have the kilns removed unless the borough took ownership. A citizens' committee organized, meeting with the new county administration and joined in saving the kilns. Four kilns were capped in the first phase.

According to sources, the capping of the kilns trapped the moisture.

David Saylor, dubbed as the father of Coplay Cement, was granted the first American patent for the manufacture of portland cement. Saylor vertical brick kilns known as the Schoefer kilns, were in use from 1892 to 1904.

The Saylor Cement Kilns are the first continuous firing vertical cement kilns in the United States.