smelting

HOME



Smelting was a very important part of humans evolution. People did it accidentally at first before discovering that they could smelt things on purpose. They used a high powered furnace called bloomery, which heats the rock all the way up to 1200 to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. The molten iron, which is very heavy sinks to the, while the ordinary molten rock, or slag, rests on top of the iron and exits out of a valve. The bloomery is a complicated furnace, but I will explain it the best I can. First the iron ore is poured in to the boomery furnace, then water gets pumped into a water wheel, which as it spins, pump the bellows that super heats the ore. The slag then rest on top of the molten iron before each exits out of separate valves. Look at link below to see how it works. [|__Slag__]