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The Fire That Melts Iron - This diagram shows the beginning of iron and steel. The ore dug out of the earth is carried to the top of the great shaft, in which a huge fire is burning. The lid of the furnace is lowered as seen, and the ore falls into the fiery furnace. There it lies, in the greatest heat that men can produce by fire. The lid closes, and the gases rush into the pipe on the right and into the stove, where they help to drive the machinery. This machinery, in turn, forces hot air into the bottom of the furnace through the little entrance that we see, and the tremendous force of this
The Fire That Melts Iron - This diagram shows the beginning of iron and steel. The ore dug out of the earth is carried to the top of the great shaft, in which a huge fire is burning. The lid of the furnace is lowered as seen, and the ore falls into the fiery furnace. There it lies, in the greatest heat that men can produce by fire. The lid closes, and the gases rush into the pipe on the right and into the stove, where they help to drive the machinery. This machinery, in turn, forces hot air into the bottom of the furnace through the little entrance that we see, and the tremendous force of this hot air rises through the heart of the fiery furnace anf melts the iron out of the rock, until it trickles like water. At the bottom of the furnace the melted iron collects, and every few hours the “tap hole” is opened and the white-hot iron runs into the groove along the ground, and from this into other grooves called “sand moulds,” because they are cut out in sand. Here these streams of iron lie still until they are set hard and can be taken out in solid bars.
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Photo credit: © Ivy Close Images / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: 1900s, 20th, bars, century, early, fire, furnace, hole, industrial, iron, making, melting, melts, molds, ore, revolution, sand, steel, streams, tap