Iron-smelting furnace. Artwork of the structure of a traditional smelting furnace. This stone or brick structure is filled with iron ore and coke (fue

---

Iron-smelting furnace. Artwork of the structure of a traditional smelting furnace. This stone or brick structure is filled with iron ore and coke (fuel with a high carbon content) and ignited. When the smelting process is complete, the molten slag flows out of the outlet (slag notch, bottom) and the molten iron is collected in the bottom of the furnace. This smelting process is more difficult for iron than for other metals (higher temperatures are needed). Iron smelting did not become widespread until around the first millennia BC. The switch from charcoal to coke as the fuel took place much later, in around the 18th century in the UK.

---

Size: 3800px × 4750px
Photo credit: © CHRISTIAN KOCH, MICROCHEMICALS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: age, artwork, brick, brickwork, carbon, carbonised, chemical, chemistry, coke, engineering, extracting, factory, fuel, furnace, high, hot, illustration, industrial, industry, iron, metal, metallurgy, molten, ore, outdoors, oxide, process, production, slag, smelting, smoke, stone, stonework, structure, technological, technology, temperatures, traditional, waste