A blast furnace is a tall shaft furnace that reduces iron ore to molten pig iron in a continuous process, fed with ore, fuel and limestone from the top while preheated air is blasted in near the bottom, keeping the furnace running for months or years at a time rather than being reloaded batch by batch. Furnaces of this general design were operating in China by the Han dynasty, more than a thousand years before comparable furnaces reached medieval Europe around the fourteenth century. The decisive change for the Industrial Revolution came in 1709, when the English ironmaster Abraham Darby smelted iron using coke, made from coal, instead of charcoal, made from wood, at his furnace in Coalbrookdale, freeing iron production from the limited and shrinking supply of forest timber and allowing furnace size and output to grow for the first time without an ecological ceiling. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Disputed
Origin YearCast-iron blast furnaces are attested in China from around the fifth century BCE; European blast furnaces developed independently and much later, appearing in Scandinavia and the Low Countries from roughly the twelfth to fourteenth centuries CE. Core PrincipleContinuous, countercurrent reduction of iron ore by carbon monoxide generated from coke, inside a tall shaft furnace, drawing off molten pig iron at the base. 1 Connections
Associated With
Cast Iron, Materials Cast iron is the direct product tapped from a blast furnace.
Casting, Methods Molten pig iron tapped from a blast furnace is frequently cast directly into shapes.
Smelting, Methods The blast furnace is an industrial-scale, continuous smelting furnace for iron ore.
In Field
Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Sources
1. Blast Furnace (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationCoke blast furnaces sectionQuote, Coke blast furnaces section
In 1709, at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, England, Abraham Darby began to fuel a blast furnace with coke instead of charcoal.
2. A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954View the Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.In Field: Chemical EngineeringView the Source Frequently Asked Questions
Why did coke matter so much for the blast furnace?
Coke replaced charcoal in 1709, ending iron making's dependence on scarce timber.
In 1709 the English ironmaster Abraham Darby smelted iron at his furnace in Coalbrookdale using coke, made from coal, instead of charcoal, made from wood. That freed iron production from the limited and shrinking supply of forest timber and allowed furnace size and output to grow for the first time without an ecological ceiling. Furnaces of this general design were already operating in China by the Han dynasty, more than a thousand years before comparable furnaces reached medieval Europe.
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