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I read Penny Lane's 'What Milsy Did.
Since they were working with a blast furnace, I decided to upload some pictures that I took at the ruins of an old blast furnace in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, on the shore of Lake Superior. That way, everyone can get somewhat of an idea of what the blast furnace looked like.
The first one is at: http://ray-d.deviantart.com/art/Bay-Furnace-01-646521107
Or, go to my gallery http://ray-d.deviantart.com and start at the first picture and move on from there.
Comments
Blaenavon ironworks
At Blaenavon in South Wales, up to six blast furnaces were eventually constructed on a small site. If I recall correctly, hot exhaust gasses were drawn off the furnaces to power the steam engine that drove the bellows. It was also here that the development work into furnace linings was carried out which improved the performance of the Bessemer Converter in cheap steel production and unwittingly saw the demise of the ironworks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaenavon_Ironworks
of course
the Bessemer converter was developed in Sheffield where thankfully one has been preserved at Kelham Island museum - some pics can be found here!
I think that maybe a bit advanced for what is ostensibly a medieval culture and technologies!
The museum tells the story of Sheffield steel and includes the most powerful steam engine ever built, The 120000hp River Don Engine https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=sheffield+blast+furnace&bi... which still runs every day.
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Actually the converters
Actually the converters described in WMD 16 ARE Bessemer converters...
i think from the description
that Milsy's furnaces were most likely something like this set up in Sheffield
or this one which you can still see near Sheffield city centre as its preserved having been in use until the 1950's (the contraption on top was to shield the top to stop it being seen by German aircraft!)
Mads
Madeline Anafrid Bell
The world's first Iron Blast furnace,
The earliest Blast furnace that produced Iron in sufficient quantity and quality to power the industrial revolution in the UK was the Blaenavon ironworks in South Wales. This was the first time that iron was produced in sufficiently high purity that it could be alloyed with carbon accurately enough to produce weapons grade steel for cannons and used in civil construction like girders and bridges, not to mention of course, railways and railway locomotives. Here is a good site to learn the history of the earliest iron making in the UK on a commercial scale. The first successful Blaenavon blast furnace was started in 1789.
http://www.visitblaenavon.co.uk/en/VisitBlaenavon/ThingsToDo....
It followed that Richard Trevithic's ran successfully near Merthyr Tydfil in 1804 where it hauled 10 tons of coal suceesfully for several miles.
https://museum.wales/articles/2008-12-15/Richard-Trevithicks...
Keep going with the novel girls. It's excellent.
Additionally one of the first