History
Cupola furnaces were built in China as early as the Warring States Period (403–221 BC), although Donald Wagner writes that some iron ore melted in the blast furnace may have been cast directly into molds. During the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), most, if not all, iron smelted in the blast furnace was remelted in a cupola furnace; it was designed so that a cold blast injected at the bottom traveled through tuyere pipes across the top where the charge (i.e. of charcoal and scrap or pig iron) was dumped, the air becoming a hot blast before reaching the bottom of the furnace where the iron was melted and then drained into appropriate molds for casting. A cupola furnace was made by René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur around 1720.
Read more about this topic: Cupola Furnace
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