Iron and Steel
Early production of iron was from meteorites, or as a by-product of copper refining. Heating iron ore and carbon in a crucible at 1000 K produces wrought iron. This process gained popularity during the Iron Age. Temperatures of 1300 K were produced around the 8th century by blowing air through the heated mixture in a bloomery or blast furnace (12th century); producing a strong but brittle cast iron. Furnaces were growing bigger, producing greater quantities; a factor contributing to the Industrial Revolution. In 1740 the temperature and carbon content could be controlled sufficiently to consistently produce steel; very strong and very workable. The 19th century saw the development of electric arc furnaces that produced steel in very large quantities, and are more easily controlled.
- Smelting - the generic process used in furnaces to produce steel, copper, etc.
- Catalan forge, Open hearth furnace, Bloomery, Siemens regenerative furnace - produced wrought iron
- Blast furnace - produced cast iron
- Direct Reduction - produced direct reduced iron
- Crucible steel
- Cementation process
- Bessemer process
- Basic oxygen steelmaking, Linz-Donawitz process
- Electric arc furnace
Read more about this topic: List Of Industrial Processes
Famous quotes containing the words iron and, iron and/or steel:
“Manhattan. Sometimes from beyond the skyscrapers, across the hundreds of thousands of high walls, the cry of a tugboat finds you in your insomnia in the middle of the night, and you remember that this desert of iron and cement is an island.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Persistence can grind an iron beam down into a needle.”
—Chinese proverb.
“You don’t resign from these jobs, you escape from them.”
—Dawn Steel (b. 1946)