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Reviews
| The History of Ironmaking: A Highly Illustrated Description of the Evolution of Ironmaking from Ancient Smelting Holes to Modern Blast Furnaces. By John A. Ricketts. Warrendale, Pa.: Iron and Steel Society, 2000. 194 pp., numerous illus. and diags., tables, bibl. $90.00 hb (lSBN 1-886362-48-3).
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This book is a very detailed analysis of the development of the modern blast furnace and traces its origin back to the early forges. It outlines the stages of development with an understanding of the forces that drove the changes, focusing on economics and availability of raw materials. The volume covers two of the raw material inputs—charcoal production and iron ore beneficiation—in considerable detail. On the other hand, limestone (a basic slag component) and metallurgical grade coke (the fuel for modern blast furnaces) are only touched on briefly. The volume also provides only a limited amount of information on low carbon iron making (the iron produced in the blast furnace is high carbon), concentrating on the Bessemer and open-hearth processes. It does not touch on a current major process, the electric arc furnace. I assume this was because its starting metal is scrap iron.
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The casual reader will probably not want to read this book from cover to cover and try to understand the total scope of the processes outlined. However, even the casual reader will find the volume's extensive illustrations of iron-making processes interesting and informative. For anyone planning to visit any of the many historic sites of iron production, this book is a very valuable tool for understanding the total community. For example at Tannerhill State Park in Alabama, both a single-stack furnace and a double-stack furnace (photo p. 46, fig. 5.8) have been restored; the single-stack furnace was restored to the point where it was fired and produced iron. To get a complete picture of the iron-making community, prospective visitors to the Tannerhill site should read chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7, which cover the raw materials, the people, the furnace operation, and the economics of the time.
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| I recommend this book as a very useful reference tool. Its content will give any reader a better understanding of historic iron-making sites anywhere. |
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