Fiery furnace

“ A blast-furnace, once lit, remains burning till the end of its existence. I got inside her, and was delighted to satisfy a deep-seated curiosity: we crawled in the cinder notch. The hearth of the furnace lay six or eight feet below the brick flooring, and the effect of standing inside, with the fourteen round blowpipe holes admitting a little sunlight, was like being in a round ship's cabin, with fourteen portholes, except that the hollow furnace shot up to dark distances that the light didn't penetrate. ”

“ The fire in a wind furnace is more or less shut up, so that the draught of air entering it shall pass from the ash-pit right up into the fire, and through it into the flue or chimney—the latter being tall, and of certain proportions, so as to ensure the requisite draught. These furnaces are used where heat of the very highest degree is not required, as in glass-houses, pottery-kilns, &c. ”

“ But in the crucible and the open-hearth processes the temperature attainable is limited by the danger of melting the furnace itself, both because some essential parts of it, which, unfortunately, are of a destructible shape, are placed most unfavourably in that they are surrounded by the heat on all sides, and because the furnace is necessarily hotter than the steel made within it. ”

“ The heat that the worker about these furnaces must face may be divided in general into two classes: there is first that heat due to the flame and hot gases that the blast in the furnaces forces out onto a man's body and face. In the majority of furnaces Page 193 this is by far the most discomforting, and care must be taken to fend it and turn it behind a suitable shield. The second class is the radiant heat, discharged as light from the glowing interior of the furnace. ”

“ A puddling furnace is a long, narrow, maw-like chamber of brick and fire clay with a depressed floor for the molten iron to lie in and a small square door at the end. It is heated to inferno by a cataract of flame rising from a fire pit at one side and sucked by draught [102] across the roof of its mouth. When the whole interior is like a dragon’s gullet, white hot, wicked and devouring, cold pigs of iron are cast in, the door is banged to, the chinks are stopped and the puddler gathers up his strength. ”

“ The burners should be so located that the flames from individual burners do not interfere nor impinge to any extent on the side walls of the furnace, an even distribution of heat being secured in this manner. ”

“ A sulphurous hot smell prevails, a burning wind, a fierce heat, now from this side, now from that, and ever and anon bright streaks of light flow out from the open furnace doors, casting grotesque shadows upon the roof and walls. The men have barely a human look, with the reflection of the fire upon them; mingling thus with flame and heat, toying with danger, handling, as it seems, red-hot metal with ease. ”

“ That precisely is what a blast furnace is. The hollow, cylindrical furnace is the mountain cone, charged from the top with fuel, iron ore and limestone flux. The mass is fired at the bottom. The gases go off at the top in flame and smoke, an upside-down cataract of lost affinities, giddy, voluptuous, hungry and free. An odd circumstance has released them from the cold [32] inert embrace in which they have lain for ages of years. Cinders and gross matter flow away below as lava. ”

“ When they got ready to draw the charge,—that's when the red-hot iron is about to flow out of the furnace, you know, the outlet got clogged. That's a bad thing to happen to a furnace; for if a chill should set in, the whole plant would be ruined. ”

“ Nothing could stand such terrific heat. The rafters of the building began to burn. To quench the fire in the usual way was impossible, for had any cold fluid come in contact with the liquid metal, the consequences would have been frightful: the furnace would have been destroyed, and the 400 cwt. of bronze lost. With wet cloths, therefore, the burning rafters were covered to smother the flames. But the walls were glowing, too; the whole building was now like a vast furnace. Yet still more fuel on the fire!—the heat is not enough; the metal boils not yet! ”

“ A thousand degrees more convert it into vapour, and at last, by passing through the intense heat of a glass-house furnace, it is converted into a brilliant flame, and augments the heat of the furnace to a great degree. Hence the practice in glass-houses of throwing water into the ash-hole, the vapour of which, by passing through the burning fuel, makes the furnace much hotter than it was. ”

“ When exposed by itself to the fire, either in grains or in larger pieces, it is of extreme difficult fusion, and hath been kept for two hours in an air furnace in a heat that would run down cast-iron in fifteen minutes: which great heat it hath endured without being melted or wasted ”

“ Owing to the great danger from fire incident to burning charcoal or sulphur in open pans, a special furnace provided with means for forcing the gas into the compartments of vessels or buildings is generally employed. ”

“ When the furnace is filled with coals and kindled, if the door of the ash-hole be set wide open, and that of the fire-place shut very close, the force of the fire is increased; and if, moreover, the pyramidal cover be put on the top, and the conical funnel added to it, the fire will become still more fierce. ”

“ I have always maintained that every furnace should be lined with fire-brick, in order that it shall be so intensely hot when the air enters that the air shall instantly be heated to the same degree of tenuity as the hot gases themselves, and the two will then unite like a flash—and that is heat. ”

“ I saw the rose fire of the furnace shining on the blanched face of the man who tended it, and knew surely, as I knew anything in life, that never would a free man feed his blood to the fire like that. ”

“ Furnaces are constructed according to many different patterns with varying degrees of complexity in arrangement; but all may be considered as combining three essential parts, namely, the fire-place in which the fuel is consumed, the heated chamber, laboratory, hearth or working bed, as it is variously called, where the heat is applied to the special work for which the furnace is designed, and the apparatus for producing rapid combustion by the supply of air under pressure to the fire. ”

“ The liability to imperfect construction and careless management often makes a furnace, especially a cast-iron one, a savor of death unto death rather than of health and comfort; also, when we are warmed by air thrown into a room at a high temperature, and dry at that, a greater degree of heat is necessary for comfort than if our bodies and clothing absorb heat from a radiating surface. The furnace, in short, compels us to breathe an atmosphere highly rarefied. ”

“ Feeding the flames of a furnace, as a stoker in a great ship, is one of the most exhaustive of all tasks. Fire licks up all in its reach and will gut modern fireproof buildings (iron and concrete) when once it gets started. ”

“ We may mention here that it has, in more recent times, when very high temperatures are obtainable, been found unnecessary to cause even the flame to come into contact with the substances on the hearth, inasmuch as the heat radiated from the flame and the intensely heated roof of the furnace suffices, so that in consequence of this the roofs are now constructed nearly flat. In the puddling furnace the melted metal is constantly stirred, and no little skill is required to regulate the fire by the damper on the chimney, and to admit the proper amount of air to mix with the flame. ”

“ I picked up my shovel, and shoved it into the dolomite pile, with a slight pressure of knee against right forearm that eases your back. The thermometer in the shade outside was 95°. I wondered vaguely how much it was where Nick stood, with the doors open in his face.
We walked back together after the front-wall to the trough of water.
"Not bad when you get good furnace, good first-helper," he said. "Fred good boy, but furnace no good. A man got to watch himself on this job," he went on bitterly; "he pull himself to pieces." ”

“ In the exterior wall, near its bottom, and opening on the lead flat, is a furnace of the commonest possible construction, and capable, from its free draught, of burning the commonest combustible material—such as inferior coal, coal screenings, coke, cinders, and sawdust. This furnace, encased in brickwork, is carried obliquely for a distance of four or five feet into the Calidarium; and its flue, following the angle of the floor, makes the circuit of the apartment. ”

“ To draw the temper the hardened springs are placed in the furnace, which has the air-blast turned off, and when the scale begins to rise, showing that the adhering oil is about to take fire, they are turned end for end in the furnace so as to heat them equally all over. ”

“ A large furnace was lighted, and blown up to a red heat; vivid flames shot forth from a fire, which was, from time to time, supplied with great quantities of fuel; at every blow of a large pair of bellows, the living light flashed through the space around, which was comparatively dark, from the disproportion between the large area, and the few lights yet lighted. Obscure-looking beings were occupied about the furnace, the light striking on their sallow faces, and leaving all again in an instant nearly dark ”

“ The blast furnace was introduced in the iron industry. A blast of hot air was constantly forced from a stove into the lower part of the furnace which was heating at high temperature a mixture of the iron ore and a reducing agent that combined with the oxygen released. ”

“ The first-helper gives her that, passing up and down every few minutes to look through the peepholes in her furnace-doors. He puts his glasses down on his nose, inspects the brew, and notices if her stomach's in good shape. If the bricks get as red as the gas flame, she's burning the living lining out of her. But he keeps the gas blowing in her ends, as hot as she'll stand it without a holler. On [Pg 34] either end the gas, and on top of it the air. The first-helper, who is cook of the furnace, makes a proper mixture out of them. ”

“ Two years ago No. 1 broke out and the molten metal caught and burned to death one of our men and injured several others. ‘Hanging’ does not occur when the furnace is working right, but failure of the charge to come down evenly is very serious sometimes. A blast furnace is like a coquette ”

“ Each is charged with its covered pot full of blistered steel with coal to match. Their lidded mouths dull the roaring sound of the terrible combustion, but the furnace-men show by their looks the intensity of the heat. The pouring-off sight is really thrilling. When the lid is removed from each furnace, and the pot of molten metal lifted out by a pair of long-handled tongs with rounded jaws, even a spectator must have steady nerves to look at it. ”

“ When the mixture has become perfectly liquid, the heat of the furnace should not be allowed to decrease, but continued for half an hour longer, and if the use of it be not further required, the fire may then be allowed gradually to die out. ”

“ The moment the vapor is condensed into rain, the latent heat, which was taken up with the vapor, is liberated, and the consequence is, the formation of a furnace in the sky, as it were, overhanging the raging storm, and travelling along with it. ”

“ The working breast of the hot furnace must be laid bare so as to open a breach for the extraction of the faulty pot, and the insertion of the fresh one, both in a state of bright incandescence. It is frightful to witness the eyes and fuming visages of the workmen, with the blackening and smoking of their scorched woollen clothes, exposed so long to the direct radiations of the flame. ”

“ Small articles are readily fired in a Fletcher's crucible furnace supplied with a gas blow-pipe; the furnace is heated gradually to begin with. When a dull red heat is attained, the full power of the blast may be turned on, and the furnace kept at its maximum temperature for three or four hours at least, though on an emergency shorter periods may be made to do. ”

“ You pick up a shovel and run into a spell of fairly hot work for three quarters of an hour. On another day you may loaf for fifteen minutes before anything starts. After front-wall, you take a drink from the water fountain behind your furnace, and wash your arms, which have got burned a little, and your face, in a trough of water. A "clean-up" [Pg 146] job follows in front of the furnace, which means shoveling slag—still hot—down the slag-hole for ten minutes, and loading cold pieces of scrap, which have fallen on the floor, into a box. ”

“ The want of care in regulating the dampers of the airbox often makes a house cold, however great the furnace181 fire. A strong wind requires the dampers nearly closed, especially when it is on the side where the air enters from without. Every furnace should be supplied, not by cellar air, but by air taken through a shaft from a height, and so more pure.
Remember that an open fire, or an opening into a hot-air flue, will ventilate properly in all seasons and all weathers. ”

“ The following may aid in this duty:
When a furnace does not draw well, it often is owing to the stoppage by fine ashes or soot, and then the smoke-flues must be cleaned. The fewer and more simple the smoke-flues the less this trouble will occur. Sometimes the shaking of a furnace makes cracks in joints, and this causes outflow of gas and also diminishes the draught.
When iron is very hot, it burns the particles floating in the air, making an unpleasant smell and dryness. A large furnace, therefore, is better than a small one that must be kept very hot. ”

“ There were many puddlers engaged upon a vast mass of ore in a certain smelting furnace. You must know that none but the strongest and brawniest men can be employed on this work, for the fire eats into their bones and destroys them in a very few years, unless they are exceedingly powerful and healthy.
Peter Lundy was the largest and most muscular man at the furnace, and he worked the glowing iron with gigantic force. ”