Prehistoric iron smelting - optimization

[h4tt3n]

Hello everyone,

My questions and link to my webpage is posted over at the original science forums. Please take a look:

http://www.scienceforums.net/forum/showthread.php?t=36161

Cheers,
Michael

 

[dingpud]

My guess would be to try making a special manifold which fits the bottom of the furnace. To allow an "equal" amount of air into the furnace, you might have to mess around with multiple inlets, and possibly a flow restriction fitting. I got one out of McMaster for a leak tester that I was working on which allowed me to put 150 psi into my system at a steady pace when the valve was completely opened as opposed to dumping the air in darn near instantaneously. That would maybe help evenly distribute the air, as well as keep from blasting air into one specific area.

Hope this help somewhat.

 

[chemisttree]

Is much known about how the ore and fuel and possibly other 'furniture' is added to the furnace? I recall that a similar problem is seen in fired bricks and is solved today by careful stacking of the green bodies so that the heat reaches everywhere.
Is it possible that a piece of furniture was added to the furnace to aid in the dispersion of the air blast? Or is it likely that the tuyre insertion length was variable... possibly several being used (of varying insertion depths) during the course of the smelt?