Date sent: 23-JAN-1996 16:23:17 In ref to Len's recent post: As far as I know the forge operations we're investigating did not use a limestone flux, as they were using catalan 3-pipe bloomery forges. Forges such as these basically consisted of a hearth box and a chimney. Within the chimney the blast pipes from the bellows ran- the air would run through the pipes before it reached the hearth, allowing the fire below to reach even hotter termperatures. Once the fire got up to temperature, it would heat the air that fed it. This style of forge is also known as the American Bloomery Forge, because the 3-pipe system is a modification on the Catalan forge, hailing from Spain. The technology did originate in Africa, as I read mentioned in a previous post. Anyway, the forge operations at Clintonville, NY, simply used charcoal-fired forges- crushed ore and charcoal were tossed into the forge, and worked for some hours into a bloom, which was taken to a waiting triphammer for pounding into wrought iron. Ore was either not separated at all, or only done in a perfunctory manner, because the iron content of Adirondack ore (especially from where our forges got it) was so high it wasn't really necessary. No flux was used, although you've piqued my interest up on it again- I'll go back into the company archives and check things out. It may take a bit, but I'll post back. I can check relatively quickly on the construction of the hearth boxes themselves, to see if they had limestone linings, but these are archtypical drawings and diagrams that we have, and may not reflect what's actually there at our site. It may prove that our forges (we have not as yet excavated an intact one) were... We'll have to wait a dig season. -jason ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jason Menard "Never doubt that a small group of Depts. of Anthropology & History thoughtful, committed citizens can change Computing Support Lab Staff the world; indeed, it's the only thing SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY that ever does." - Margaret Mead Bitnet: [log in to unmask] Internet: [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] ___________________...Archaeologists date any old thing...____________________ "Fencers only recognize fencers, potential fencers, and hopeless invalids." -Aldo Nadi, _On_Fencing_