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Charcoal Iron Furnaces

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vtsteam:
I'm on the look out for references to melting iron with charcoal, as I'm trying to do that on a very small scale with my sawed off cupola. But I haven't found a lot -- a few one paragraph references in the cupola furnace books I have by Marshall, Ammen, et al.

The only physical hints they provided were a higher fuel bed, and lower blast pressure. No reference at all to a lidded version (shortened cupola) for use with charcoal. So I'm working without any background information there.

But I am interested in any more general historical information about melting iron with charcoal. A couple centuries ago it was a very large scale operation. My own state of Vermont was once practically clear cut to supply charcoal, though you wouldn't know it to see it today. It's heavily forested.

I just came across these websites yesterday, and thought they might be of interest to others. They describe regional charcoal ore smelting furnaces of the 1800's.

http://www.irontonfurnaces.com/index.htm
http://www.alaironworks.com/index.htm


And for actual working info, particularly these pages:

http://www.irontonfurnaces.com/howolfurworked.htm
http://www.irontonfurnaces.com/forests.htm
http://www.irontonfurnaces.com/charcoal.htm

andyf:
I've had a look at a 1901 reference work, but it only deals with charcoal in blast furnaces, where it says the lack of sulphur gives good results. For cupolas, it only mentions coal and coke.

But Googling "cupola furnace charcoal" seems to turn up a number of possibilities, though I haven't followed any of them up.

Andy

Jonny:
For reference you can melt steels with coke and coal in a conventional forge.

NeoTech:
Hell i have accidently melted tool steel in a piler of coke and coal and a castiron flowerpot.. ;)

vtsteam:
Thanks AndyF for looking into it -- most Google references are to Lionel Oliver's long standing website or others which use charcoal (usually store bought briquets) to melt aluminum, and have some reference elsewhere on the page to a cupola or iron.

Jonny, Neotech, thank you, yes coke and coal can be used to melt iron. In case you haven't seen it, this is my project:

http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,8574.0.html

I hope the previously linked sites will be of interest to someone interested in the history of charcoal fired iron furnaces.

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