Posted by Jock on February 22, 2008 at 20:33:52 from 87.105.81.146 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Forensic Archaeology, my mistake! posted by Dave Thewlis on February 22, 2008 at 19:37:00:
I don't know the results of the Rievaulx Abbey analysis.
I wasn't involved with that experiment.
My meeting with a bloomery furnace was in Poland. It was
a force draught affair (basically scaled up version of
Dick's furnace) with a big bellows. The result is a mix
of slag, unburnt charcoal and porous iron. This then has
to be repeatedly heated and worked with a hammer to drive
out most of the impurities.
The main point in relation to Adam's article is that Dick's
furnace would have had no difficulty in melting gold. It
probably would also have done serious damage to the iron
bars holding the crucible.
melting point of Iron: 1535 °C
melting point of Copper: 1084 °C
melting point of Gold: 1064 °C
It would be interesting to build a reconstruction of Dick's
furnace and carry out some experiments!