Thursday, April 3, 2014

Much lake-ore is smelted in peculiar furnaces called "harkhyttor"

In the north and north-west of Finland, especially in the country of Wiborg and the neighbouring parts of Kuopio, much lake-ore is smelted in peculiar furnaces called "harkhyttor", a name derived from the Finnish word harkko, meaning piece, lump, and from the Swedish word hytta, meaning furnace. These furnaces are described as consisting of a shaft about 3 ells, or 6 English feet, in height; and the mass of reduced iron, it is stated, may be malleable, though more frequently it is only a mixture of raw and malleable iron, and must be remelted in a refining hearth.

John Percy: Metallurgy: The Art of Extracting Metals from Their Ores, and ..., Volume 2

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