The Shropshire region has long had an association with Iron
production: In 1709 Abraham Darby successfully smelted iron with
coke made from coal. This was the first of many innovations in the
Shropshire iron industry and helped to make Iron the essential
material of the Industrial Revolution.
Smelting is a method of extracting a metal from its ore using heat
and a chemical reducing agent. When an ore is mined, it is in the
form of a rock, the valuable metal is bound up within and must be
released, or extracted in order to be used.
Smelting involves more than just "melting the metal out of its
ore". Most ores are a chemical compound of the metal with other
elements, such as oxygen (as an oxide), sulfur (as a sulfide) or
carbon and oxygen together (as a carbonate). To produce the metal,
these compounds have to undergo a chemical reaction. Smelting
therefore consists of using suitable reducing substances that will
combine with those oxidizing elements to free the metal.
The first stage of extraction is to "roast" the ore in order to
drive off any unwanted carbon or sulphur, leaving behind Iron
oxide. In order to release the metallic iron, the iron oxide is
then "smelted" in the high temperatures of a blast furnace. The
reducing environment created pulls the final oxygen atoms from the
raw metal, leaving behind the elemental metal, in this case, "Pig
Iron".
Prior to Abraham Darby developing his method for producing pig iron
in a furnace fuelled by coke, the furnace was fuelled with
charcoal, a material that was not readily available and thus a
limiting factor on the amounts of iron that could be
produced.
Smelting iron with coke ultimately released the iron industry from
the limitation imposed by the speed of growth of trees.
Coke-smelted cast iron went into steam engines, bridges, and many
of the inventions of the 19th century. Only with coke smelting
could there be produced the great quantities of iron needed to meet
the requirements of the Industrial Revolution.
In order to claim this earthcache, please email answers to the
following questions, via the link in my profile;
1. What is the total weight of this steam hammer?
2. What is the height of each leg?
3. What temperature must Wrought Iron be at in order to shape
it?
4. What is the melting point of Iron?
In addition, please post a photo of yourself or your GPSr in front
of the hammer.
For further information about the region and its involvement in the
Industrial Revolution, why not visit one of the local museums:
http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/about_us
Happy Caching!
Congratulations to Shropshire Seekers for FTF!