Eli5 how was steel made/melted in ancient times? Coal wasn’t everywhere, was it?
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I think in some cases the charcoal was doped with other chemicals. Not quite coking which came later in industrialization, but the ingredients for this could be considered a few steps short of making gun powder. Essentially you add stuff to the fuel that releases some oxygen as it burns or acts in part as a catalyst, and you would have a hotter burn without extra stoking or fanning.
I think the reason it’s not documented very much, is because this “alchemy” (predating modern chemistry) was considered a trade secret. Passed down only to trusted apprentices by instruction or word of mouth. If your foundry or smithing shop could produce higher quality metals, that was a definite edge up on the competition. If it were written down, it would be a possible way for that information to get out. (It’s why these are forgotten secrets that leave some scratching their heads on how Wootz or Crucible steel was made in its time. People weren’t stupid, there’s just clever stuff that was lost to time.)
Some forges also took advantages of other processes to help fan the fires instead of relying on manual labor alone, but it was still uncommon in pre-industrial times. Yet it was definitely a trick to get hotter fires in a furnace. Passages built on hillsides or cliffs to take advantage of seasonal winds passing over the landscape to help fan furnaces, mills that could work bellows powered by water wheel or wind, or in some cases there was a trompe setup that would use water dropping down a pipe or channel to trap and pressurize air. There are some sites or records that indicate these were a thing, but they weren’t everywhere either.
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