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Archaeologists
Unearth 2,000-Year-Old Blast Furnace
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????A group of archaeologists
recently unearthed a 2,000-year-old blast furnace for iron smelting
in central China's Henan Province, known as part of the birthplace
of the ancient Chinese civilization.
????The archaeologists believe that the blast
furnace was first built during the Han Dynasty (BC206-220AD) and
it had never stopped operation during the last two centuries of
the Han Dynasty.
????The oval blast furnace was found in an ironworks
ruin in Lushan County of Henan Province.
????"It is the largest, best preserved
and most advanced ancient blast furnace that has ever been discovered
in the world," said Liu Yuncai, engineer-in-chief of the
Beijing Capital Steel Company and a well-known metallurgist in
China.
????"It has separate notches for slags
and refined irons and thus can largely improve its efficiency,"
Liu said.
????He noted that the blast furnace also has
a well-designed stuffing-platform and a special facility to make
use of the river motion power to save labor.
????(People's Daily 02/09/2001)
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