Series: Iron Making

This series breaks the iron making process into its major steps.

  • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

    Article 1: Iron Making: Introduction

    Flames emerging from metal barrel with several people standing around it with helmets.

    Iron making evolved over a few thousand years. Using the ancient "bloomery" method, iron ore was converted directly into wrought iron by heating the ore while at the same time melting the ore's impurities and squeezing them out with hand hammers. Read more

  • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

    Article 2: Iron Making: Smelting

    Wooden bridge extends from grassy field to stone chimney.

    In 1646, the original blast furnace roared to life, lit with a 3000 degree fire that was kept burning 24 hours a day for months at a time. The blast furnace is where bog ore was smelted to create cast iron "pig" bars, so named because liquid cast iron was fed from a larger trench into smaller trenches as a mother sow to suckling pigs. To make cast iron, three raw materials were brought over the charging bridge and loaded into the chimney of the furnace. Read more

  • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

    Article 3: Iron Making: Casting

    Stone wall with large air bellows and wooden wheel.

    The casting shed at the base of the furnace is where the cast iron and slag waste were removed from the furnace. Molds were specially prepared and awaited the molten metal. Learn more about casting in this stage of the iron making process. Read more

  • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

    Article 4: Iron Making: Refining into Wrought Iron

    uniformed park ranger with metal rod poking hot coals in a forge.

    Workers in the forge converted brittle cast iron "pigs" and "sows" into malleable wrought iron by carefully removing excess carbon in two separate processes, fining and hammering. Read more

  • Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site

    Article 5: Iron Making: Making Flats and Nail Rod

    wooden structure with large wheel on a hill overlooking a river under a blue sky.

    Merchant bars were further worked to create other semi-finished products that blacksmiths could use. Contrary to the blast furnace and forge, little was recorded about the archeological foundations of the rolling and slitting mill in the early 1950s. Much of what is known about the rolling and slitting mill is based upon inventories and accounts of the original iron works and 17th and 18th-century engravings of similar machinery. Read more

Tags: new england massachusetts northeast iron iron making metal industry history of technology