The first question before any discussion is: what type of slag contains
these cast-iron prills ? Are they fayalitic, with or without wustite ? or
are they more siliceous ? calcic? and so on. Mineralogical and/or chemical
compositions of slag are important to know if cast-iron prills are
consistent with them and with your furnace. We have, in west-centrum
France, a very nice example of bloomeries (IVth C.) which were producing
wrought iron (or steel) with fayalitic slags, but somtimes they produced
cast-iron and steel prills with a silico-calcic slag (called in french
"laitier". So, these furnaces were bloomeries but sometimes they were
running as blast-furnace (addind some lime, and perhaps with higher
temperature).
These studies were published in Revue d'Archéométrie n°22, pp. 91-101, 1998
(the editor made as mistake with my firstname: Anne instead of Alain !)
cordialement
Alain Ploquin
Alain Ploquin
Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (UPR A9046)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
B.P.20
F-54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy cedex
France
tel: 33/(O)383594245 fax: 33/(0)383511798
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