What remains in the bottom of a bloomery hearth after the bloom is
removed is also sometimes referred to as a skull (also mosser). The
bloomery equivalent of a bear, salamander, or horse. These were usually
discarded, and litter bloomery sites in the US.
Jamie Brothers
Peter King wrote:
> In the course of examining the accounts for the Coalbrookdale
> ironworks 1718-38, I have come across the term 'scull iron', also
> sculls. I have seen this elsewhere too. This commodity was sold for
> £2 per ton, whereas pig iron was usually £6 to £9 per ton at this
> time. I have always presumed sculls to be a variety of waste from
> the foundry. It may be similar to gunheads cast as part of cannon for
> slag to flat into so as to rid the casting of slag. Is this so?
> Alternatively what were (or are) sculls? I would appreciate not only
> a definition but a source that I can cite. Keith Gale's Dictionary
> does not list this term. Peter King
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