I'm doing research on the Colonial Iron Industry of Virginia. One furnace,
Albemarle, may have failed due to titanium in its ore. The furnace was
established in 1771 and was out of business by 1779. Analysis of some of the
local ores in 1880/82 revealed the ore had 6.53% titanium dioxide.
According to Dr. Bob Gordon at Yale, titanium will increase the melting
temperature of the slag. So that a furnace has to be run hotter. He knows of
at least one furnace in the US, Tahawus in New York, that successfully worked
a titanium rich magnetite. I suspect given the date (1850s) that it was hot
blast. Can a cold blast charcoal furnace achieve the required temperatures?
Does anyone have any experience with working titanium ores or empirical data
on the effects?
Thanks
JH (Jamie) Brothers IV
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