David Dungworth

Abstract

This paper explores the history of the idea of the bowl furnace from its origins in the 19th century to its near death in the 1970s. The bowl furnace occupied a dominant position in models of early iron production in Europe (for the purposes of this paper a bowl furnace is taken to be one which is roughly as wide as it is tall and lacking any significant superstructure). Since the early 1970s (principally in Britain) the idea of the bowl furnace has gone out of fashion to such an extent that it seems heretical (or at least schismatic) to argue for its rehabilitation. A review of the history of the idea of the bowl furnace can teach us lessons about the rules we use to recognise evidence and distinguish between competing explanations of such evidence.

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References
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How to Cite
Who’s afraid of the bowl furnace?. (2021). Historical Metallurgy, 48(1 & 2), 1-7. https://hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/83
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