matter. After a high temperature had been excited in the interior of
the pile, plates of malleable iron of a tough and flexible nature
were formed, and under circumstances where there was no fuel but that
furnished by the ore itself."*
[footnote...
Papers on Iron and Steel, 363-4.
...]

The metal once discovered, many attempts would be made to give to
that which had been the effect of accident a more unerring result.
The smelting of ore in an open heap of wood or charcoal being found
tedious and wasteful, as well as uncertain, would naturally lead to
the invention of a furnace; with the object of keeping the ore
surrounded as much as possible with fuel while the process of
conversion into iron was going forward. The low conical furnaces
employed at this day by some of the tribes of Central and Southern
Africa, are perhaps very much the same in character as those adopted
by the early tribes of all countries where iron was first made. Small
openings at the lower end of the cone to admit the air, and a larger
orifice at the top, would, with charcoal, be sufficient to produce
the requisite degree of heat for the reduction of the ore. To this
the foot-blast was added, as still used in Ceylon and in India; and
afterwards the water-blast, as employed in Spain (where it is known
as the Catalan forge), along the coasts of the Mediterranean, and in
some parts of America.

It is worthy of remark, that the ruder the method employed for the
reduction of the ore, the better the quality of the iron usually is.
Where the art is little advanced, only the most tractable ores are
selected; and as charcoal is the only fuel used, the quality of the