This is a panorama formed by stitching together three separate images, so you will have to scroll right to see the whole scene. On the left is a pair of casting houses (three arched doorways each). Behind each casting house, built up against the hill are the remains of blast furnaces, one per house. Iron ore, coke, limestone, and sinter were tipped into the tops of the furnaces. Air was blown in near the bottom, providing oxygen to burn the coke, which generated the heat and carbon monoxide needed to drive the reactions in the furnace. The carbon monoxide and carbon (unburned coke) reduced the iron oxide to iron. The limestone (calcium carbonate) was used to remove sulfur from the iron ore. Molten iron flowed out the bottom of the blast furnaces and into channels in sand in the floor of the casting house, where is solidified into ingots of pig iron. Slag, consisting of impurities, was tapped off higher up in the furnace. On the far right is a water lift, which hoisted small railroad cars with pig iron up to a railroad. The lift consisted of two car carriers linked by a strong cable running over a large pulley in the top of the lift. With one carrier at the top holding an empty car, and the other carrier at the bottom holding a full car, water was added to a tank under the empty car until it counterbalanced the full car. The full car then rose, and the empty car and water descended. Here's a link to a good article at the web site of the American Iron and Steel Institute about this process. The modern process seems to be essentially the same as that described at Blaenavon, though furnace gas scrubbers may not have been used in the 18-19c when Blaenavon was in operation. NEXT LIST