The iron industry in Fujian and the Philippines

Diagram of a ‘trumpet-shaped blast furnace’ used in Fujian in 1958. (Yang Kuan, Zhongguo gudai yetie jishu fazhan shi, Shanghai 1982, p. 195). 1. Iron bands. 2. ‘Face of Avalokitesvara’ (?). 3. Slag-tapping hole. 4. Iron-tapping hole. 5. Hearth. 6. Bottom. 7. Iron woks. 8. Iron tripod.

In the mountainous coastal province of Fujian, iron was smelted in a small ‘trumpet-shaped blast furnace’. The ore was ironsand and the fuel charcoal. It is interesting to see that the same type of blast furnace was used in the Philippine Islands. There is a large Chinese minority group in the Philippines, largely descendants of immigrants from Fujian, and it is certainly these immigrants who introduced this type of furnace here.

Blast furnace in Bulacan, Philippines, 1902. Height from the ground 226 cm, inner diameter at the top 81 cm. (The Mining Bureau, Bulletin no. 3, Manila 1903, pl. AJ).

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