The text has no illustrations, but the photograph reproduced below can clarify the description.
Meeting innumerable animals and coolies on the pack road carrying anthracite, one expects to find a large-scale mine; but both coal mining and iron manufacture in this region have the character of all Chinese industry: rough, exceptionally diminutive, and nevertheless of an extraordinary perfection. One is astounded, arriving at these much-discussed places, to see merely hundreds of small establishments among which the work is distributed. One finds nothing which even remotely resembles a European blast furnace.
Crucible smelting of iron somewhere in Shanxi (H. Dickmann, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik und Industrie, 1932, 21:154)
The iron smelter is situated on a slightly inclined
floor, 2½ m long and 1½ m wide. On the two long sides
are walls, 1¼ m high; the third side, towards which
the floor ascends, is open; and on the fourth is a
small and primitive hut for the bellows and two people
who work it. The floor is covered with small pieces of
anthracite, the size of a fist. On this are placed
about 150 crucibles of refractory clay, [15] inches
high [38 cm] and 6 inches wide [15 cm], which
are filled with a mixture of small pieces of
anthracite and crushed iron ore. All the spaces
between crucibles are carefully filled out with
anthracite, and a layer of the fuel is spread on top.
Sometimes a second layer of 150 crucibles is laid over
the first. Over this is laid more anthracite and on
top a layer of shards of old crucibles. The whole heap
is ignited, and air is blown in. When everything is
burning and the heat is great, the blowing is stopped,
since natural draught is sufficient to maintain the
heat.
If the intention is to make cast iron [Roheisen], the
crucibles are taken out after a certain period of time
and the contents cast as flat plates; the result
appears to be a clean white steelmaking pig iron. If
wrought iron is desired, the heap is allowed to burn
out and cool off over a period of four days. The
crucibles are then taken out and broken. In this case
the iron is in the form of a hemisphere.
These two types of iron serve as the raw material for
a wide variety of manufactures. Their further
treatment of one sort or another for particular
purposes is kept secret by the individual factories,
and some of these have acquired a great reputation for
the preparation of kettles, ploughs, or other
equipment.
A third type of raw iron is also prepared by casting
the molten metal in water to form drops. This type is
added in various quantities to the other types in
order to suit various purposes.
The best product is the wrought iron, which is far
superior to that of Europe and possesses great
malleability. The Chinese also excel in the casting of
very thin objects, such as the iron pans [woks] used
for cooking; this is an art which they understand
everywhere, but Shanxi is its home.
It is of great interest to go around to the different
establishments and see everywhere these simple methods
used which have served since ancient times. It is
clear that this great perfection must be ascribed not
only to experience but also to the quality of the raw
materials. Everything they need is supplied by the
strata of productive coal formations which are only a
few hundred feet thick. Of the very widespread iron
ores only the purest and most easily smelted are used.
Clay and refractory material are also found in great
quantities. But the most important material is
anthracite.
Translated from Ferdinand von Richthofen’s Tagebücher aus China, Berlin: Reimer, 1907, s. 498–499.
Last edited by DBW 27 February 2023
Stylistic changes 5 June 2024