Made easy: Copper smelting

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Sometimes astonishingly similar: cooking and science. M. Hoffmann weighs the smelting materials.

Due to forecasted rain, the smelting experimet in the big furnace had to be postponed to Wednesday…

… and at the end of the day there was nothing more to do than stating that rain did not came down.

As there is nothing more to tell than that preparations went on and the marvellous  bakeries of K. Mittelstädt enchanted us, here is the recipe for tomorrow’s cake:

Slag cake:

Ingredients:

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Slag cake – freshly made à la  Mitterberg.
  • 20 kg roasted copper ore
  • 200 kg soft wood

Additional materials:

  • Hammer
  • Smelting furnace
  • Long wooden stick
  • Scoop
  • Chisel
  • Crowbar

Directions:

Preheat the furnace with wood. While the furnace is prehating, crush the roasted ore to a size between hazelnut and pea. Once the furnace is preheated use the scoop to cautiously put the ore on top of the wood. Repeat this precedure until all ore is used. Take care to cover the ore always with wood. From time to time use the long wooden stick to relieve blocking pieces of charcoalin the furnace. After thee to four hours stop the addition of wood and let the fire in the furnace burn down. Not let the furnace cool down for one day. Subsequently the frunace front can be taken down and the charcoal covering the slag cake can be removed. Let the slag cake cool for an additional day and remove it from the furnace with hammer, chisel and crowbar.