page_title: Bogolong iron mine and blast furnace
section_title: Process and equipment
hierarchical_section_title: Bogolong iron mine and blast furnace / Technology / Process and equipment
caption_attribution_description: English: Side-view of Bogolong Blast Furnace from public land on Ilalong Rd (October 2019). The base of the furnace is hidden by blackberry bushes.
context_page_description: The Bogolong iron mine and blast furnace is an abandoned iron mining and smelting site, near Bookham, New South Wales, Australia. Located in an area known best for sheep grazing and wool, it has been called Australia's 'forgotten furnace'.
  In 1874, the blast furnace produced a small amount of pig iron—sufficient to allow its testing—that was smelted from iron ore mined nearby. Plans to operate commercially did not eventuate. It is significant as one of the only three remaining ruins of 19th-Century iron-smelting blast furnaces in Australia, and the only one in New South Wales.
context_section_description: The blast furnace stood 6m high, a very small furnace even by the standards of its time. It had a square base, three tuyeres and an arched hearth (on the southern side) through which iron and slag were tapped onto an adjacent casting floor. The outer shell of the furnace was made of local stone. The inner lining was of locally-made fire bricks. The space between the outer shell and the inner lining was packed with clay. The fire bricks proved completely unsuitable and failed rapidly once smelting began; that being a reason that so little iron was produced.
  The furnace was a cold-blast furnace with the air-blast being provided by a 10 h.p. steam engine driving an 'American blower'. There was a level timber trestle bridge from the top of the slope to the top of the furnace, over which the raw materials were moved by wheelbarrow before being added to the furnace.
  The fuel used was charcoal made from locally-available hardwood. Limestone—used as a smelting flux—was mined locally, reportedly from within the company's lease, although its precise source is unknown today.
caption: Side-view of Bogolong Blast Furnace, from public land alongside Illalong Road near Bookham, N.S.W. (October 2019). The base of the furnace is hidden by blackberry bushes.
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