Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Metallurgy in the Carboniferous- Just how much hotter are fires?

+0
−0

The present day atmosphere is roughly 21% oxygen. Historically high-levels might have been as much as 35%, over 66% higher. This made the carboniferous a period of giant bugs and constant devastating wild-fires. How would this affect a civilization trying to develop? In particular, how much easier would it be to construct a forge/smelter for processing iron or steel? How much hotter will a forge/smelter burn if it's being fed with 66% more oxygen?

Cast Iron melts at around 2,100F (1150C). With a very naive calculation one would think a forge able to melt Cast-Iron on Earth today might burn at over 3000F, enough to melt low-carbon steel.

(Additional Edit: I had in mind a bloomery, similar to ones made over 2,000 years ago, which involve stacks of charcoal, as well as compressed air provided by a trompe. These forges burned hot in our 21% atmosphere, hot enough so that large ones could melt pig iron. What would happen if you used a similar one in 35%?)

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/171278. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »