The Malings' Blast Furnace

This drawing shows how the blast-furnace may have functioned. Water flowing through the leet (1) turns the water wheel (2). This wheel rotates cams (3), which draw the bellows (4) up and down, providing the blast of air to smelt the iron ore packed in the furnace (5). The workmen in the drawing are cutting channels in a bed of sand (6) into which will pour molten iron from the furnace.

   Blast furnace
   
 



A blast-furnace was constructed on the Bedlington bank of the River Blyth in 1759, by the Maling family. It used the already-existing leets of a water mill to power its bellows, which provided the forced draught for the furnace.

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