Monsoon wind-powered steel furnaces
Hornos de acero impulsados por el monzón
- Date
- c. siglos VII-XI · confidence medium
- Place
- Samanalawewa, Sabaragamuwa, Sri Lanka
- Credited to
- Sinhalese ironworkers
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
Elongated furnaces on hillsides facing the south-west monsoon, whose steady wind blew in enough air to produce high-carbon steel without bellows. Their operation was confirmed with experimental replicas.
They were identified by Gillian Juleff (Nature, 1996) at more than forty sites.
What it led to
- steel production for export in the Indian Ocean
- possible source of the high-quality steel cited by Islamic authors