High oven
The high furnace was an iron smelting furnace in the Schortetal near Ilmenau in Thuringia.
history
From 1693 to 1763 iron ore was smelted in a high furnace at the site . It belonged to the Günthersfelden ironworks near Gehren and the hammer "God's blessing" near Langewiesen .
The high furnace was built due to the iron ore deposits in the immediate vicinity as well as the abundance of wood and the water of the Schorte.
The Schorte was the border water between the Principality of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen and the Duchy of Weimar-Eisenach .
The smelting furnace was on Schwarzburg territory and the water required to operate it came from Weimar territory. As a result, there were often disputes about the water rate . So this z. B. Not paid to the Weimar Office in Ilmenau for 17 years . A water barrier was therefore made from 1711 to 1712.
functionality
The high furnace was a blue fire iron melting furnace (blow fire). Air was blown sideways into the furnace through water-wheel-driven bellows in order to increase the working temperature. It was fired with charcoal.
Roteisenstein was mainly fused as ore . It came from the pits in the area, the Nesseltal, the Mark, Silber and Mardertal, from Ilmenau but also from Könitz near Saalfeld and the “Roter Crux” mine near Schmiedefeld .
Transport of the material
The transport was carried out by carters with carts of oxen and horses. A nearby path is still called Eisenstrasse today .
colonization
Around the iron smelting furnace there was a small industrial area with a stamping mill (processing of the ore), wind house, living and working buildings, stables, barns, a storage area for charcoal, a hut area and mining facilities with shafts and tunnels of the “Gottes Gabe” mine field in the Nesseltal valley.
Miners, iron smelters, millers, lumberjacks, charcoal burners , carters and raftsmen have lived and worked here. There were some reservoirs above the Schortetal and in the side valleys. They served as a water reservoir for the constant operation of the water wheels for the stamp mill and the bellows in the wind house.
Further processing of the pig iron
The pig iron was mainly processed in the Günthersfelden / Gehren ironworks and in several iron hammers located nearby between the Grenzhammer near Ilmenau and Langewiesen.
Shutdown
After 70 years of operation, the blast furnace was shut down in 1763.
Relation to today
You can still find the “blue” pieces of slag with charcoal inclusions on the old slag heap. An information board tells of the industrial past of this now completely renatured place. In addition to boundary stones from that time, if you take a closer look you can still guess the locations of the buildings and old pits.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The source for the texts and the historical photos is the information board on site.
Coordinates: 50 ° 38 ′ 28.4 " N , 10 ° 53 ′ 29.1" E