Materials · c. 1200

Blast furnace (Europe)

Water-driven bellows make a tall furnace flow with liquid iron.

Blast furnaces appear in Sweden and the Rhineland around the 12th to 13th centuries, such as Lapphyttan. Continuous liquid iron output greatly increased European iron supply.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Watermill 300 BCE
Iron smelting (bloomery) 2000 BCE

What it led to 2

Coke-fired iron smelting 1709
Open-hearth steel 1865

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Output of key industries in England, 1270-1870 Latest: Coal: 3.77k index (1700=100) (1870) Source: Our World in Data