Industrial Archaeology
Throughout Western Pennsylvania, it's easy to stumble upon the remains of small blast furnaces from the mid-19th century. Many bearing girls' names, they include Lucinda Furnace, Eliza Furnace, Mary Ann Furnace, and Helen Furnace. The Helen Furnace is located near where Randy's father and grandfather grew up.
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Having lived his early life around these things, too, Randy has often pointed out various structures in China, and wondered, if they were also furnaces.
More after the jump
Several times when we have driven north into Hebei, like when we have gone to Xuanhua, we've passed this dusty-looking tower on the side of the highway.
We've often wondered if this were an old furnace of some sort, though the location seemed odd. It was just there, on the bluff, with not much else around it. Once we went to Zhangjiakou over Qingming Jie, we compared it to the style of the signal towers in that area, and it seemed to be similar. We were correct in seeing it as a chimney, but perhaps it was not something that would have formed or forged anything.
In the area around Great Wall Fresh, we have seen a few true furnaces that have evidently been used recently. This one was locked behind a gate, bricks all neatly stacked all around.
This oven below, however, really had us wondering. It appeared old and abandoned, until we noticed all of the wood that had been stacked around it. Is it still being used, and for what? In the Beijing/Hebei countryside, we often have difficulty dating construction. We often see unrestored yet still strongly-standing sections of great wall that date centuries, and brick homes falling down that are less than fifty years old. Was this built over 100 years ago, or hastily during the Great Leap Forward?
'Having lived his early life around these things, too, Randy has often pointed out various structures in China, and wondered, if they were also furnaces.
More after the jump
Several times when we have driven north into Hebei, like when we have gone to Xuanhua, we've passed this dusty-looking tower on the side of the highway.
We've often wondered if this were an old furnace of some sort, though the location seemed odd. It was just there, on the bluff, with not much else around it. Once we went to Zhangjiakou over Qingming Jie, we compared it to the style of the signal towers in that area, and it seemed to be similar. We were correct in seeing it as a chimney, but perhaps it was not something that would have formed or forged anything.
In the area around Great Wall Fresh, we have seen a few true furnaces that have evidently been used recently. This one was locked behind a gate, bricks all neatly stacked all around.
This oven below, however, really had us wondering. It appeared old and abandoned, until we noticed all of the wood that had been stacked around it. Is it still being used, and for what? In the Beijing/Hebei countryside, we often have difficulty dating construction. We often see unrestored yet still strongly-standing sections of great wall that date centuries, and brick homes falling down that are less than fifty years old. Was this built over 100 years ago, or hastily during the Great Leap Forward?
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