Industrial Archaeology solved

This summer I posted about some structures that appeared to be artifacts of a different industrial era in both the US and China. The last picture in that post was something that really stumped us. It showed signs of recent use, but the shape of the kiln confused us.

Last night we were driving through that area after dinner at Great Wall Fresh. Randy's company's American salesman with us, as was a couple of his coworkers in Changping, including Mr. H. We noticed that the oven had smoke pouring out the chimney and the cracks in the sides.




I asked Mr. H if he knew what this was. He told us it was for making charcoal from the wood.

Charcoal. Never did Randy and I even consider that as an option.