30 



charged with charcoal, intimately mixed and partly consumed, 

 it is clear from these accumulations that the operation or process 

 of smelting was carried on prior to the use of coal, and that 

 wood was used as fuel for the reduction or conversion of the 

 raw ore to the metallic state. 



The early process of smelting was accompKshed by wind 

 furnaces, termed air blomaries, or low conical furnaces, in which 

 the ore was placed in layers, alternating with charcoal and 

 limestone, somewhat resembling the method adopted in India 

 and Africa at the present day. These heaps or mounds are now 

 foTind occupying elevated positions or sites, thus originally being 

 favorably situated and exposed to the influence of the wind. 

 On the country becoming deforested, and the woods becoming 

 exhausted for the supply of charcoal required for the purposes 

 of smelting, resort must then have been had to the coal, which 

 in early times was worked only at the outcrop, along the strike 

 of the coal seams, thus easily obtauied, but of inferior quality; 

 and although little more than a century has elapsed since pit 

 coal was used, we have no historical notice or evidence as to 

 smelting works having been erected, or the manufacture of Iron 

 being carried on in this immediate district. We are therefore 

 obliged to refer these metalUc Iron-slag heaps to an early date: 

 either during the time the Danes occupied this area, (hence 

 the term "Danes' cinders,") or they may be as old as the period 

 of the Roman occupation.* In none of the early histories of 

 Gloucestershire do we find mention made of coal having been 

 used as fuel until the year 1740, when the general adoption of 

 Dudley's patent for smelting Iron with pit coal was carried 

 out. Prior to that date and event, the Forest of Dean and its 

 air blomaries stood unrivalled as regards the manufacture of 

 Iron. The invention of the bellows set aside air blomaries, and 

 introduced small blast furnaces, termed "blast blomaries," into 

 which the air was artificially introduced; thus these latter 

 formed the first attempt towards the art of smelting and casting, 

 now carried on with such success, and attended with results 



* In ancient slag heaps in the Forest of Dean, Roman coins have been found, and 

 embedded remains of a sacrificial altar. 



