furnace casting Hematite pig iron The blast furnace casting
Hematite pig iron. The clay plug has been breached and iron is
running down the sand lined trough to a ladle below the cast
house floor. The plate is skimming slag off the top of the iron.
It will be lowered in to the trough later on to divert the iron
to another runner when the ladle is full. Prior to this, the
blast furnace slag, containing unwanted impurities, was removed
via the slag notch. Slag floats on the top of the molten iron
and is directed via a different route to slag ladles below the
cast house floor. Over 100 years of ironmaking has created a
slag bank on the shore line which dominates the town. Derwent
Howe, as it is now called, is slowly being consumed as the
demand for crushed and graded slag continues. Derwent Blast
Furnaces were unusual because the cast house floor was at ground
level. Most other ironworks elevated the cast house and ran the
hot metal ladles and slag ladles on rails at ground level. This
meant that at Workington,