Smelting - Northern Mine Research Society
Around 1540, a new type of smelting hearth, blown by a foot-operated bellows, was developed on the Mendip, in Somerset. This had evolved into the ore-hearth, with its characteristic work-stone, by 1571 or 72, when the first of them reached Derbyshire. The ore-hearth could be built inside a mill, alongside a stream which turned a waterwheel to ...