In the distant past, the Iron Age was that era in which humankind’s weapons and tools were made out of iron or steel. During the same time period, we saw other changes in the world, a birth of varying practices in agriculture, beliefs in religion, and styles in art. It’s the last period of the three ages that we use to classify the pre-historic worlds, making the following progression: Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age. The Iron Age began and ended variously in many parts of the world: In the Near East, India, and Iran, it’s supposed to have started around the 12th Century BC, but over in Europe, there was a much later start, arriving in around the 8th and 6th Century BC. Clearly, it took a long time for technology to pass from one part of the world to another. Even longer, before all this iron was put into good use by transforming the fireplace into the cast iron stove — because these stoves, some claim, were invented in America (although others will argue that their origin lies a little earlier somewhere in France).
In the 19th Century, cast iron, it seems, was the metal of choice for stoves before steel took the title in the 20th Century. What is cast iron? It’s iron that contains a small per cent of carbon (three to four per cent) and less than six per cent of silica. You can cast this mixture into molds and treat it with heat. This transforms the carbon into graphite, making the cast iron strong, enabling it to handle really high temps without affecting or melting the metal.
Before the cast iron stoves, there were ceramic stoves. And these are associated with masterpieces, adorned beautifully with intricate structures; the cast iron stoves, though, made through mass production in foundries, were not nearly as interesting, but they proliferated quickly, filling houses throughout Europe with fireplaces and cast iron stoves. Later, stove manufacturers began to introduce more ornate stoves, detailed designs and patterns, adorning the iron with additional materials. Cooper, nickel, brass, and the like.
Since the cast iron stoves were made in foundries on such a big scale, they’re pretty abundant today. Even so, collectors of antiques place them in high demand, and now fireplaces and a solitary antique stove of cast iron can cost anywhere from two to three thousand dollars. It’s a long way from the Iron Age to the 19th Century; it feels almost just as long from the 19th to the 21st, but iron, in the form of these stoves, is very much a part of our daily lives.
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Tags: cast iron stove, graphite