Bloomeries
Catalan bloomeries produced iron as a result of the combustion of iron oxide and charcoal in a finery forge. The two main technical factors that contributed to the
development of the system known as the Catalan bloomery were lining the inner walls of the furnace with iron sheets and replacing the blower with an air-water jet (trompa dels Pirineus), a development that took place at the end of the 17th century.
In five or six hours, a bloomery could produce a porous mass of pasty iron (bloom) weighing about 150 kg. Work went on continually so the fire never went out, which meant a typical bloomery had an output of about 600 kg of iron a day.
Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the process extended throughout Western Europe and all bloomeries took up the Catalan method as a successful process for
obtaining malleable iron. The industry was located for the most part on either side of the Pyrenees because the region was rich in iron ore and charcoal.
Decline of the Bloomery
What were the reasons for the decline and end of the Catalan bloomery method?
Industrialization. This old technique was not able to adapt to the growing demand for iron so bloomeries began to close down at the end of the 19th century until there were
none left and they were all but forgotten. Bloomeries were replaced with blast furnaces and different refinery procedures.
Another factor was the deficient road network, which made it difficult to transport large quantities of supplies to this mountainous region, not to mention the introduction of foreign iron on the market, to such an extent that some Catalan
establishments did nothing more than melt down foreign cast iron. One example of this was Darnius Bloomery, whose work by 1844 was basically limited to drawing foreign iron unloaded at the ports of Palamós and Roses.
Planell Forn