Researched
Blast Furnace & Cast Iron
Water-driven bellows allow furnaces that make liquid iron - iron becomes available in bulk.
Open in the interactive tree →In China cast iron existed already in the first millennium BC; in Europe the blast furnace spread from the late Middle Ages, driven by water-wheel bellows. Liquid iron could be cast in moulds and refined into steel. It became the material for cannons, bridges, machines and rails.
Prerequisites
- Metallurgy (Bronze, Iron)~2500 BC
- Water Wheel~250 BC
- Mills as the First Machines~1000
Unlocks
- Wood, Charcoal & Coal~1709
- Steam Engine1712
- Crucible Steel~1740
- Machine Tools1775
- Iron Bridge1779
- Puddling & Rolling Mills1783-84
- Railway1825
- Screw Propeller & Iron Hull1843
- Bessemer Steel1856
More in Manufacturing & Construction · Middle Ages & Renaissance
- Mills as the First Machines~1000
- Eyeglasses~1286
- Mechanical Clock~1300