Now, what is PIG Iron? I can see lots of livestock replys coming .

"Pigs" of iron may refer to when a melting furnace (pre-Bessemer, and "higher" tech than a bloomery) was tapped the liquid cast iron (greater than 2% carbon) that poured out would be into open faced sand molds connected by shallow trenches. These resulting ingots would be called "pigs" Pigs would also be made after any ladles of iron for casting were done, and the leftover iron needed saved. From Pig iron, a puddling furnace would melt the pigs and boil out the carbon to make a variety of wrought (the material) iron.

Now this is a simple explanation of how I understand it.

Phil

Pigs are the small ingots in side trenches dug off the sow, so named because it looked like a bunch of suckling pigs feeding. Pig iron is just low grade gray iron.

Yeah. It's a form of cast iron. It's currently used as feedstock in steel mills --the ones that aren't remelting scrap -- and for making other forms of cast iron. That includes ductile iron, which you asked about before.

Anybody else here remember the old song "Rock Island Line"? When the engineer was asked what he had on board he answered he had all livestock including pigs. Livestock went by duty free. As he sped up the train he cried " I got Iron,Pig Iron, I got Iron,Pig iron,I fooled you and we're rollin duty free" Then the chorus "The Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line.".....etc..

It's the iron resulting from the first smelting of the ores in the blast furnace. It can be machine cast into steel forms...not often into sand anymore. When I visited Bethlehem in 1976, the blast furnace iron was tapped directly into refractory lined torpedo cars sitting on the railroad track. A small engine brought the cars into the basic oxygen furnace room where they were crane lifted and the molten iron was poured into the furnace. Controlled types and amounts of scrap were also added and the furnace lid came down.

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