Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace

[2Tim215]

Sometimes I go off track and the wierdest questions tickle my brain. Like this one: What kind of technology was available in biblical times for a furnace to be hot enough to kill those who threw Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego into the fire never mind big enough to fit three people. I know how much fuel it takes to heat up my small damascus forge to welding temp using veg oil and I know how much coal it takes to keep a small forge fire going at welding temp for a reasonable length of time. I have also worked in a foundry with big electric furnaces and pots for smelting and even though they are extremely hot you can get quite close without dying.

 

We know this was not a once off arrangment coz it says:

 

¹⁹ Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

 

I think sometimes we have this very naive and primitive view of how people lived in biblical times. I have sometimes used my forge to give children an impression of the heat mentioned in this passage and I am quite sure that my estimation is way off.

 

So how hot do you think it was and how and what do you think they used to get it that hot?  Remembering that this was an existing furnace used IMHO fairly often.

[territorialmillworks]

1,400 F to consume human flesh.....The furnace toasted the guards but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn't even smell of smoke

[ThomasPowers]

May I commend to your attention "The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity", Rehder; for much good information on bio fueled furnaces.

 

I assume it was a pottery kiln as they could get quite large for firing large numbers of amphora or water jugs at the same time.

[John McPherson]

The 18th - 20th Century small, wood fired, brick and pottery kilns of rural North Carolina were easily big enough to walk in to load and unload. Now imagine ones in a time and place that depended on fired bricks for building, and fired pottery for food storage in an urban environment.

 

Google image search of "ground hog kilns" will give you some idea. I have been in some at Hart Square and Seagrove. The interiors range from the size of a Gypsy wagon to a good size bedroom.

 

 

Deforestation was the usual result around charcoal fed furnaces up until coal became available by train car loads. The ACW "Battle of the Wilderness" was fought in the thousands of acres of brambles and brush piles left behind from clearcutting trees, making iron in a charcoal furnace. 

 

Scholars consider glazed pottery technology to be the necessary fore-runner of metals smelting: hot enough to fire pots is hot enough to roast ore. Cultures that never mastered the former never achieved the latter, such as most of the tribes of North America. As opposed to Central America, which had domestic animals as well.

[jmccustomknives]

I believe back then they would build the kilns on the windward side of a hill to use the natural wind and updraft created by the location.  They could get quite hot. 

[2Tim215]

I would think that a lot of fuel would be needed to fire kilns/forges and furnaces like this one. And everyone wonders why most of north Africa is desert LOL.

[iron woodrow]

i think by saying "biblical times", you are encompassing a vast range of time periods

(anywhere between "the creation" arguably 4.5 billion years ago , until the 2nd century AD)

 

 narrowing it down to a particular place at a particular time period would do wonders for research on the matter. being a bit scientific in the archeologicial side of things......

[Don A]

circa 590 BC

[2Tim215]

i think by saying "biblical times", you are encompassing a vast range of time periods

(anywhere between "the creation" arguably 4.5 billion years ago , until the 2nd century AD)

 

 narrowing it down to a particular place at a particular time period would do wonders for research on the matter. being a bit scientific in the archeologicial side of things......

That all depends on your view - Creationist or evolutionist - creationists don't hold to the 4.5 billion year "THEORY" - you know that one that changes every time they make a new discovery. :D

[iron woodrow]

the stretching and flexing of ones think muscle, and admitting ones faults and failures is the best step forward ;) and there is also a reason why religion v/s science is a taboo subject on this site.

 

my response was to be as inclusive as possible, from a historical research veiwpoint, not to draw a line in the sand.

 

said Glenn- The basic guidelines for the site have always been no fussing, no cussing, no threats, no personal attacks, and please stay away from discussing religion and politics, or discussion of illegal activities or items.

[2Tim215]

My apologies, wasn't discussing religion, just the understanding of how furnaces etc worked in "olden" times as the term "biblical" would be a no no now. Again, apologies if you found my comment offensive - was just stating my view concerning the time period I originally meant.

[Charles R. Stevens]

In the context I don't think there is a problem, as long as it dosnt degenerat in to a "creationism Vs. evolution" debate.
But it's so tempting ;-D