600 Years Of Cast Iron In Construction

600 Years Of Cast Iron In Construction

More than 1,000 years prior to the West China produced cast iron. They managed to build a furnace which reached the 1,528C needed to melt iron and began casting the resulting liquid iron into products. Prior to that only copper could be used, which was nowhere near as strong or durable as cast iron. Casting iron was a very important step forward for metallurgy.

In the west it was not until AD 1161 that the first cast iron was produced. By this time the Chinese were already using cast iron in construction. The Chinese used it to make pillars for full-sized pagodas almost as soon as they found out to make it. In the west cast iron was not used for construction until the mid 1700s. Its earliest significant application was in the Iron Bridge, which was built by the Derby family in 1779.

In the west until the mid 1700s cast iron was used mostly to make cookware. Even today cast iron pots and pans are very popular. Professional chefs recommend them because the heat spreads evenly throughout the pan, so the food cooks evenly too. Cast iron is so durable that in some families sets of cast iron pans have been passed down through 5 generations. It was not until the 1640′s that cast iron was used to make ovens, but these too last for over a 100 years.

Cast Iron pipes began to be made at the same time as cannon in the early 1300,s. The first record of them being used for drainage is in 1455 at Dillenberg Castle, Germany. The oldest cast iron water pipes still in use date from the 17th century. They were installed to distribute water throughout the gardens of the Chateau de Versailles. In 2008 Saint-Gobain PAM were employed to restore the 35km system and were able to leave in place 80 sections of the original pipe, which was by then 340 years old.

Due mostly to its durability and good looks cast iron pipes are still used in construction. Rainwater systems made out of cast iron look good on both old and new buildings.

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