forehearth

[ fawr-hahrth, fohr- ]

noun

1. (in a blast furnace or cupola) a reservoir for iron or slag, accessible through a door at hearth level.

Word History and Origins

Origin of forehearth¹

First recorded in 1880–85; fore- + hearth

Example Sentences

After a quarter of an hour, when the lead which the assistant has placed in the forehearth is melted, the master opens the tap-hole of the furnace with a tapping-bar.

From Project Gutenberg

The slag first flows from the furnace into the forehearth, and in it are stones mixed with metal or with the metal adhering to them partly altered, the slag also containing earth and solidified juices.

From Project Gutenberg

When he has finally drawn out of the forehearth the slags and the cakes melted from pyrites, he takes out, with a ladle, the lead alloyed with gold or silver and pours it into little iron or copper pans, three palms wide and as many digits deep, but first lined on the inside with lute and dried by warming, lest the glowing molten substances should break through.

From Project Gutenberg

The powder out of which this furnace hearth and the adjoining forehearth and the dipping-pot are usually made, consists mostly of equal proportions of charcoal dust and of earth, or of equal parts of the same and of ashes.

From Project Gutenberg

In this method the molten lead in the forehearth absorbs the silver.

From Project Gutenberg