A story of iron and steel from Old Testament times to the present, with emphasis on the early forges and stone blast furnaces of colonial and 19th century America. While trout fishing along some of New England's Furnace Brooks the author came upon old stone towers - remnants of blast furnaces that were once the pride of America's iron industry which began in 1644 and eventually made the guns and canons with which the colonists won the War of Independence. The book describes the operation of these furnaces, the art and hazards of making the charcoal that fuelled them, the waterwheels, bellows, and blowers for their blast, early energy crises and some of the famous ironmasters of the Revolution and the Civil War. The book, published in 1982, ends with the growth of the steel industry and the problems it was facing then. Hardback with paper dustjacket, both in good condition. The jacket is intact with a couple of small tears at the top of the front cover and some creasing to edges gener