Furnace
Place where temperatures are generated to affect smelting, melting, physical or chemical change to a material. More specialised furnaces are given elsewhere, see Bail hill, bloomery and/or blast furnace. Chemical changes involved the reduction of a mined compound to a metal, or a material from which it was after firing easier to extract metal. Physical changes might be the hardening or softening and re-hardening of a material, such as pottery from clays, glass or metal, to increase its durability.
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