What is cast iron?

  • (noun): An alloy of iron containing so much carbon that it is brittle and so cannot be wrought but must be shaped by casting.

Cast Iron

Cast iron is iron or a ferrous alloy which has been heated until it liquefies, and is then poured into a mould to solidify. It is usually made from pig iron. The alloy constituents affect its colour when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impurities which allow cracks to pass straight through. Grey cast iron, or grey iron, has graphitic flakes which deflect a passing crack and initiate countless new cracks as the material breaks.

Read more about Cast Iron.

Some articles on cast iron:

Science And Technology Of The Han Dynasty - Metallurgy - Furnaces and Smelting Techniques
... A blast furnace converts raw iron ore into pig iron, which can be remelted in a cupola furnace to produce cast iron ... The earliest specimens of cast iron found in China date to the 5th century BCE during the late Spring and Autumn Period, yet the oldest discovered blast furnaces date to the 3rd century BCE and the majority date. 141–87 BCE) established a government monopoly over the iron industry in 117 BCE (most of the discovered iron works sites built before this date were merely foundries which ...
Cast Iron Filter
... Cast Iron Filter is a band based in Davidson, North Carolina ... genre is similar to that of Progressive Bluegrass, but Cast Iron Filter's fans call it "Irongrass." The band had been praised for its instrumental finesse and has been related to a Jamband that knows ... Cast Iron Filter's last official show was played at The Visulite Theatre in Charlotte, NC on December 31, 2004 ...
Stour Watermills - Great Stour - Chilham Mill
6 inches (4.42 m) diameter and 7 feet 10 inches (2.39 m) wide, carried on a + section cast iron axle of a nominal 20 inches (510 mm) diameter ... This also carried a cast iron Pit Wheel 10 feet 8 inches (3.25 m) diameter with 96 cogs driving a Wallower with 34 teeth on a cast iron Upright Shaft carrying a cast iron Great Spur Wheel with 114 cogs ...
Stock Windmill - Description
... The cast iron windshaft was probably not made for the mill originally ... This drives a cast iron wallower with 25 teeth ... The cast iron upright shaft is 5 inches (130 mm) diameter and in three parts, with dog clutches at the fourth and fifth floor ...
Cast Iron - History - Textile Mills
... of non-combustible materials, and it was found convenient to provide the building with an iron frame, largely of cast iron, replacing flammable wood ... Many other warehouses were built using cast iron columns and beams, although faulty designs, flawed beams or overloading sometimes caused building collapses and ... During the Industrial Revolution, cast iron was also widely used for frame and other fixed parts of machinery, including spinning and later weaving ...

Famous quotes containing the words iron and/or cast:

    I was even more surprised at the power of the waves, exhibited on this shattered fragment, than I had been at the sight of the smaller fragments before. The largest timbers and iron braces were broken superfluously, and I saw that no material could withstand the power of the waves; that iron must go to pieces in such a case, and an iron vessel would be cracked up like an egg- shell on the rocks.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life!” And yet can we cast out of our spirits all the good or evil poured into them by so many learned generations? Ignorance cannot be learned.
    Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)