Shingling was a process used in the production of wrought iron in the late 1700s and 1800s. It involved hammering molten iron to remove slag and surface cracks before drawing or rolling it into bars. The process was done manually or with electric hammers and mechanical squeezing mechanisms. The goal was to remove impurities and create a superior product. The process was used in both frond and pudding furnaces, and involved removing the iron mass from the furnace hearth and transporting it to a separate part of the structure for treatment.
Shingling was a manufacturing step in the obsolete wrought iron making processes for frills and puddings in which the molten, porous iron mass in the furnace was manually removed for further treatment. Shingle treatment involved hammering the iron to remove slag and closely spaced surface cracks before drawing or rolling the metal into bars. Hammering of iron was done manually or with electric hammers and mechanical squeezing mechanisms. In the beautification process, this was done by a hammer and, in the case of puddle kilns, by a shingler. In both cases the red-hot iron was removed using large tongs or hooked iron rods and transported to the shingle stations in large wheelbarrows or via a series of inclined channels.
During the late 1700s and 1800s, iron and steel bars were produced by smelting pig iron in frond and water bath furnaces. Both processes resulted in superior products by decarburizing the iron in the kiln and removing impurities in a manufacturing step known as shingling. During the smelting process in both the frond and pudding furnaces, the iron in the furnace hearth formed a porous ball-like mass that contained a significant amount of impurities ejected in the form of a crust known as slag. The porous nature of iron meant that the slag not only covered the mass of iron but also filled the many fissures on its surface. This necessitated the removal of slag and the closure of all surface cracks during the shingle process.
To facilitate the shaking of the iron mass, it first had to be moved from the hearth to a separate part of the structure. In the case of the refining process, the iron mass, or bloom as it was known, was first consolidated using a water-powered jackhammer and returned to the hearth for reheating. It was then removed by a hammer who pounded the slag off the surface and crevices of the bloom with a hammer. This also served to weld the cracks before the flower was pulled out to form iron bars.
The pudding process also involved a shingling stage which served a similar purpose to that used in earlier frill ovens. Here, molten iron, or puddleball, was drawn from the hearth using hooked rods or large tongs and, depending on the design of the furnace, either pulled down a series of iron-lined channels or pushed in large wheelbarrows to the point of cobblestone. The puddle ball was then pounded by hand or with a jackhammer out of a roof tile to remove all dross and close all openings and crevices in the mass. In some cases, the puddle was squeezed or forced to achieve the same result using a water machine fitted with a set of large metal jaws.
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