A furnace in which a blast of air is used; spec. the common furnace for iron-smelting, into which a blast of compressed and highly heated air is driven by a blowing-engine.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4241/2. A new Invention of Smelting of Black Tin-Ore into White Tin … in a Blast Furnace.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., iv. 94. The wind-furnace may generally be replaced with advantage by the blast-furnace.
1860. W. Fordyce, Hist. Coal, etc. 116. The blast furnace consists of two truncated cones, united at their bases.
