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Roman Furnace Project 2006: Construction Phase

Introduction ('Home')   Construction Phase   General Photographs   Pot Furnace Repair Photographs

Pot Furnace Marver Photographs   Small Furnace Construction   Lehr Construction Photographs


The construction phase for the small furnace has been divided into four sections

Superstructure Construction Photographs   Marver Photographs

Pot Setting Photographs   Trench and Wiring Photographs


We decided to take ground temperature readings as we had in 2005, but to vary the type of soil. We dug a 30cm deep trench radiating out from the small furnace and filled it with clay, inserting six thermocouples, one every 20cm.

We protected the thermocouples by inserting them in plastic pipes (the pipe closest to the furnace was a copper tube) which were mounted in plastic milk bottles filled with plaster. The thermocouple wires ran underground, in plastic pipes, to the readers positioned several metres away.

We had the opportunity to examine the outer surface of the fire chamber wall. The daub bonding the tiles has been fired, and shows orange in the photographs.

The top of the clay and the bottletops were covered in soil to protect them and to give a uniform working surface.

Compare the following photographs with those of the trench at the end of the three-week firing on this page

1. Marking out the line of the trench. 2. Marking out the line of the trench.
3. Digging the trench and removing the plastic milk bottles. 4. A close up of the outer wall of the fire chamber.
5. Removing one of the bottles. 6. The trench established and the bottles removed.
7. Deepening the trench. 8. Deepening the trench.
9. The outer wall of the fire chamber (with a worm for scale!). 10. The completed trench.


The hole in the pipe seen in the trench was the result of siting one of the thermocouples for the previous furnace exactly in the centre of the pipe. We accomplished this without knowing the pipe was there. Luckily, the pipe was disused!

11. A general view of the trench. 12. Filling the trench with clay.
13. Filling the trench with clay. 14. Filling the trench with clay.
15. The trench for the pipe taking the wires to the temperature reader. 16. The trench for the pipe taking the wires to the temperature reader.
17. A close up of the milk bottle tops. The wires are under the upturned yoghurt pot to the right. 18. The trenches before their final layer of soil.


The wires for the furnace wall temperature measurements (also piped underground) were guided around the furnace wall using vine eyes, and the cold face thermocouples were fixed to the surface with a thin smear of daub. They were each given a small protective ring of daub.

The curved ridge of daub was added to shelter the thermocouples at positions IV and V from the waste gases from the gathering hole. These features also gave extra character to the furnace!

19. The wires behind the marver. 20. The wires with the marver removed. Note the wires disappearing into a pipe in the ground.
21. A close up of the wires. 22. A close up of the close up!.
23. A general view of the wired-up small furnace. 24. A general view of the wired-up small furnace.

"If you build it, they will come."

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