2min chapter

Made You Think cover image

64: The Universal Currency: Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil

Made You Think

CHAPTER

Using Bellows to Burn Iron Ore

Temperatures could be raised to nearly 2000 degrees Celsius, more than enough to melt even iron ores. There's a car in southern Peru that would have required 2400 men to move it. How do you get 2000 men to like harness to pull at the same time? And how could they fit into the confines of a six to eight meter ramp that the Incans used?

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