In historic ironmaking, a puddle ball is a heated, pasty lump of iron and slag pulled from a puddling furnace. The puddler gathers the decarburized iron on a rabble rod into a ball weighing 100 to 200 pounds. This raw mass must immediately go to the squeezer or hammer to expel the liquid slag and consolidate the iron.
Heard on the job
Get that puddle ball to the squeezer before it cools and traps the slag.
Also heard as
- loup
- ball
Related terms
Puddling
A historic process of converting pig iron into wrought iron by stirring it in a reverberatory furnace.
Puddle bar
A rough bar of wrought iron rolled directly from a shingled puddle ball.
Shingle
To hammer and squeeze a hot ball of wrought iron to expel liquid slag and consolidate the metal.
Pig iron
The crude, high-carbon iron tapped directly from a blast furnace.