History of Furnace, means and its Uses

A furnace is the name given to any device that generates heat. The word furnace is derived from Latin word fornax which means oven. It was first excavated in one of the sites of Indus Valley Civilization at Balakot. At that time the furnace was mostly used for manufacturing ceramic objects. Whereas in American or Canadian regions any heating system is named as furnace, be it the household heaters that are used in our homes or the word kiln is used for the ones used for molding the ceramic objects. In British English the word furnace is mostly used for the industrial furnaces that are used in many operations such as extraction of metal from ore, in chemical plants for fractional distillation or in oil refineries etc.

Now to fuel the furnace, the heat energy can be supplied in various was which include directly by fuel combustion, by electricity in the electric arc furnace, or induction heating for induction furnaces depending on their types.
There are many types of furnaces such as household furnace, industrial process furnace which are blast furnace, central warm furnace, floor, wall or pipeless furnace, rotatory furnace, custom heat treat furnace.
A household furnace is a permanently installed furnace which is used to provide heat to an interior space through any one of these intermediary fluids such as air, steam or hot water. In this type of furnace, the most commonly used fuel source is natural gas. Other fuel sources that may also be used include liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), fuel oil, coal or wood. Also sometimes electrical resistance heating can be used as a source of heat when the cost of electricity is low.
Blast furnace is the metallurgical furnace types that are used for smelting process to produce iron metals such as iron. The fuel and oil are poured from the top of the furnace while the air or oxygen to be more specific is blown in the bottom of the chamber in the furnace and a chemical reaction takes place.

A central warm air furnace is a type of space heating equipment having a central combustor or resistance unit which uses a gas, fuel oil or electricity and generates warm air that circulates through a variety of ducts that goes to various rooms.
Another space heating equipment which consists of ductless combustor or resistance unit is a floor, wall or pipeless furnace. They have an enclosed chamber where fuel burns or the electrical resistance heat is produced. This heat then warms the different rooms of the building. A rotatory furnace is designed for the processing of granular, powder or particulate aggregates continuously under controlled atmospheres and temperature conditions.
A broader category of furnace is incinerating furnace. They are commonly known as incinerators and are used for the burning of the wastes etc. They can be put in to industrial furnace category due to the design and types of fuels used in it are much like the industrial furnace. But a separate category is made because they do not help in the production process.

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