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metallurgy: Quick Facts

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Photos and Videos

Diagram of a zinc-lead blast furnace system showing ore and coke entering through charge hoppers, with labeled furnace, air preheater, blower, taphole for slag and lead bullion, and a connected lead-splash condenser using rotors to separate and cool lead and zinc, with pathways for molten metals and off-gas.
Smelting of iron ore
Roaster
Labeled schematic diagram showing a modern blast furnace on the right, with sections for hoppers, stack, barrel, bosh, and hearth, and a hot-blast stove on the left, featuring checker bricks and airflow paths. Arrows indicate the movement of gases and air through each structure.
Matte smelting
Electrolytic smelting
Fire refining
Heap leaching of gold ore
Diagram showing three common metallic crystal structures: body-centred cubic with one atom at the center, face-centred cubic with atoms at each face and corner, and hexagonal close-packed with layers of atoms forming a hexagonal pattern.
Continuous casting
Exploring the world's oldest known gold mine
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Key People

Lomonosov, Mikhail
Mikhail Lomonosov
Russian author and scientist
Georgius Agricola.
Georgius Agricola
German scholar and scientist
Daniel Cowan Jackling.
Daniel Cowan Jackling
American engineer
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Sir Alan Cottrell
British metallurgist
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Arden L. Bement, Jr.
American metallurgical engineer and science administrator
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Cyril Stanley Smith
American metallurgist
Gayley, James
James Gayley
American metallurgist
Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist
Sidney Gilchrist Thomas
British metallurgist
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Gustav Tammann
Russian chemist
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Alexander Parkes
British chemist
Frederick Becket
Frederick Mark Becket
American metallurgist
Hadfield
Sir Robert Abbott Hadfield, Baronet
British metallurgist
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Vannoccio Biringuccio
Italian metallurgist
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John Chipman
American chemist and metallurgist
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Sir William Chandler Roberts-Austen
British metallurgist
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Lazarus Ercker
German metallurgist
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Gustav Waldemar Elmen
American electrical engineer
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Carl Wagner
German chemist and metallurgist
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Johan August Brinell
Swedish engineer
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William Hume-Rothery
English metallurgist