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In metallurgy, a bloom refers to a mass of wrought iron produced in a bloomery furnace. This process involved heating iron ore with charcoal in a furnace that couldn't reach iron's melting point. The result was a spongy mass of metal globules mixed with slag. This crude product, the bloom, was then reheated and hammered to remove slag and create usable wrought iron. Later, larger blooms were produced in taller furnaces. In modern steelmaking, a bloom is a large cross-section of steel cast from liquid steel, which is then further processed by rolling or hammering.123

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