While watching a demonstration of sword making, from iron ore to a finished product, I wondered how much of a difference it would make if the forced air from the bellows was replaced with pure oxygen, which is used in many industrial steel making processes.
Is there a cheap way to produce large amounts of industrial grade oxygen? It’s already present in elemental form in the Earth’s atmosphere, unlike hydrogen. Could it be done on a small enough scale for a village blacksmith?
There are Oxygen Concentrators that increase the percentage of O by trapping the N in a Zeolite bed. They are used instead of liquid O units on some military aircraft, but I don’t know if there are any units big enough for industrial use.
Obligatory Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_concentrator
i did this as a kid.
place a jar upside down underwater. have something under it like underwater plants.
they will produce pure oxygen bubbles…
You would have to be patient to produce “large” quantities…but certainly doable
If I had to produce large amounts of oxygen I would try to separate it from air by cooling. Oxygen will liquify at 90 K, while nitrogen remains gaseous until 77 K. The technology to do so is probably well beyond that of a village blacksmith. I venture to say that by the time you can generate large amounts of oxygen, you have much better weapons than swords.