1. The main types of oven

In 1850, world iron production was 60,000 t/year. Iron in a pasty state, at a time when no one knew how to control high temperatures:

• 1856 in England, liquid steel was obtained by injecting air through a cast-iron bath;

• 1900 in France, Héroult produces steel in an electric furnace for the first time.

Over the next 50 years, these means of production were continuously improved... In 1950, world steel production stood at 190 million tonnes. Electric arc furnaces accounted for only 8% of production.

In 1990, production in the Western world was 500 million tonnes (excluding the USSR and China). The breakdown of this production was as follows:

...