SAUGUS — Saugus Iron Works held its annual iron pour on Saturday, which featured a cast iron production recreation that would have been a common sight in the 17th century.
Demonstrators cast iron in a little cupola furnace, melting iron and pouring it into molds to make cast iron similar to, but on a much smaller scale, than would have been done 350 years ago.
The aim for demonstrators was to pour as fast as they could because iron cools down really quickly.
About 350 years ago, workers would have been melting half a ton of iron, or 1,000 pounds, every 12 hours using a furnace.
Saugus Iron Works is a reconstruction of the first successful, integrated iron works in the New World, which produced wrought iron and cast iron products from 1646 to 1670. The site is considered the birthplace of the iron and steel industry in Colonial America.
In 1968, the site was renamed Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site and became part of the National Park System.
