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>The main benefit was that cast-iron could be made before steel was invented, it does not retain heat better than aluminum alloys Actually, both "steels" and "

>The main benefit was that cast-iron could be made before steel was invented, it does not retain heat better than aluminum alloys Actually, both "steels" and "cast iron" are iron-carbon alloys, and we have evidence of quench hardened carbon-alloy "steels" thousands of years before the first cast iron pieces. While we tend to think of bronze age as not featuring iron, the truth is that steel production dates back almost 4,000 years. While cast iron cookware predates other steel cookwares, it's likely because it was far cheaper and easier to cast cast-iron into pot or pan shapes than it was to work mega-hot steels, which was reserved for much more expensive and important uses.

8note 5y ago
Isn't that wrought iron production? Too low of carbon content because the iron doesn't melt? We started getting cast iron once we could get the temperature up to melting, then the optimized steels once we figured out how to add oxygen to the cast iron and burn out the excess carbon. It's still possible to get higher carbon content out of a bloomery to get steel, but highly unlikely... And you'd get what, a nail's worth from 3 people's labour over a couple of days? {Mine the ore/grab it from a swamp, bake it, make charcoal, make the bloomery, run the bloomery, consolidate the bloom}