Among early civilizations, Indus Valley excavations reveal the use of big furnaces matching contemporary civilizations. From then on, by constant endeavors and innovations great strides in design developments have taken place in industrial furnaces. Specialization has peaked resulting in variety of furnaces. There is a furnace for every specific requirement today.

Ore extraction required furnaces in huge volumes to separate the metal from the raw material. The branch of chemistry Metallurgy with the aid of physicists and mechanical engineers evolved metallurgical furnaces for smelting and other processes. Bessemer, reverberatory, rotary, induction etc. are jut few names in furnaces that find use in metallurgy. All metallurgical furnaces are designed for extreme heat and high temperature applications.

Again, in metallurgy diversified requirements demanded different designs in furnaces. For example, the aluminum–melting furnace was different from the iron and steel furnace depending upon the temperature requirement of the end metal and the raw material ore, contaminated with different metals and impurities. Importance is location centered in designing the furnace because the availability of fuel also should be considered. A furnace that is located in coalfield can very well use the coal, as its fuel and the designer will have to focus this point. Where brazing is regularly done brazing furnace is used, either electrically heated or fluid fired. In foundry industry, rotary furnace is employed, as this is more suitable with sophistication and controls.

When the material behaviors in the industrial furnaces are to be studied, a miniature, with all the features of the original is essential in the laboratory. This laboratory furnace is also to help upgrade the design of the furnace itself. These not only helps to develop the product quality but also aids innovative improvement in furnace redesign and create better controls and safeties. These furnaces serve to provide heat for the processing at the same time fulfilling the need of a reactor. Though there is lot of design variations in these furnaces, all of them work for one main purpose that is to produce and provide process heat.

Irrespective of the application, all furnaces have the same basic features and mechanisms. Fuel is injected into the processing chamber in a form that makes air fuel mixture for optimum heat production at critical conditions, with the exception of electrical furnace, where heating is by direct arc or induction as the case is. From the outgoing flue gases as much of process heat is recovered and used in some application in the shop floor before letting them out through the chimney.

Incinerating furnace differs in one aspect as it is employed to destroy or burn out things that are to be dispensed, unlike other industrial furnaces that are employed in production assignments. Because of the size and volume, handling this is classified as industrial furnace. Otherwise, the principle employed is same as in the industrial furnaces. These types find the application mostly in crematoriums where high–rise chimney is installed to dissipate the smell while burning.

Furnaces are power packed amazing equipments. The art of harnessing the power to the requirement is the ability to derive optimum benefits will be efficiency of the operator.

Recent Archaeological findings reveal that humans have been using metals since the Neolithic period and mining and working of metals began in around 8,000 BCE, ten thousand years ago. This is much longer than previously presumed. In fact, simple copper artifacts dating back to 9,000 BCE were recently found in Asia Minor.

It seems that the Hittites, of the Taurus mountain range area in what is now Turkey were not the first metal workers, as was formerly thought, but actually inherited their savvy in Metallurgy from the earlier cultures of that region who were the first metal users as far is known at this date.

The first metals that were used by humans were gold and copper. This is understandable, as both are easy to see and both are easy to work using just simple tools. Because of the softness and pliability, gold, was used for mainly ornamental purposes. Copper, the more durable metal was used for adornment as well but also for spearheads, knives, pins, combs, and other useful items, that the softer gold was not well suited for.

It is not certain how early metal crafters discovered smelting. Raw copper is brittle and can break when being worked, but after being heated becomes pliant and workable. It has been suggested that this may have been found out accidentally by someone dropping a piece of metal into a fire then noticing the difference in the working of the metal later.

When man began to use metals, there was much basically pure metal to be found and worked with. As demand grew, digging for more supply became necessary, and mining developed. As mining progressed, less and less pure metal was available to be smelted. As the unpure metals were heated, the other metals mixed with them would melt down at different rates. This would have been noticed by the person working the metal. The subsequent differences of the resulting metals would also have been recognized. Experimentation with these different combinations of metals resulted in the first practices of metallurgy. By the Chalcolithic era, which began about 5,000 years BCE, silver, nichol, and lead were also being worked. By the middle of the third millennium BCE alloys were being used with skill and good tin bronzes had been developed.

The Chinese have used aluminum since as early as 300 BCE, yet Western society knew nothing about this metal until it was rediscovered in the West in the early 1800's. As incredible as the Hittites accomplishments in Metallurgy were, it was not only that talent which has made our cultures what they are today. It was also their ability to establish and develop trade and transport commerce to deliver metals and metal products to other cultures near and far that has helped make civilization what it is today.

Ever since the trend in shaving facial hair developed in Europe during the early part of the 1800's, frustrated men everywhere have been been struggling with their razors. The fact is, that a dull razor can turn shaving into a miserable experience. Double edged and triple edged disposable razors have been a big improvement but something even better has recently appeared on the market.

New Metal Technologies in Razors

New developments in metallurgy that in the past would have been confined strictly to strategic industries related to the military have been finding their way into more sensible uses now. One of them is in the development of shaving razors that remain sharp far longer than shaving razors ever have in the past. Also, these new high tech metals are now being used in classic straight razors as well, that more and more men are beginning to use.

Other New Developments

Still other recent developments in mens shaving products, include such items as new shaving soaps that contain vital substances that treat the skin of the face as a person uses them to shave. In the past, men really didn't give a whole lot of thought to skin tone when they shaved, because they were mainly focused on getting the closest shave possible when they were shaving.

More New Products Help Men to Look their Best

Now however, with new products such as super sharp and durable razors now available on the market that make getting perfect shave so much more easy, men are now expecting a little bit more from the time that they spend shaving each morning. With so many new shaving product that are now available to help men to look their personal, best more and more men around the globe are leaving for work each morning looking better than they ever have before.