Tuyere

A tuyere or tuyère (French pronunciation: [tɥijɛʁ]; English: /twiːˈjɛər/)^[1][2] is a tube, nozzle or pipe allowing the blowing of air into a furnace or hearth.^[3]

Air or oxygen is injected into a hearth under pressure from bellows or a blowing engine or other devices. This causes the fire to become hotter in front of the blast than it would otherwise have been, enabling metals to be smelted or melted or made hot enough to be worked in a forge, though these are blown only with air. This applies to any process where a blast is delivered under pressure to make a fire hotter. Archeologists have discovered tuyeres dating from the Iron Age; one example dates from between 770 BCE and 515 BCE.^[4]

Following the introduction of hot blast, tuyeres are often water-cooled.^[3]

Around the year 1500 new ironmaking techniques, including the blast furnace and finery forge, were introduced into England from France, along with the French technical terms relating to the new technology. "Tuyere" (French: tuyère, lit. 'air vent') is one of these French words, sometimes Anglicised as tue-iron or tue iron.^[5]