Practicum 1.doc
Practicum 1 Photo.JPGWeek 3 Practicum
The practicum for this week concerned establishing a fictional iron production site in the Adirondack region of New York with particular emphasis on ore and fuel choices. We were given specific and limited resources and labor as well as information from geological surveys, iron composition from the area, multiple maps and a historic account to begin our research. In addition to these resources we were able to use internet searches to find additional information that would be helpful in determining the location of our iron production site. With the additional information particularly concerning the natural resources of the area and the consideration of the limitations on labor and transportation provided at the beginning of the assignment our group decided on a water powered iron bloomery on the banks of the Raquette River. Individually the location of our bloomery was plausible as a work site, but with the addition of the other groups site we were clearly at a disadvantage due to our location down river of the other sites. This brought up concerns of competition for resources and power. The added complication was not taken into account because each group was unaware of where the other groups had placed their sites, but was probably very likely to occur in real world situations. The complications of deciding on an iron producing site and each of the details that coincide with it (fuel sources, ore selection, labor, competition etc) were made much easier by our ability to search the internet for information. In the past when these techniques would have been used for iron production that information would not have been available. The sheer amount of factors and possible complications illustrate the difficulty of the iron production process and suggests that the individuals who undertook these positions had to either have acquired a specific set of knowledge through experience or have been taught the process over a span of time by another individual. The amount of knowledge required to run a successful iron production site suggests that it was a specialized career path, that was likely to have been passed on to other individuals. This was also evident in the difficulty encountered by the group upon trying to make certain decisions because none of the group members had any background knowledge in iron production aside from the reading for the course which does not necessarily provide the type “insider” information that would have been utilized by iron producers in the past.
