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[utilitarian]

Forgive me if this is common knowledge, but I haven't been able to find any information about this on the wiki, so I thought I would share it here.


I once breached an underground river on one of my fortresses, and as the water was flowing into my furnace room(which had 4 wood furnaces), I noticed it was all turning into steam, even when rooms of comparable size and proximity to the flood were filling up with water. The only reason I could see this happening was because of a roomwide temperature increase from the furnaces. Eventually, the water stopped evaporating, and the room filled. The logical cause would seem to be that the room was too hot on account of the furnaces, causing evaporation. When enough water had poured into cool the room down(or enough time had elapsed since the furnaces were last operational), then the room could fill. (Again, if this is common knowledge, forgive me).

If this isn't known, it appears it may be an important scientific, if not !!SCIENTIFIC!! discovery.

[utilitarian]

*Accidentaly hit 'quote instead of modify.'*

[nttea]

were these normal furnaces or the magma kind? if the magma i suppose the proximity to it might be the cause of heat by itself? otherwise i didn't know furnaces did this

[Sphalerite]

Are you sure it was steam, and not mist?  Flowing water creates mist, without requiring any source of heat.

[utilitarian]

I don't remember, to be honest. I'm calling it steam now, but it very well could have been mist.(Is there even 'steam' in the game?). There is steam apparently. I'd be tempted to say it was steam, but all I am entirely certain of is that the room would not fill with water for an extremely long time relative to the rest of the fortress, and that there was a constant cloud of mist/steam near the bottom of the ladder.

were these normal furnaces or the magma kind? if the magma i suppose the proximity to it might be the cause of heat by itself? otherwise i didn't know furnaces did this

They were wood furnaces. Four of them, that were running non-stop because I felt like making lots of charcoal. And they were located right next to the entrance.

[utilitarian]

It may just be a false memory, but I now strongly think that it was, in fact steam.

[Mdort Goblinsmiter]

Should be easy to replicate the circumstances.  I'll give it a try.

[utilitarian]

Should be easy to replicate the circumstances.  I'll give it a try.

!!SCIENCE!! Time

[Mdort Goblinsmiter]

I gave it a try and it appears to not create steam. Neither the initial contact nor when the dwarf is actively smelting/burning wood for ash or charcoal.  It's possible I didn't let things heat up enough, but with my fort layout I wasn't able to get them working any faster.

[utilitarian]

I gave it a try and it appears to not create steam. Neither the initial contact nor when the dwarf is actively smelting/burning wood for ash or charcoal.  It's possible I didn't let things heat up enough, but with my fort layout I wasn't able to get them working any faster.

There's always the chance that there was something strange going with the flow and it was mist after all. How many furnaces did you have going?

[Mdort Goblinsmiter]

One smelter and one wood furnace.

[Urist Da Vinci]

... and that there was a constant cloud of mist/steam near the bottom of the ladder.
...

Falling water in DF creates mist. DF doesn't have ladders, I assume you mean stairs? Water can fall down stairs.

Was the water coming from above? You said you breached an "underground river" - what version of the game are you playing on? If you are playing the latest version (31.25) we probably have a different name for what you are seeing.

Wood furnaces or smelters don't generate heat. If they did generate enough heat to boil water into steam, the dwarf using the furnace/smelter would bleed to death as the fat melts off his body. Also, I checked for temperature using the probe tool from dfhack and it is the usual 10015 U underground.

http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Temperature

[Loud Whispers]

Well that settles it.


Guess we'll just have to stick with magma indoors heating for our warmth then...