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[Fourth Triad]

No it won't.

[ March 19, 2008: Message edited by: Fourth Triad ]

[Dasleah]

Darn. Seems like it should. I mean, materials can get hot, right - that's how they catch on fire. But they don't transfer that heat to other objects? Oh well. Something that Toady will clear up, eventually, I hope.

[numerobis]

Magma forges make so little physical sense that I don't see much argument for protective gear, etc etc -- we either accept that they are thinly-disguised magic, or we ban them for being unphysical.

Dwarves wouldn't likely catch on fire by being near a lava flow, unless they first died of horrible burns (not flame-burns, just radiative heat), then got dessicated.  Real-life vulcanologists (and humans, too) can survive being close to lava flows with relatively light clothing (nothing particularly protective), for a short while.  Of course, that's on the surface; in an enclosed space, the heat would be like walking into an oven, which would be survivable only if you walked right back out.  Except that you'd already have suffocated from the gases leaking through the door.

[I3erent]

quote:Originally posted by darkfred:
<STRONG>

I think the point is that we don't want dwarves who walk or work beside a magma channel to catch fire. Dwarves don't catch fire at 132F, I for one am fine with this. I like magma forges.

In real life I believe dwarves would need to withstand temperatures in the 250F range to work near hard cover magma and 400-1800 to work near liquid magma. (depending on the humidity and clothing mostly)

This still wouldn't actually get hot enough to make liquid steel only the folded and forged variety would be possible. The center of a volcano runs 2300F-2900F. While carbon steel is only fully liquid at temperatures of 2750+. With losses to the refractory and from radiating at the surface the best you could do would be forge welding.

Natural aluminum smelting might be possible, with very fresh lava. It only needs 1800F. But aluminum in that form does not exist in nature. The problem is that with aluminum oxide ore you must remove the oxygen. This requires an electrical arc hotter than the surface of the sun. (to do economically)</STRONG>

A little water and a bellows and you cAN RAISE THE TEMPERATURE CONSIDERABLY.  Duh.

[Shadowlord]

quote:Originally posted by Dasleah:
<STRONG>A related question - can I use the heat of magma on one side of a wall to steam water on the other side of the same wall?</STRONG>

They're a bit too far away. Instead, you might try running magma one level underneath (or above) water - but IIRC that won't turn it to steam, but might unfreeze ice.

(Keep the floor between the two levels intact - don't channel it out)

[ March 22, 2008: Message edited by: Shadowlord ]