(Cast iron) Hard, brittle iron produced by melting ore in a blast furnace pig iron can be cast into objects like cannon, shot, and stove plates The iron bars laid out on the casting floor resembled suckling piglets about a larger trench that was called a "sow" Cast iron bars came in two sizes, a pig and a sow
Crude iron cast in blocks. a form of iron that is not pure. Crude iron obtained directly from the blast furnace and cast in molds (see cast iron). The crude ingots, called pigs, are then remelted along with scrap and alloying elements and recast into molds to produce various iron and steel products (see Bessemer process, finery process, puddling process)
A common term for cast iron or cast iron ingots The term originated from the practice of casting ingots in triangular section troughs cut in the sand floor of foundires A central trough fed smaller molds on its side like suckling pigs Thus "pig iron"
The product of the blast furnace The term was derived from the method of casting the bars of the pig iron in depressions or moulds formed in the sand floor adjacent to the furnace These were connected to a runner (known as a sow) and when filled with metal the runner and the numerous smaller moulds were supposed to resemble a litter of suckling pigs, hence the term pig iron