A furnace is a structure in which heat is produced with the help of combustion. Furnace may also refer to:

Appliances

Buildings

Furnace (central heating) A furnace (American English), referred to as a heater or boiler in British English, is an appliance used to generate heat for all or part of a building. Furnaces are mostly used as a major component of a central heating system. Furnaces are pe ...

: a furnace , or a heater or boiler , used to generate heat for buildings *

Boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

, used to heat water; also called a furnace in American English when used for heating and hot water in a building * Jetstream furnace or Tempest boiler, a design of wood-fired water heater

Industry

Industrial furnace An industrial furnace, also known as a direct heater or a direct fired heater, is a device used to provide heat for an industrial process, typically higher than 400 degrees Celsius. They are used to provide heat for a process or can serve as r ...

, a device used in industrial applications **

Glass melting furnace A glass melting furnace is designed to melt raw materials into glass. Depending on the intended use, there are various designs of glass melting furnaces available. They use different power sources. These sources are mainly fossil fueled or by f ...

Muffle furnace A muffle furnace or muffle oven (sometimes retort furnace in historical usage) is a furnace in which the subject material is isolated from the fuel and all of the products of combustion, including gases and flying ash. After the development of ...

or retort furnace **

Solar furnace A solar furnace is a structure that uses concentrated solar power to produce high temperatures, usually for industry. Parabolic mirrors or heliostats concentrate light (Insolation) onto a focal point. The temperature at the focal point may reac ...

Vacuum furnace A vacuum furnace is a type of furnace in which the product in the furnace is surrounded by a vacuum during processing. The absence of air or other gases prevents oxidation, heat loss from the product through convection, and removes a source of co ...

Metallurgical furnace A metallurgical furnace, more commonly referred to as a furnace, is a device used to heat and melt metal ore to remove gangue, primarily in Metal, iron and steel production. The heat energy to fuel a furnace may be supplied directly by fuel comb ...

, a device used to heat metal and metal ore **

Basic oxygen furnace Basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS, BOP, BOF, or OSM), also known as Linz-Donawitz steelmaking or the oxygen converter processBrock and Elzinga, p. 50. is a method of primary steelmaking in which carbon-rich molten pig iron is made into steel. Blowing ...

Bessemer converter The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation wi ...

Blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric p ...

Bloomery A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called a ''bloom'' ...

Electric arc furnace An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc. Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to ...

Electric induction furnace An induction furnace is an electrical furnace in which the heat is applied by induction heating of metal. Induction furnace capacities range from less than one kilogram to one hundred tons, and are used to melt iron and steel, copper, alumin ...

Open hearth furnace An open-hearth furnace or open hearth furnace is any of several kinds of industrial furnace in which excess carbon and other impurities are burnt out of pig iron to produce steel. Because steel is difficult to manufacture owing to its high me ...

Puddling furnace Puddling is the process of converting pig iron to bar (wrought) iron in a coal fired reverberatory furnace. It was developed in England during the 1780s. The molten pig iron was stirred in a reverberatory furnace, in an oxidizing environment, ...

Reverberatory furnace A reverberatory furnace is a metallurgical or process furnace that isolates the material being processed from contact with the fuel, but not from contact with combustion gases. The term ''reverberation'' is used here in a generic sense of ''re ...

Places

United Kingdom

Furnace, Argyll Furnace ( gd, An Fhùirneis) (formerly Inverleacainn ( gd, Inbhir Leacainn)) is a village in Argyll and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland, on the north shore of Loch Fyne, the longest sea loch in the United Kingdom. Furnace is around eig ...

, a village in Scotland *

Furnace, Carmarthenshire Furnace (or Welsh Ffwrnes) is a village near the town of Llanelli in the county of Carmarthenshire, Wales.

, a village in Carmarthenshire, Wales * Furnace, Ceredigion, a village in Ceredigion, Wales

United States

Furnace, California Greenwater (formerly, Ramsey, The Camp, and Kunze) was an unincorporated community near Death Valley located in the eastern side of the Inyo County, California. It is now a deserted ghost town. Geography Greenwater is located north of Fun ...

, a former settlement *

Furnace, Indiana Furnace is an unincorporated community in Richland Township, Greene County, Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital a ...

, a small town *

Furnace, Kentucky Furnace is an unincorporated community located in Estill County, Kentucky, United States. History Settlers found the surrounding area rich in iron ore. The Estill Steam Furnace, a blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furna ...

Furnace, Virginia Furnace is an unincorporated community in Page County, in the U.S. state of Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Co ...

Furnace, West Virginia Furnace was an unincorporated community in Hardy County, West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers ...

Dover Furnace station Dover Furnace was a station on the Harlem Line of the New York Central Railroad (now Metro-North Railroad). It was north from Grand Central Terminal in New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is th ...

, New York *

Furnace Creek, California Furnace Creek is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States. The population was 136 at the 2020 census, up from 24 at the 2010 census. The elevation of the village is below sea level. Furnace Creek holds the record ...

, a town in Death Valley, California

Arts, entertainment, and media

Films

* ''Furnace'' (film), a 2006 horror film * ''The Furnace'' (1920 film), a film based on the novel ''The Furnace'' by "Pan" * ''The Furnace'' (2020 film), an Australian adventure drama film

Literature

* Furnace: Lockdown, series of books by author Alexander Gordon Smith * ''The Furnace'' (magazine), a literary magazine * ''The Furnace'', a 1907 novel by

Rose Macaulay Dame Emilie Rose Macaulay, (1 August 1881 – 30 October 1958) was an English writer, most noted for her award-winning novel '' The Towers of Trebizond'', about a small Anglo-Catholic group crossing Turkey by camel. The story is seen as a spirit ...

Music

* ''Furnace'' (Download album), 1995 album by the industrial music group Download * ''Furnace'' (Keith Hudson album), 1972 * ''Furnaces'' (2016), album by

Ed Harcourt Edward Henry Richard Harcourt-Smith (born 14 August 1977) is an English singer-songwriter. To date, he has released six studio albums, two EPs, and thirteen singles. His debut album, ''Here Be Monsters'', was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Priz ...

Other uses

* , four ships of the Royal Navy *

Walt Furnace Walter Ray Furnace (born December 31, 1943) is an American politician and businessman. Background Furnace was born in Ennis, Texas and graduated from the George Carter High School. He served in the United States Air Force. He settled in Anchorage ...

(born 1943), American businessman and politician