COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Students at The Colorado Springs School (CSS) have received the unique and exclusive opportunity to participate in the ancient art of iron pouring.
This year marks the 30th year that The Colorado Springs School has been practicing this art form, an experience most high school students would find few and far between.
The experience began for these students in March when they began a three-week program titled the Great Iron Pour Experience, that would see their final step in the process become this exhilarating endgame.
The program began with the students breaking down 1200 pounds of iron gathered from the historic Trianon campus building, the original estate the foundations of the school were built upon.
On Mar. 18, the students then began to perform their version of the pour, with the remaining iron to be used by school alumni on Apr. 6, for the alumni rendition of the event.
The pouring process will look quite similar for both the students and the alumni. The process begins nearly 12 hours prior to the pour when the initial ignition takes place. By the time the 12-hour mark hits, the fire will be reaching 2600 degrees. Then, teams wearing protective gear will pour the iron into artistic molds, which when cooled, can take any shape of the design.
The Colorado Springs School invites the public to this experiential and intensive practice on Apr, 6, located at the Carriage House on The Colorado Springs School campus. The pour viewing will begin at dusk, sometime around 7 p.m.
Several fun facts and the blogs of the students who participated in the program can be found below:
- 1,200 lbs of iron will be broken down for the pour. The scrap iron has been procured from the school’s historic Trianon building. In 2015, the 110-year-old boiler was replaced but the scrap iron was retained for future iron pours.
- 200 lbs of purified coal (AKA coke at 95% carbon) will be used to fuel the fire.
- The cupola will be heated to approximately 3,000 degrees. The cupola is lined with 1,000 lbs of aluminosilicate refractory clay.
- Tons of sand are being used in multiple grades.
- Students are using a lost wax process dating back to 2000 B.C. to create molds for their iron sculptures. A more modern space-age technique of dipping the molds in a slurry and covering them with a stucco process is also being used.
- The Colorado Springs School is the only high school in the country to conduct an Iron Pour from beginning to finish. Students help build and repair all of the equipment used. Everything is from scratch.
- Check out student blogs on the Iron Pour and other ECS trips: HERE [css.org]
- The school has conducted iron pours since 1994. This seminar is offered on a multi-year rotation.
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