All the tools, engines and locomotives that characterized the industrial age began as molten iron flowing from a blast furnace. Nova Scotia was the birthplace of steelmaking in Canada. It offered the raw materials of iron, coal, and manpower ready to take on the challenge of making a metal of exceptional hardness and strength.

Between 1850 and 1900, Nova Scotia had more than 100 foundries, large and small. See one of the giant molds that was used for casting steel ingots and some of the objects they made like stoves and engines and learn more about the casting process in the pattern shop.