Water hammer

The water hammer was a separate object where iron was processed by mechanical forging. The hammer installed in the Museum - water-wheel driven lifting mechanical hammer - comes from the historical iron-making area of Podbrdsko where it was in operation till 1952. The exhibition also shows the hammer door from the first half of 19th century decorated by a figure of lion and smith's symbols. Hammers existed on our territory for the period longer than 600 years. Their function was double. Until introduction of the modern steel-making process, they were parts of metallurgical works and served for fining pig iron and forging metallurgical semi-products (refining hammers), or they were used for processing semi-products, but also scrap iron, to finished products (tool hammers). The latter form of hammers survived until the 50s of this century. Currently, three hammers are accessible to the public in Bohemia as technical monuments.