Hochofenschlacke

Since the 1870s, granulated basic blast furnace slag has been used as a mortar aggregate.

Factsheet

  • Lead school Bern Academy of the Arts
  • Institute Institute Materiality in Art and Culture 
  • Research unit Technology in Art and Culture
  • Funding organisation Others
  • Duration (planned) 01.01.2017 - 31.12.2017
  • Project management Petra Dariz
  • Head of project Petra Dariz
  • Project staff Dr. Nadim Scherrer

Course of action

This research project aims to determine the composition of granulated slag produced in Switzerland by means of the microscopic and spectroscopic analysis of relicts in historical mortar samples. We hope to find a correlation between the chemical and mineralogical composition of the slag sand and the specific trace and heavy metal signatures of the local iron ore deposits used at that time.