User:Ethan343/sandbox

= Ethan's Sandbox = Hello!

Critiquing articles
During the article evaluation I learned about Wikipedia's quality rating for articles and its importance for identifying articles that could be improved. I chose my article from the assessment statistics page of the mining WikiProject. I chose from the stub class list of articles as there was not a lot of information present in these articles and I could add content that could make a dramatic impact to the quality of the article. I critiqued the article based of its structure, balance, neutrality, and source quality. I decided what to add to the article based off which sections I thought were underdeveloped or missing. After reviewing the article I thought that the format could be changed a little and sections on iron extraction and the formation of bog iron could be added.

Summarizing your contributions
My first contribution to the article was changing a section titled "Europe and the North" to just "Europe". I felt that the "and the North" part of the article wasn't necessary as the region of Northern Europe is included in Europe. If someone really wanted a section on Northern Europe they could always add a new subsection titled "Northern Europe". I also added information to the Europe section and integrated this information with the information already present to create a new paragraph. Another one of my contributions was adding a few sentences in the introductory paragraphs of the article that talked about bog iron's specific affinity for heavy metals and how it can be utilized in environmental protection technologies. I thought this was a valuable addition to the article as I found a few sources that talked about this but it was not mentioned anywhere in the article. Another addition was formatting a large quote in the article that had valuable information but was unnecessary and out of place. I moved the valuable information from the quote into the formation section and removed the quote from the article. I also added information under the "Pre-Columbian" subsection and expanded on the one sentence present that briefly touched on L'Anse aux Meadows. One of my larger additions was the section on the formation of bog iron. I felt this section was a valuable contribution to the article as I thought there was an information gap regarding how bog iron was formed in the original article. My other larger addition to the article was a section on iron extraction, or how bog iron is converted to wrought iron. Like the previous section, I thought this was a valuable addition to the article as I believed there was a knowledge gap in the original article as it barely touched on iron production.

Peer Review
During the peer review process I reviewed two other classmate's contribution drafts based off their lead sections, structure, content, and source reliability. I gave these classmates tips on how they can change the structure of their contributions so that they flowed better and made more logical sense. I also evaluated the content of their contributions and identified any areas in which more content could be added. I gave these classmates future topics to look into to find information to add to their contributions. My peer reviewer recommended I looked into the Wikipedia article smelting and to read the sections on fluxes as that section talks about adding lime as a flux in bloomery furnaces. I did take a look at this section and ended up adding a sentence in my iron extraction section. My peer reviewer also agreed that the large quote was unnecessary and needed to be removed. Like me, my peer reviewer also thought that the article could use a section on bog iron formation and I have since created this section.

Feedback
No one has added to bog iron, besides me, since I started editing the article and I have not received any feedback from other Wikipedia editors.

Wikipedia Generally
Since I've started this course, and subsequently started contributing to Wikipedia, I have learned a lot about how Wikipedia works and how I can contribute to articles myself. I've learned what type of content Wikipedia expects in its articles and which articles Wikipedia deems lacking in content that could be improved. One thing I found particularly interesting about Wikipedia was WikiProjects and how each WikiProject has an assessment statistics page that shows the importance and quality of articles in that project. The Wikipedia assignment is quite different from assignments I've done in the past as not only can all my classmates see my work but anyone with access to Wikipedia can also see my progress. This project is one of the only projects I've done in which my work will actually leave the classroom. This project is also different as everything was just "handed in" online which was a welcomed change for me. Wikipedia can be used to improve the public standing of any field or topic. Anyone with credible sources and valuable information can easily add to a topic. Any information that is easily accessible on a platform like Wikipedia is valuable information that increases public knowledge on a topic. Wikipedia is important because it is a free encyclopedia that is completely made by the public. A worldwide, truly free, exhaustive, and always accessible encyclopedia that can be constantly updated, sometimes seemingly instantly, with up to date information is a valuable resource.

Article Contributions
Bog iron, like other hydrous iron oxides, has a specific affinity for heavy metals. This affinity combined with the porous structure and high specific surface area of bog iron make it a good natural sorbent. These properties combined with the fact that bog iron is cheap to obtain are incentives for its utilization in environmental protection technologies.

Europe
First iron smelting attempts date back to the 2nd millennium BCE in the Near East. The technology then spread throughout Europe in the following two millennia, reaching Poland in the 2nd century BCE. Iron production reached Scandinavia through Denmark in 500 CE and spread to Norway and Sweden shortly thereafter. There is evidence of a direct relationship between Viking settlements in Northern Europe & North America and bog iron deposits. Bog iron dominated the iron production of Norse populated areas including Scandinavia and Finland from 500 to 1300 CE. Large scale production of bog iron was also established in Iceland at sites known as "Iron Farms". Smaller scale production sites in Iceland consisted of large farmsteads and some original Icelandic settlements, but these seemed to only produce enough iron to be self-sufficient. Even after improved smelting technology made mined ores viable during the Middle Ages, bog iron remained important, particularly to peasant iron production, into modern times. (Citation in article) In Russia, bog ore was the principal source of iron until the 16th century, when the superior ores of the Ural Mountains became available. (From the article, citation needed).

Formation
Iron is carried to bogs in low-pH, low dissolved oxygen iron-bearing groundwater that reaches the surface through springs, along structures of fractures, or where ground water intersects surface flows. The iron in the water is then oxidized by dissolved oxygen or, through enzyme catalysis by iron bacteria (eg. Thirobacillus ferrooxidans and Th. thiooxidans) that concentrate the iron as part of their life processes. Presence of these bacteria can be detected by the oily film they leave on the surface of the water. This change of oxidation state causes the precipitation of fine-grained iron solids near the point of groundwater discharge. A variety of iron minerals, such as geothite, magnetite, hematite, schwertmannite, and amorphous iron-aluminum-sulfate-rich solids, can be formed via oxidation of ferrous iron under the acidic conditions present. All photosynthesizers play dual roles as oxygen producers, and thus passive iron oxidizers, and as surfaces to which the iron can sorb or bind. This causes aquatic plants to become heavily encrusted with a light-orange floc of iron oxyhydroxide near the point of oxygen gas release from the plants. Factors such as local geology, parent rock mineralogy, ground-water composition, and geochemically active microbes & plants influence the formation, growth, and persistence of iron bogs. Bog iron is a renewable resource, the same bog can be harvested about once each generation.

Iron Extraction
Iron smelting from bog iron was invented during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, and most Viking era iron was smelted from bog iron. Limited technology is needed to process bog iron since it does not have to be molten to remove many impurities. Due to its easy accessibility and reducibility, bog iron was commonly used for early iron production. Early metallurgists identified bog iron deposits by: withered grass, a wet environment, hygrophilous grass-dominated vegetation, and reddish-brown solutions or depositions in nearby waters. Wooden or metal sticks were then stabbed into the ground to detect larger ore deposits. Layers of peat in the bog were cut and pulled back using turf knives to extract smaller, pea sized nodules of bog iron. Early iron production from bog ore was mostly done in bloomery furnaces. The resources necessary for production were wood for charcoal, clay for the construction of bloomery furnaces, and water for processing. Iron in the ore is reduced to a spongy iron bloom that stays in the upper part of the furnace while the undesirable elements stream downwards as slag. Smelting with a bloomery furnace often results in between 10 and 20 mass percent Fe being reduced to iron bloom, while the rest is transferred into the slag. The bloom must then be consolidated with a hammer to make usable wrought iron. There is some archaeological evidence that lime was added to furnaces to treat silica-rich ores that were difficult to smelt by the bloomery process.

Pre-Columbian
Iron may have been produced by Vikings at Point Rosee and other locations in Newfoundland around 1000 CE.(Citation in article) Excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows have found considerable evidence for the processing of bog iron and the production of iron ore. The settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows was situated immediately east of a sedge peat bog and 15kg of slag was found at the site, which would have produced around 3kg of usable iron. Analysis of the slag showed that considerably more iron could have been smelted out of the ore, indicating that the workers processing the ore had not been skilled. This supports the idea that iron processing knowledge was widespread and not restricted to major centres of trade and commerce. 98 nail fragments were also found at the site as well as considerable evidence for wood working which points to the iron produced at the site possibly being used only for ship repair and not tool making.

Sources to look into
Formation and geochemical significance of iron bog deposits https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1651/downloads/Vol2_combinedChapters/vol2_chapE14.pdf

Historical building stones in the province of Limburg (NE Belgium): role of petrography in provenance and durability assessment https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044580304001585

A comparative micromorphological and chemical study of "Raseneisenstein" (bog iron ore) and "Ortstein"

Mineral transformations and textural evolution during roasting of bog iron ores https://link-springer-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/article/10.1007%2Fs10973-015-4925-1

Micromorphology, chemistry, and mineralogy of bog iron ores from Poland https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/science/article/pii/S0341816203001334

MINERALOGY OF HOLOCENE BOG-IRON ORE IN NORTHERN BELGIUM

Mössbauer studies of natural goethite and bog iron ore https://journals-scholarsportal-info.proxy.library.carleton.ca/details/00318965/v44i0002/443_msongabio.xml

FORMATION TIME OF BOG IRON-ORE AND CHALCEDONY VEINLETS IN UPPER HORIZONS OF NICKEL DEPOSITS OF WEATHERING IN MIDDLE URALS

BOG IRON-ORE AND SINGLE BLOCK FURNACES

The formation and distribution of bog iron-ore deposits

Pore size distribution and stability of ortstein and overlying horizons in podzolic soils under forest https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016706117309199

Week 8 - Respond to your peer review
After reading over smelting and specifically the early iron smelting I can add a sentence to my contribution to an article about how the iron bloom produced in a bloomery furnace must be consolidated with a hammer to make usable wrought iron.

I agree with getting rid of that quote under the Europe section. I will deal with that the same time I add my contributions to the article. I may add a "Bog Iron Formation" section but I would need to take information from the first paragraphs of the article and I'm leaning towards leaving them there because it flows nicely. I will look into it and maybe re-write some of it.

Iron Production
Iron smelting from bog iron was invented during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, and most Viking era iron was smelted from bog iron. Limited technology is needed to process bog iron since it does not have to be molten to remove many impurities. Due to its easy accessibility and reducibility, bog ore was commonly used for early iron production. Early metallurgists identified bog iron deposits by: withered grass, a wet environment, hygrophilous grass-dominated vegetation, and reddish-brown solutions or depositions in nearby waters. Wooden or metal sticks were then stabbed into the ground to detect ore deposits. Early iron production from bog ore was mostly done in bloomery furnaces. The resources necessary for production were wood for charcoal, clay for the construction of bloomery furnaces, and water for processing. Iron in the ore is reduced to a spongy iron bloom that stays in the upper part of the furnace while the undesirable elements stream downwards as slag. Smelting with a bloomery furnace often results in between 10 and 20 mass percent Fe being reduced to iron bloom, while the rest is transferred into the slag. There is some archaeological evidence that lime was added to furnaces to treat silica-rich ores that were difficult to smelt by the bloomery process.

Clarity
The language in the article is clear and easy to understand. The first heading is 'Europe and the North' which is unclear as what is it referring to. Europe is at least a location but the North is too vague. What the author was trying to say was history of bog iron in Northern Europe. The other heading in the article is 'North America' which is again unclear as to what it refers to. The author is referring to history of bog iron in North America. Something unclear in the article was how the bog iron was found in the bogs and how it was then converted to iron metal. There is a mention of this in the quote but that is all. The images in the article are all quality and relevant to the article with good captions.

Structure
The structure of this article should be changed so that the 'Europe and the North' and 'North America' sections are placed under a single section known as 'History'. The structure of the article is fairly straightforward as it essentially only has an introduction and a history section, with subsections in the history section. The history section follows in chronological order which is good. Under the 'Europe and the North' section, there is a lengthy quote that is unnecessary and should be removed and replaced by a paraphrased version of the text. Some information in the introduction section of the article should be added to a new section known as 'Formation'. The article should also have more subsections such as characteristics, properties, and formation, potentially among others. I would also separate the images on the page a bit to make it slightly more aesthetically pleasing. Many of the sentences in the article contain unnecessary comas and are awkwardly written which will have to be changed.

Balanced Coverage
The article's introduction starts off with a good overview of bog iron but the next sections only focus on it's history. The history of bog iron does deserve a large section as it was in the past that this ore was used the most/most important but other properties/uses of the ore deserve their own respective sections. I would assume that bog iron was/is found in more areas of the world than just Northern Europe and North America and what add a section on that as well. Overall the article needs more subsections in various areas to be more balanced.

Neutrality
The article is written in a neutral tone and states the facts well. The history section of Colonial North America is a good example of this and is full of sentences like "Lake Massapoag in Massachusetts was drawn down by deepening the outlet channel in a search for bog iron." This sentence is straight to the point and doesn't push any agendas. All sentences in the article are like this which is good. No viewpoints appear to be over represented, or underrepresented.

Talk Page
The talk page only has two sections, one by InternetArchiveBot which was switching some links, and another by a Wikipedian indicating their intentions on finding a primary source on something they read about L'Anse aux Meadows having a furnace and smithy where they smelted bog iron ore. That was 6 years ago, hopefully they find it soon! The article is part of WikiProject Mining (Start-Class, Mid-importance) and WikiProject Geology (Start-Class, Low-importance). There are many sentences that require a citation in the article and a section in the talk page that discusses this would be beneficial. Unfortunately there is little discussion in the talk page about the article. This article, like any other, would benefit from discussion.

1st source
It appears the first source is two sources in one. I think the author was trying to say that both these sources had the same point but putting them together was not the right way to do that. They should be separated into two separate sources which would then just be cited one after another in the body text. They appear to be good sources.

2nd source
This source leads to a viking combat training website which may not be the best source of information on an iron ore.

3rd source
This source leads to a national geographic article which isn't the worst but not the best source.

4th source
This source leads to a website for a newspaper based out of Keene, New Hampshire. Not a good source.

5th source
This source leads to a letter from 1578. Seems to be a good source.

6th source
This source leads to a published journal titled "The First American Blast Furnace, 1619-1622: The Birth of a Mighty Industry on Falling Creek in Virginia", a good source.

7th source
This source leads to a website about colonial Williamsburg. Potentially a good source depending on where the information came from.

8th source
This source is a book on the economy and ecosystem of New England, a good source.

9th source
This source leads to an article by the National Park Service, a good source.

10th source
This source leads to a iron works website, probably not the best source.

11th source
This source leads to a page by the New Jersey Pinelands Commission. Probably a good source.

Suggestions for Improvement
Major weaknesses of this article are the lack of information present in it. More sections are required to touch on more than just history. A section on the formation of bog iron is necessary. The article also has too many poor quality sources. More quality information from quality sources is required in the article. The article is also missing many citations and contains a large quote where a quote is not necessary. Removing the quote and carefully looking through this article for sentences that require citations and adding them where possible will bolster this article. A strength of the article is that its history section is extensive when compared to the rest of the article. More history sections do need to be added for other parts of the world though.