Backyard furnace
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Backyard steel furnaces were used by the people of China during the Great Leap Forward (1958-62). These small steel furnaces were constructed in the backyards of the communes, hence their names. People used every type of fuel they could to power these furnaces, from coal to the wood of coffins. They melted any steel objects they could get their hands on -- including pots and pans, and even bicycles -- to make steel girders, but these girders were useless, as the steel was impure and of poor quality, so it cracked easily. The Backyard Steel Campaign was one of the major failures of the Great Leap Forward, and indeed a factor in the failure of the Great Leap Forward.
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