Plural of foundry; places where metal is melted and poured into molds to make metal products.
From Old French founderie, from fondre (to melt or cast). The term has been used since medieval times for metalworking workshops that specialized in casting.
Foundries were the 3D printers of the pre-industrial world—they could turn raw metal into almost any shape imaginable, making them absolutely crucial to every civilization's technology.
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