[Colonial_John]

Great site and fine photos. Would have liked that myself.

As an industrial engineer working in metals, I can tell you that bottom loading furnaces most significant advantage is that they don't cool off so much when being charged. I was involved with some automated furnaces for sintering ferrite many years ago and they were chosen because they have a much more consistent temperature profile throughout, giving more uniform results within and between batches.

Probably more than you wanted to know, lol.