Yes, bloomery steel is essentially tamahagane. In the original variant, furnaces were built with an air-supplying orifice situated on the windward side.
That was further improved by hearth refining, shaft furnaces with bellows and then by puddling furnaces at the end of 18 century.
After that, the tempo of progress accelerated: Bessemer and Siemens -Martin processes allowed rapid production of large quantities of steel; the end of 19 century.
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