Metallurgy. [a. Ger. flosz in same sense: see FLOAT sb.]
1. a. (See quot.) b. (See quot.) c. = floss-hole (see below).
a. 1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 509. Floss of the puddling furnace is the fluid glass floating upon the iron produced by the vitrification of the oxides and earths which are present.
b. 1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 711–2. White cast iron … is employed … for the manufacture of steel, and is then called steel floss, or lamellar floss.
c. 1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 702. The floss, or outlet of the slag from the furnace.
2. Comb.: floss-hole, (a) ‘a hole at the back of a puddling-furnace, beneath the chimney, at which the slags of the iron pass out of the furnace; (b) the tap-hole of a melting furnace’ (Knight).
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 708. The excess of slag is allowed to run off by the chio or floss hole.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Floss-hole. A tap-hole.
