For the English edition the book was revised by the authors, taking into account a number of suggestions of the readers of the German edition. Some of the most important publications in the field of iron ore reduction, which appeared since 1967, have been used to bring the manuscript as far as possible up to date. The kind assistance of Dr. K. BOHNENKAMP of the Max-Planck-Institut fUr Eisenforschung, Dusseldorf, was much appreciated in this respect. Ohapters 2.9 and 2.10, dealing with the reduction of molten oxide slags by solid carbon and with the contribution of the water-gas reaction to iron ore reduction, have been added for the English edition. Ohapter 2.9 has been completely revised with the kind assistance of Dr. H. J. GRABKE, Stuttgart. Dipl.-Ing. J. LODDE contributed to this edition by revising the bibliography. Owing to the rapid development of the blast furnace it was necessary to revise Ohapter 5 considerably. In this field many valuable suggestions have been made by Dipl.-Ing. G. LANGE and Dipl.-Ing. P. HEINRICH. Furthermore, Ohapters3 and 4 have been thoroughly revised by Dr.-Ing. E. FORSTER and Dr.-Ing. U. SCHIERLOH. Last, but not least, we have to thank our translators for their excellent work.