Thanks for your reply.

In recent years there has been a lot of confusion about the differences between kilns and furnaces. The apparatus for powderglass beadmaking, used in West Africa, is often called a "kiln," while I believe furnace is more accurate. Kilns and furnaces have several characteristics in common, but are used differently.

A kiln is usually charged (filled with stuff), then heated to fuse the stuff, then cooled, and the stuff removed. A furnace is usually heated first, then charged, then the stuff removed, and the furnace eventually cooled (though not always). At glass furnaces, the work is OFTEN conducted in-whole or in-part outside the furnace, once the material has been appropriately heated. This is much less frequently true among ceramics.

My expectation is that people who are familiar with kilns—as from doing ceramics work—use this name because they do not understand furnace work, and the differences. They just see the similarities.

Jamey