A foundry is a factory where metal is melted down and poured into molds to create specific shapes. Think of it like a massive, industrial version of making ice cubes: workers heat metal until it becomes liquid, then pour it into hollow forms that give it the desired shape as it cools and hardens.

Foundries produce an enormous range of metal objects. The engine block in a car starts at a foundry. Church bells, manhole covers, cast-iron skillets, and metal parts for machinery all come from foundries. Before modern manufacturing, foundries were essential to civilization: they made cannons, tools, gates, and the metal framework for bridges and buildings.

The work requires intense heat (iron melts at over 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit) and careful skill. Foundry workers, called foundry workers or founders, must know exactly how different metals behave when melted and how to create molds that produce perfect castings. One mistake in the mold can mean a flawed product.

In technology, foundry has a newer meaning: a semiconductor foundry manufactures computer chips designed by other companies. Just as a traditional foundry shapes molten metal, a chip foundry shapes silicon into the intricate circuits that power computers and phones.