Sweating Like a Pig in 2019?

I saw this story in the news today -
Europe hit by heatwave and hailstorms as experts warn Greenland ice could melt

And thought of the expression "sweating like a pig" and wondering how that expression came about, since pigs don't really sweat that much I thought.

Apparently, it's an expression about pig iron, not real pigs.

I Painted the Guy Who Put Together Peppa Pig?

A painting of an iron pig?

"The traditional shape of the molds used for pig iron ingots was a branching structure formed in sand, with many individual ingots at right angles to a central channel or runner, resembling a litter of piglets being suckled by a sow.

When the metal had cooled and hardened, the smaller ingots
(the pigs) were simply broken from the runner (the sow), hence the name pig iron."

"Smelting and producing wrought iron was known in ancient Europe and the Middle East, but iron was produced in bloomeries by direct reduction.

Pig iron was not produced in Europe before the Middle Ages.

The Chinese were also making pig iron by the later Zhou dynasty (which ended in 256 BC).

Furnaces such as Lapphyttan in Sweden may date back to the 12th century; and some in the Mark, Westfalen, Germany to the 13th.

It remains to be established whether these northern European developments derive from Chinese ones.

Wagner has postulated a possible link via Persian contacts with China along the Silk Road and Viking contacts with Persia, but there is a chronological gap between the Viking period and Lapphyttan.
The phase transition of the iron into liquid in the furnace was an avoided phenomenon, as decarburizing the pig iron into steel was an extremely tedious process using medieval technology."

Work on the foundations of the Eiffel Tower started on 28 January 1887, which was the Year of the Pig.

Carl Jung was born 12 years before in 1875, also the Year of the Pig.

'Pearls Before Swine' and Speaking of Jung?

I listened to the latest 'Speaking of Jung' podcast where Margaret Klenck talked about painting self-portraits and the difference between self-portraits and portraits -

Margaret Klenck and Speaking of Jung

I was reading the latest 'Artlines' magazine this morning, which featured a lot of portraits by artist Ben Quilty, including a self-portrait of Ben himself.

And there was also a portrait of a lifejacket painted by Ben.

After seeing the news story this morning of people in Paris splashing around near the Eiffel Tower and remembering the "yellow Jacket" protests that shook the streets of Paris a few months back.

I wondered how long until there are environmentalists donning orange lifejackets and protesting in the streets?
Or red ones?
The Eiffel Tower has a Zip Wire?!

From the June/July, 2019 edition of 'Artlines' magazine

Hmm ... nothing but time?

Hard Choices (1985)

I wonder what summer temperatures will be like in 12 years' time in the next Year of the Pig?