One thing that immediately impressed me about Fort Niagara's hot shot furnace is its huge size. Having stood next to a number of other furnaces built in the same era, Fort Niagara's towered o'er me in an unfamiliar fashion. While the US Army distributed a kit to build hot shot funaces at its far-flung outposts, it appears that Fort Niagara upgraded to the king-sized version! Perhaps this was because heated shot had already been issued from, and received by, this fort during the War of 1812.