Backyard steel furnaces were what was used by the people of China during the Great Leap Forward (1958-62) when Mao stated that he wanted to double steel output and catch up with the UK in terms of steel output in 15 years. These small steel furnaces were made in the back yards of the communes hence their names. People used every type of fuel they could to power these furnaces, from coal to the wood of coffins. They melted any steel objects, like pots and pans, even bicycles they could get their hands on to make steel girders, but these girders were useless as the steel was of a poor quality and was impure, so it cracked easily. The Backyard Steel Campaign was one of the major failures of the Great Leap Forward, and indeed a factor in the failure of the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward (Simplified Chinese: 大跃进; Traditional Chinese: 大躍進; Pinyin: Dà yuè jìn) of the Peoples Republic of China was an economic and social plan to use Chinas vast population to rapidly transform mainland China from a primarily agrarian economy dominated by peasant farmers into a modern, industrialized... Mao could refer to: Mao Zedong, (Mao Tse-Tung in Wade-Giles) leader of the Communist Party of China from 1935 to 1976. ... A commune is a system of social and economic organization which involves the common ownership of resources and/or shared obligations. ... An open coffin A coffin is a box used for the display and burial or cremation of a dead human body. ...

Mao incorrecty believed that by matching the UK and the US's steel output he could equal their economic power.