FIELD: metallurgy. SUBSTANCE: the invention is dealt with a shaft furnace of a direct reduction, that uses a loading of a lumpy material containing ferric oxide and-or sponge iron in the shaft furnace from above. The shaft furnace has a set of located in one plane gas-feeding holes for reduction of gas in a zone o the lower third of the shaft furnace. At that the shaft furnace is surrounded from the outside with a ring-type chamber linked from below with the gas-feeding holes through the gas-feeding channels. The shaft contour in a zone of the gas-feeding holes has an enlargement of the shaft furnace diameter, and the wall of the shaft furnace has a ring-type cavity between the gas-feeding holes located in the zone of this enlargement of the diameter and the loading wall. Due to the enlargement of the diameter a lateral surface of a truncated cone is formed, an angle with a horizontal generatrix of the cone is smaller, than the angle of slope of the material present in the shaft furnace, or the enlargement of the diameter makes with the horizontal line actually an angle of 0 dg. EFFECT: the invention allows to feed gas with a uniform distribution along periphery. 13 cl, 5 dwg
