Savitri began writing Gold in the Furnace in Alfeld an der Leine on 3 October 1948. She completed the Introduction, all of chapters 1 and 2, and most of chapter 3 there. She left Alfeld on 5 December 1948. (Notice the railroad tracks in the background.) On 6 December 1948, she completed chapter 3 of The Lightning and the Sun in the railroad station of Karlsruhe, Germany, on her way to London to spend the Christmas holidays with her friends Muriel Gantry and Veronica Vassar.