THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Iron Industry

The Manufacture of Iron  Iron had been made in the traditional way since Roman times  Pig Iron and Cast Iron were smelted using charcoal as fuel  Charcoal is wood that has been burned very slowly  Wrought Iron was made from pig iron using a Forge

Problems facing the Iron Industry in 1700  Charcoal had become very expensive and rare because of the other demands on timber (ships,building…)  There was an increase in the demand for iron :- 1. Warfare-guns, cannon… 2. Industry-steam engines… 3. Agriculture-ploughs… 4. Growing population

The Darbys of Coalbrookdale Abraham Darby I  By 1700 iron had become very expensive and difficult to produce  Abraham Darby I wanted to find a cheaper substitute for charcoal as the fuel to heat the Blast Furnace  He began to search for a good site for an iron works

Coalbrookdale  In 1708 Abraham Darby I took over a disused iron works at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire  It was a good site because:- 1. There was water for power 2. The River Severn for transport 3. Local supplies of iron ore, coal, wood and limestone

Coke Smelting 1709  Abraham Darby I’s great discovery was that Coke could be used instead of charcoal  Coke was baked coal, but contained little sulphur and was mainly carbon  Coalbrookdale now expanded into a great producer of cheap pig iron and cast iron

The Ironbridge  Abraham Darby II greatly expanded the business  He improved the coking ovens and the power of the bellows on the blast furnace  Abraham Darby III built the Ironbridge in 1779 in collaboration with John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson  The bridge was a symbol of the potential of iron as a material

Henry Cort, Puddling & Rolling 1784  The Darbys had improved the production of pig/cast iron  Forging wrought iron was still done by traditional means  Henry Cort invented the Reverberatory Furnace in 1783 for “Puddling” pig iron  With his Rolling machine (1784) he could now produce as much wrought iron in one hour, as had taken over two weeks to produce, before

Other Great Ironmasters  John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson – invented his own casting methods and new uses for iron (e.g. his own coffin!)  Richard Crawshay of Cyfartha, South Wales – adopted Henry Cort’s Puddling and Rolling process on a huge scale  James Neilson of Scotland – invented the “Hot Blast” making the Blast Furnace 3 times hotter, making better pig iron  James Nasmyth invented steam-powered hammer 1829 (shown here)

Conclusions  By the middle of the 19thC the demand for and supply of iron had grown massively  Iron was used for ships, machines, steam engines, bridges, railways,weapons,tools, pipes, chains, and many domestic uses  Steel making started to improve after 1850  The iron industry moved from wooded areas like The Forest of Dean and the Weald of Sussex to the coal fields, particularly in South Wales and Yorkshire  The growth of the iron industry caused an increasing demand for coal