Iron Industry.

Name – Wasim Haroon

Candidate Number - 0432

The Leigh CTC – 12462

Coursework – History

History Coursework-Iron Industry

The sites of the Iron Industry where found in places where timber was still plentiful, such as Kent, Sussex Weald, Shropshire, S.wales, South Yorkshire. Wood was very important in the iron Industry because it was used to make charcoal by adding wood with water and the charcoal was the fuel used in the 1700’s for smelting iron ore. Large quantities of charcoal was needed as a fuel and areas with woodlands were the original sites of the Iron Industry. First flowing streams were needed to provide water power of work the bellows and the hammer that the forges. Charcoal is partly burned wood. Charcoal was burnt very slowly. The timber was slowly heated at high temperatures for several days. Charcoal was the fuel used by heating up the blast furnace to smelt the iron ore.

To produce iron, iron ore was put into a blast furnace at high temperature so that the molten runs out. The Early British Iron Industy was located in wooded areas such as the Forest of Dean, where iron ore was found. When the charcoal furnace took about 3 days to heat up before the blast was put on. The blast made the interior of the furnace white hot, turning the ore into iron. Furnaces were often kept in the blast for months at a time.

In a charcoal blast furnace, iron ore, charcoal, cinders and limestones were tipped in at the charging opening. In the furnace the iron is smelted by heating the ore to , charcoal, cinders, and limestones were tipped in at the charging opening. In the furnace the iron is smelted by heating the ore to enormous temperature air is blasted into the furnace is tapped. The molten iron flows impurities in it. It is brittle and can not be bent into out. The iron is put in the puddling furnace where iron is heated again. The wrought iron is then taken ...

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It took almost half a hectare of woodland to smelt just one tonne of iron. Wood was also used for shipbuilding, house construction, brewing, building, farming tools and furniture construction. This was a problem because it took about 100tons of woodland to make about 25 tons of charcoal. Coal was plentiful and cheap, but not be used in the iron Industry as its sulphur content would ruin the iron, making it too brittle. At this moment they were very shortage of fuel.

Cast iron contained a lot of carbon. Cast Iron was made by pouring molten iron straight into a mould to make pots, pans, and kettles. Cast Iron cracked if it was hammered in to a shape therefore the pig iron was converted into wrought iron by heating it in a forge until red hot and soft. It was more expensive to produce but it was tougher and more flexible and could hold a shape. Wrought iron could be shaped into rails, machines parts, springs, tools or it was sent to a slitting mill to be made into strips for nail manufacture. Hammering of cast iron took place in workshops. It was a slow process, which made it very expensive.

When iron was transported to other places, this was difficult this was because bulky goods by packhorse, which was used in muddy roads or dirt tracks that was full of potholes. This was very slow and very expensive.

In 1707, Darby I helped in the iron Industry by developing a method for casting iron pots. Also in 1708, Abraham Darby I rented a disused furnace at Coalbrookdale, he began experimenting with different types of fuel that would work best in smelting iron ore. He thought of coke (partly burnt coal). Darby I was able to use ‘clod’ iron coal, which was very low in sulphur content to change to coke. Darby I helped in the Iron Industry in coalbrookdale by using coke which was a more sufficient fuel then charcoal. It contained less sulpur and produced higher temperatures in the furnace, as a result bigger furnaces could be built, which lowered costs and which meant more iron ore was smelted.

In 1750 only 3 coke furnaces existed and 71 charcoal furnaces but by 1790 the number of coke furnaces out-numbered the number of charcoal furnaces.

Darby I discovery was an important technological advance, coalbrookdale Comapany was soon making pots for Britain, America in the world. Abraham Darby II took over the business in 1738, he improved coalbrookdale in many ways, he bought a Newcomen steam engine in 1742 to pump water back into the feeder pond for the water wheel before this recycling process, the furnaces had been idle for three and sometimes four months of the year as there were water shortages. He built six new blast furnaces had been idle for three and sometimes four months of the year as there were water shortages. He built six new blast furnaces and built special ovens for cooking coal. He bought the local coal mines and iron-ore quarries. He built a horse-powered tramway from the mines to the furnaces. Beacause of this one horse could now pull twenty times as much as it had done before. He developed an important new market cast-iron boiler for steam engines being produced in Birmingham.

He also improved the quality of coke iron. He tried improving the procedure by experimenting different cooking methods, blast pressure and a different balance of ingredients in the blast furnace.

Abraham Darby III took over the work and by this time, producing coke iron was already solved. Darby III continued to improve the businesses. He tried to attract new workers by buying local farms to supply them with food.

His greatest work was to promote Coalbrookdale iron. He managed to show the world that the iron produced in Coalbrookdale was strong and a versatile material as well as having many different uses. Darby III was able to build an iron bridge. He built the iron bridge in 1779 and this was the first iron bridge. The iron bridge was opened in 1781. Before this year all the bridges were made of stone, brick or timber.

Before, coke iron was too weak and charcoal iron was too expensive, but after 50 years iron making has improved a lot and the iron that was produced with Darby III leadership could not only be used to make iron bridge but also to make boats, steam engines and wheels. The iron bridge was the symbol of Darby III success and a symbol of the new age in iron and this made Coalbrookdale Company internationally famous. Darby’s business went from strength to strength and soon many people were dependant on the Coalbrookdale for goods that was made in the company.