BACKGROUND

The Industrial Revolution: The drastic and wide-reaching change in conditions of the society and
industry , the transformation from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing economy in England
from the late 18th to the middle of 19th century. It implies a once and for all occurrence, and not a
steady and gradual transformation

- Smelting is the act of extracting metal from its ore through heating and melting processes.
The iron and steel industry was further developed due to the advancement in technology
and entrepreneurial initiative. Due the limited amount of forests, the British iron industry
could not develop as they relied heavily on charcoal, which was made of hardwood, for
smelting purposes.

 Abraham Darby found the alternative material for smelting, which made the process became
much more economical and efficient. In the middle of the 17 th century, his foundries were
producing pig iron, smelted with small quantities of coke.
 The next man to experiment with iron smelting was Benjamin Huntsman, who added
charcoal and ground glass to aid the extraction of metal. After that, with the invention of
Bessemer process, the removal of impurities from iron became much cheaper.
 In the 1720's, an important breakthrough occurred in rolling the iron. Grooves were added
to the rolling cylinders, allowing manufacturers to roll iron into different shapes, instead of
simply into thin sheets.In 1783, Henny Cort, a Fareharm iron-maker improved grooved
rollers and puddling furnace, which helped to produce high quality iron wih desired
shapes.This was called wrought iron or “puddled iron” and was used to make machine parts
and even iron rails, which required a high level of accuracy and uniformity in their
manufacture.
 In the late 1700s, cast iron was produced by re-melting pig iron and adding other elements
into the melt before being casted.
ECONOMIC GROWTH:

In 1788, for example, British ironmakers produced about 76,000 short tons (68,900 metric tons) of
iron. In 1806, they produced over three times that amount.

PAST AND PRESENT:

Before the revolution, Br had to mainly import iron from other countries, such as Sweeden and
Russia. But from 1785, imports decreased and Br exported iron and produce wrong iron consumer
goods. During the mid-1700's, most machines were made of wood. Cast iron, which required
charcoal as a fuel, used to be too expensive to be used as a building material. After the discovery of
coke-smelted iron, iron was then the most common material used for building machinery. By the
early 1800's, manufacturers used iron to make a wide variety of products, including machine frames,
rails, steam engine parts, and water pipes.