Ironmaster

An ironmaster is the manager – and usually owner – of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain.

The ironmaster was usually a large scale entrepreneur and thus an important member of a community. He would have a large country house or mansion as his residence. The organization of operations surrounding the smelting, refining and casting of iron was labour intensive, and so there would be a large number of workers reliant on the furnace works.

There were ironmasters (though possibly not called such) from the 17th century, but they became more prominent with the great expansion in the British iron industry during the Industrial Revolution.

Three family successive generations all bearing the name Abraham Darby are renowned for their contributions. Their works at Coalbrookdale were the home of the start of the improvements in metallurgy that allowed large-scale production of the iron that made the development of the steam engine and railways possible. But their most famous innovation was the Ironbridge.

John Wilkinson

Other important ironmasters in the Industrial Revolution included John Wilkinson. In 1761, he took over Bersham Ironworks as well, having already set up successful works in Broseley. In 1766 he established the Bradley works in Bilston parish, near Wolverhampton. This became his largest and most successful enterprise, and was the site of extensive experiments in getting raw coal to substitute for coke in the production of cast iron. At its peak, it included a number of blast furnaces, a brick works, potteries, glass works, and rolling mills. The Birmingham Canal was subsequently built near the Bradley works.

Among his products were cannons. These were difficult to cast as the presence of 'honeycombs' (blow holes) was unacceptable to the Board of Ordnance. Traditional cannons had been cast with a core, but in 1774 Wilkinson proposed casting them solid and boring out the core afterwards. Cannons had long been bored to remove imperfections in the casting, but casting them solid and boring out the core after made them much better cannons. Wilkinson also invented and patented in 1775 a new kind of boring machine, that drilled a more precise hole. Unfortunately for him, his invention was not novel, and his patent was eventually invalidated.

Another important product was steam engine cylinders. Because his cylinders were so accurately bored, he became the main supplier of these for Boulton & Watt, and also licensed steam engines from them to assist in his ironworks. The first ever Boulton and Watt engine was installed at Broseley to pump the bellow forges. He also encouraged them to provide steam engines to operate forges, and rotary engines for driving mills, the first rotary engine being installed at Bradley in 1783. In 1779 Wilkinson was also a major shareholder in the Iron Bridge, encouraging the other shareholders to make the bridge entirely from iron, though it was Abraham Darby III, rather than he, who actually built it. In 1787 he launched the first iron barge, constructed in Broseley. He patented several other inventions.

By 1796, when he was 68, he was producing about one eighth of Britain's cast iron. He became a titan: very wealthy, and somewhat eccentric. His "iron madness" reached a peak in the 1790s, when he had almost everything around him made of iron, even several coffins and a massive obelisk to mark his grave.

ee also

*Cast iron

Bibliography