The zenith of iron and the transition to mild steel in Great Britain
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November 6, 2021
Abstract
The production of iron by the puddling process continued after Bessemer invented his process for making mild steel, reaching its zenith in the 1870s, then declined rapidly as mild steel was substituted for iron for rails and then shipbuilding. Data on furnace numbers in the Mineral Statistics are used to estimate output of puddled iron and of mild steel from four processes. The total output of all iron and steel processes rose from 5.44M tons in 1875 to 6.0M tons in 1899, but with significantly lower output in the intervening period. Acid Bessemer steel output was at its highest in 1889. Soon after, Open Hearth steel overtook Bessemer steel in importance. Between 1877 and 1899, the roles of puddled iron and mild steel were reversed, with the former falling from 80% of the total to only 20%.
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References
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Barraclough K C 1990, Steelmaking: 1850-1900 (London).
Bell I L 1884, Principles of the manufacture of iron and steel (London).
Bessemer Sir Henry 1905, An autobiography (London).
Birch A 1967, The economic history of the British iron & steel industry 1784-1879 (London).
BITA 1877-1905, Annual statistical reports of the British Iron Trade Association. See note 3.
Burn D L 1940, The economic history of steelmaking 1867-1939 (Cambridge).
Burnham T H and Hoskins G O 1943, Iron and steel in Britain 1870-1930: a comparative study of the causes which limited economic development of the British iron and steel industry … (London).
Danks S 1871, ‘A description of Danks’s revolving puddling furnace’, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1871(2), 258-76.
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Hawke G R 1970, Railways and economic growth in England and Wales 1840-1870 (Oxford).
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Jeans J S 1880, Steel: its history, manufacture and uses (London).
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King P W 2005, ‘The production and consumption of bar iron in early modern England and Wales’, Economic History Review 58, 1-33 with corrigendum 59 (2006), 264.
King P W 2012, ‘Iron in 1790: production statistics 1787-96 and the arrival of puddling’, Historical Metallurgy 45 (2012 for 2011), 102-33.
Lancaster J Y and Wattleworth D R 1977, The iron and steel industry of west Cumberland: An historical survey (Workington).
Lloyd H 1975, The Quaker Lloyds in the Industrial Revolution (London).
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Roberts C W 1983, A legacy of Victorian enterprise: the Britton Ferry ironworks and their daughter companies (Gloucester).
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Truran W 1862, The iron manufacture of Great Britain theoretically and practically considered, 2nd edn (London).
Tweedale G 1995, Steel city: entrepreneurship, strategy, and technology in Sheffield 1743-1993 (Oxford).
Vamplew W 1969, ‘Railways and the iron industry: a study of their relationship in Scotland’, in M C Reed (ed), Railways in the Victorian economy: studies in finance and economic growth (Newton Abbot), 33-75.
Warren K 1964, ‘The Sheffield rail trade, 1861-1930: An episode in the locational history of the British steel industry’, Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers), No 34, 131-157.
Wengenroth U 1994, Enterprise and technology: the German and British steel industries, 1865-1895 (Cambridge).
Barraclough K C 1984, Steelmaking before Bessemer (London).
Barraclough K C 1990, Steelmaking: 1850-1900 (London).
Bell I L 1884, Principles of the manufacture of iron and steel (London).
Bessemer Sir Henry 1905, An autobiography (London).
Birch A 1967, The economic history of the British iron & steel industry 1784-1879 (London).
BITA 1877-1905, Annual statistical reports of the British Iron Trade Association. See note 3.
Burn D L 1940, The economic history of steelmaking 1867-1939 (Cambridge).
Burnham T H and Hoskins G O 1943, Iron and steel in Britain 1870-1930: a comparative study of the causes which limited economic development of the British iron and steel industry … (London).
Danks S 1871, ‘A description of Danks’s revolving puddling furnace’, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1871(2), 258-76.
Darby J H 1889, ‘Manufacture of basic open hearth steel’, Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 1889(1), 78-111.
Erickson C 1959, British industrialists: steel and hosiery (Cambridge).
Evans C 1993a, The labyrinth of flames: work and social conflict in early industrial Merthyr Tydfil (Cardiff).
Evans C 1993b, ‘The statistical surveys of the British iron industry in 1797-8 and 1806’, Historical Metallurgy 27, 84-101.
Gale W K V 1967, The British iron and steel industry (Newton Abbot).
Griffiths S 1873, Griffiths’ guide to the iron trade, reprinted 1967 (Newton Abbot).
Harrison J K 1979, ‘Production of malleable iron in north east England and the rise and collapse of the puddling process in the Cleveland District’, in C A Hempstead (ed), Cleveland iron and steel: background and 19th century history (Redcar), 117-55.
Hawke G R 1970, Railways and economic growth in England and Wales 1840-1870 (Oxford).
Hayes G G L 1990, ‘Introduction’, in C Evans (ed), The letterbook of Richard Crawshay 1788-97 (Cardiff: South Wales Record Society Publication 6).
Hayman R 2008, ‘Charcoal ironmaking in 19th-century Shropshire’, Economic History Review 61(1), 80-98.
Hyde C K 1977, Technological change and the British iron industry 1700-1870 (Princeton, NJ).
Jeans J S 1880, Steel: its history, manufacture and uses (London).
King P W 1996, ‘Early statistics for the iron industry: a vindication’, Historical Metallurgy 30, 23-46.
King P W 2005, ‘The production and consumption of bar iron in early modern England and Wales’, Economic History Review 58, 1-33 with corrigendum 59 (2006), 264.
King P W 2012, ‘Iron in 1790: production statistics 1787-96 and the arrival of puddling’, Historical Metallurgy 45 (2012 for 2011), 102-33.
Lancaster J Y and Wattleworth D R 1977, The iron and steel industry of west Cumberland: An historical survey (Workington).
Lloyd H 1975, The Quaker Lloyds in the Industrial Revolution (London).
Mathias, P 1983, The first industrial nation: the economic history of Britain 1700-1914, reprinted 2001 (London).
McCloskey D N 1973, Economic maturity and entrepreneurial decline: British iron and steel 1870-1913 (Cambridge, MS).
Mills M 1998, ‘A mystery steel works’, Bygone Kent 20(1), 37-42. https://greenwichpeninsulahistory.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/bessemer-article-published-bygone-kent/.
Mineral Statistics 1859-86: see note 2.
Mitchell B R and Deane P 1962, Abstract of British historical statistics, reprinted 1976 (Cambridge).
Mott R A (ed P Singer) 1983, Henry Cort: The great finer: creator of puddled iron (London).
Riden P J 1980, ‘Iron Industry’, in R Church (ed), The dynamics of Victorian business: problems and perspectives to the 1870s (London), 63-86.
Riden P 2001, ‘Introduction’, in J Gross (ed), The diary of Charles Wood of Cyfarthfa Ironworks, Merthyr Tydfil, 1766-1767 (Cardiff), ix-xxviii.
Riden P and Owen J G 1995, British blast furnace statistics 1790-1980 (Cardiff).
Roberts C W 1983, A legacy of Victorian enterprise: the Britton Ferry ironworks and their daughter companies (Gloucester).
Shill R 2008, South Staffordshire ironmasters (Stroud).
Smith S B and Gale W K V 1987, ‘Wrought iron again: the Blists Hill Ironworks officially opened’, Historical Metallurgy 21, 44-45.
Statute: Great Britain, Record Commission, Statutes of the Realm (1819-20).
Truran W 1862, The iron manufacture of Great Britain theoretically and practically considered, 2nd edn (London).
Tweedale G 1995, Steel city: entrepreneurship, strategy, and technology in Sheffield 1743-1993 (Oxford).
Vamplew W 1969, ‘Railways and the iron industry: a study of their relationship in Scotland’, in M C Reed (ed), Railways in the Victorian economy: studies in finance and economic growth (Newton Abbot), 33-75.
Warren K 1964, ‘The Sheffield rail trade, 1861-1930: An episode in the locational history of the British steel industry’, Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers), No 34, 131-157.
Wengenroth U 1994, Enterprise and technology: the German and British steel industries, 1865-1895 (Cambridge).
How to Cite
King, P. (2021). The zenith of iron and the transition to mild steel in Great Britain. Historical Metallurgy, 50(2), 109-122. https://hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/55
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