Newport Ironworks
of Middlesbrough
1863 Bernhard Samuelson sold the Southbank ironworks and immediately acquired 60 acres of land at Newport (west of Middlesbrough) where he erected extensive premises, with 4 furnaces, the beginnings of the Newport Iron Works.
1865 Bernhard Samuelson owned blast furnaces in the North East[1]. He studied the construction of blast furnaces, and resolved to enlarge their cubic capacity at the expense of their height.
1866 See 1866 Cleveland Blast Furnaces for detail of furnaces.
1868 A 5th furnace was added at Newport Iron Works
1869 Two new furnaces were being built at Middlesbrough for making pig iron[2]
1869 After experiments on making steel, helped by Richard Howson, Samuelson leased the North Yorkshire Ironworks at South Stockton to make steel rails, plates, etc but this was not successful and the works reverted to making finished iron.
1870 3 more furnaces were built at Newport, with increased unit capacity.
Erected c.200 by-product ovens to make coke close to the Newport furnaces where it was needed.
1871 Built the Britannia Ironworks, Middlesbrough to manufacture iron rails.
By 1872 the Newport works had been extended so much they were capable of producing 2,500 tons to 3,000 tons of pig-iron per week.
1917 Dorman, Long and Co acquired the Newport Ironworks.