Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 145,069 pages of information and 230,730 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Iron and Steel Timeline
1620 | Dud Dudley patents a process for smelting iron by using coke as a fuel |
1709 | Abraham Darby improves the process of using coke as a fuel for smelting |
1751 | Benjamin Huntsman invented the process of producing crucible steel but failed to patent it |
1759 | Dowlais Ironworks opens and by 1815 the company was the largest iron and steel producer in the world |
1760 | John Roebuck founder of the Carron Co ironworks used coal to make cast iron into malleable iron "by the action of a hollow pit-coal fire" urged by a powerful artificial blast. |
1763 | Patent by John and Charles Wood for improving the manufacture of cast steel. |
1765 | Cyfarthfa Ironworks opened and by 1807 was the largest ironworks in the world but was later overtaken by Dowlais |
1766 | Thomas and George Cranage developed the use of the reverberatory furnace for the production of wrought iron from cast iron under the sponsorship of Richard Reynolds |
c1766 | John Wilkinson promoted the use of cast iron where other materials had previously been used and used raw coal as a substitute for coke in the production of cast iron |
1783 | Peter Onions patented a puddling process where the iron is stirred to separate out impurities and extract the higher quality wrought iron |
1784 | Henry Cort patented the an improved puddling process for refining iron ore |
1828 | James Beaumont Neilson invented the hot blast process for iron furnaces |
1837 | David Thomas (1794-1882) pioneer in using anthracite for iron production |
1839 | Josiah Marshall Heath introduced the use of manganese in steel-making |
1856 | Henry Bessemer introduced the Bessemer process for the manufacture of steel |
1856 | Robert Forester Mushet found an inexpensive way to make high quality steel by adding ferro-manganese |
1867 | William Siemens succeeded in developing the regenerative furnace for steel making |
1868 | Robert Forester Mushet produced the first commercial steel alloy by adding a small amount of tungsten to the molten steel in the crucible |
1878 | Sidney Gilchrist Thomas invented a process for dealing with the phosphorus in pig iron with the help of his cousin, Percy Gilchrist |
1880s | Robert Hadfield developed the first alloy steels in the form of high manganese steels, very tough but ductile; the first non-magnetic steel. |
1894 | British Aluminium Co formed |
1912 | Harry Brearley discovered and subsequently industrialized a martensitic stainless steel alloy |
1924 | William Herbert Hatfield developed 18/8 stainless steel |
1951 | Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain in the nationalisation of 92 companies by acquisition |
1967 | British Steel formed |
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