The choice of fuel in the eighteenth‐century iron industry: the Coalbrookdale accounts reconsidered

Abstract

Disquiet has remained over Hyde's conclusions as to the costs of coke‐ironmaking in the early eighteenth century. A detailed re‐examination of the production costs at Coalbrookdale has confirmed his conclusions for pig iron, but not for bar iron. Coalbrookdale Forge was merely small and inefficient. Any technological difficulties in the use of coke pig iron in finery forges were overcome before 1728. However, the iron industry was depressed in the 1730s due to Russian bar iron imports. After the Swedes increased their prices from 1747, new Shropshire furnaces began making pig coke iron for forges in 1754.

Review of periodical literature published in 2011

“…Thus, Neale concludes that a more nuanced account of the way stolen goods were disposed of during the eighteenth century is required. P. King ( History ) demonstrates that the homicide rate in Scotland more than doubled during the first half of the nineteenth century and uses this finding to challenge common assumptions about the gradual and uninterrupted decline of homicide before the mid‐twentieth century and, in particular, the connections between declining murder rates and increasing urbanization and industrialization. The detection of lethal violence is the focus of two articles.…”

“…Their work demonstrates not only the peaks and troughs of development in cotton spinning but also the potential offered by searchable online records to business historians. P. King ( Economic History Review ) uses a new compilation of data from the surviving accounts of the Coalbrookdale iron works to consider the costs, profitability, and economic viability of each process. He concludes that the poor performance of the Coalbrookdale Forge was because it was small and inefficient rather than, as is usually suggested, because it used coke pig iron.…”

Criteria influencing the selection and design of HV and UHV DC cables in new network applications

“…The critical change that can be traced to this time and place was the start of iron production on an industrial scale and the consequent birth of the Industrial Revolution. The key transformative element was the change to iron‐making that resulted from the substitution of charcoal by coke [1]. That is, from a renewable resource to one based on fossil fuels, and the dominant position of fossil fuels has been a key feature in mankind's development ever since.…”