Ironworking

Iron has been used for about 4000 years; it was essential to the industrial revolution and is still the principal metal of commerce. This book describes how iron and steel have been made from earliest times to the 20th century. Iron has been used for about 4000 years; it was essential to the industrial revolution and is still the principal metal of commerce.For centuries ironmaking was a manual craft, but with the invention of the blast furnace in the fifteenth century it became possible to produce iron on a large scale. Further technological developments in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries meant that the scale of production developed rapidly and that new types of iron were introduced; one of these, steel, has largely superseded other forms.This book describes how iron and steel have been made from earliest times to the 20th century, and includes a gazetteer of ironworking sites and other places of interest.