contrived to break out of gaol, making their way over the tops of the
houses, afterwards passing the guards at the city gates, and escaping
into the open country. Being hotly pursued, they travelled during the
night, and took to the trees during the daytime. They succeeded in
reaching London, but only to drop again into the lion's mouth; for
first Major Elliotts was captured, then Dudley, and both were taken
before Sir John Warner, the Lord Mayor, who forthwith sent them before
the "cursed committee of insurrection," as Dudley calls them. The
prisoners were summarily sentenced to be shot to death, and were
meanwhile closely imprisoned in the Gatehouse at Westminster, with
other Royalists.
The day before their intended execution, the prisoners formed a plan of
escape. It was Sunday morning, the 20th August, 1648, when they seized
their opportunity, "at ten of the cloeke in sermon time;" and,
overpowering the gaolers, Dudley, with Sir Henry Bates, Major Elliotts,
Captain South, Captain Paris, and six others, succeeded in getting
away, and making again for the open country. Dudley had received a
wound in the leg, and could only get along with great difficulty. He
records that he proceeded on crutches, through Worcester, Tewkesbury,
and Gloucester, to Bristol, having been "fed three weeks in private in
an enemy's hay mow." Even the most lynx-eyed Parliamentarian must have
failed to recognise the quondam royalist general of artillery in the
helpless creature dragging himself along upon crutches; and he reached
Bristol in safety.
His military career now over, he found himself absolutely penniless.
His estate of about 200L. per annum had been sequestrated and sold by
the government;[11] his house in Worcester had been seized and his
sickly wife turned out of doors; and his goods, stock, great shop, and
ironworks, which he himself valued at 2000L., were destroyed. He had
also lost the offices of Serjeant-at-arms, Lieutenant of Ordnance, and
Surveyor of the Mews, which he had held under the king; in a word, he
found himself reduced to a state of utter destitution.
Dudley was for some time under the necessity of living in great privacy
at Bristol; but when the king had been executed, and the royalists were
finally crushed at Worcester, Dud gradually emerged from his
concealment. He was still the sole possessor of the grand secret of
smelting iron with pit-coal, and he resolved upon one more commercial
adventure, in the hope of yet turning it to good account. He succeeded
in inducing Walter Stevens, linendraper, and John Stone, merchant, both
of Bristol, to join him as partners in an ironwork, which they
proceeded to erect near that city. The buildings were well advanced,
and nearly 700L. had been expended, when a quarrel occurred between
Dudley and his partners, which ended in the stoppage of the works, and
the concern being thrown into Chancery. Dudley alleges that the other
partners "cunningly drew him into a bond," and "did unjustly enter
staple actions in Bristol of great value against him, because he was of
the king's party;" but it would appear as if there had been some twist
or infirmity of temper in Dudley himself, which prevented him from
working harmoniously with such persons as he became associated with in
affairs of business.
In the mean time other attempts were made to smelt iron with pit-coal.
Dudley says that Cromwell and the then Parliament granted a patent to
Captain Buck for the purpose; and that Cromwell himself, Major Wildman,
and various others were partners in the patent. They erected furnaces
and works in the Forest of Dean;[12] but, though Cromwell and his
officers could fight and win battles, they could not smelt and forge
iron with pit-coal. They brought one Dagney, an Italian glass-maker,
from Bristol, to erect a new furnace for them, provided with sundry
pots of glass-house clay; but no success attended their efforts. The
partners knowing of Dudley's possession of the grand secret, invited
him to visit their works; but all they could draw from him was that
they would never succeed in making iron to profit by the methods they
were pursuing. They next proceeded to erect other works at Bristol,
but still they failed. Major Wildman[13] bought Dudley's sequestrated
estate, in the hope of being able to extort his secret of making iron
with pit-coal; but all their attempts proving abortive, they at length
abandoned the enterprise in despair. In 1656, one Captain Copley
obtained from Cromwell a further patent with a similar object; and
erected works near Bristol, and also in the Forest of Kingswood. The
mechanical engineers employed by Copley failed in making his bellows
blow; on which he sent for Dudley, who forthwith "made his bellows to
be blown feisibly;" but Copley failed, like his predecessors, in making
iron, and at length he too desisted from further experiments.
Such continued to be the state of things until the Restoration, when we
find Dud Dudley a petitioner to the king for the renewal of his patent.
He was also a petitioner for compensation in respect of the heavy
losses he had sustained during the civil wars. The king was besieged
by crowds of applicants of a similar sort, but Dudley was no more
successful than the others. He failed in obtaining the renewal of his
patent. Another applicant for the like privilege, probably having
greater interest at court, proved more successful. Colonel Proger and
three others[14] were granted a patent to make iron with coal; but
Dudley knew the secret, which the new patentees did not; and their
patent came to nothing.
Dudley continued to address the king in importunate petitions, asking
to be restored to his former offices of Serjeant-at-arms, Lieutenant of
Ordnance, and Surveyor of the Mews or Armoury. He also petitioned to
be appointed Master of the Charter House in Smithfield, professing
himself willing to take anything, or hold any living.[15] We find him
sending in two petitions to a similar effect in June, 1660; and a third
shortly after. The result was, that he was reappointed to the office
of Serjeant-at-Arms; but the Mastership of the Charter-House was not
disposed of until 1662, when it fell to the lot of one Thomas
Watson.[16] In 1661, we find a patent granted to Wm. Chamberlaine
and--Dudley, Esq., for the sole use of their new invention of plating
steel, &c., and tinning the said plates; but whether Dud Dudley was the
person referred to, we are unable precisely to determine. A few years
later, he seems to have succeeded in obtaining the means of prosecuting
his original invention; for in his Metallum Martis, published in 1665,
he describes himself as living at Green's Lodge, in Staffordshire; and
he says that near it are four forges, Green's Forge, Swin Forge, Heath
Forge, and Cradley Forge, where he practises his "perfect invention."
These forges, he adds, "have barred all or most part of their iron with
pit-coal since the authors first invention In 1618, which hath
preserved much wood. In these four, besides many other forges, do the
like [sic ]; yet the author hath had no benefit thereby to this
present." From that time forward, Dud becomes lost to sight. He seems
eventually to have retired to St. Helen's in Worcestershire, where he
died in 1684, in the 85th year of his age. He was buried in the parish
church there, and a monument, now destroyed, was erected to his memory,
bearing the inscription partly set forth underneath.[17]
[1] As late as 1790, long after the monopoly of the foreign merchants
had been abolished, Pennant says, "The present Steelyard is the great
repository of imported iron, which furnishes our metropolis with that
necessary material. The quantity of bars that fills the yards and
warehouses of this quarter strikes with astonishment the most
indifferent beholder."--PENNANT, Account of London, 309.
[2] STURTEVANT'S Metallica; briefly comprehending the Doctrine of
Diverse New Metallical Inventions, &c. Reprinted and published at the
Great Seal Patent Office, 1858.
[3] Reprinted and published at the Great Seal Patent Office, 1858.
[4] Among the early patentees, besides the names of Sturtevant and
Rovenzon, we find those of Jordens, Francke, Sir Phillibert Vernatt,
and other foreigners of the above nations.
[5] Mr. Parkshouse was one of the esquires to Sir Ferdinando Dudley
(the legitimate son of the Earl of Dudley) When he was made Knight of
the Bath. Sir Ferdinando's only daughter Frances married Humble Ward,
son and heir of William Ward, goldsmith and jeweller to Charles the
First's queen. Her husband having been created a baron by the title of
Baron Ward of Birmingham, and Frances becoming Baroness of Dudley in
her own right on the demise of her father, the baronies of Dudley and
Ward thus became united in their eldest son Edward in the year 1697.
[6] Patent No. 117, Old Series, granted in 1638, to Sir George Horsey,
David Ramsey, Roger Foulke, and Dudd Dudley.
[7] By his own account, given in Metallum Martis, while in Scotland in
1637, he visited the Highlands as well as the Lowlands, spending the
whole summer of that year "in opening of mines and making of
discoveries;" spending part of the time with Sir James Hope of Lead
Hills, near where, he says, "he got gold." It does not appear,
however, that any iron forges existed in Scotland at the time: indeed
Dudley expressly says that "Scotland maketh no iron;" and in his
treatise of 1665 he urges that the Corporation of the Mines Royal
should set him and his inventions at work to enable Scotland to enjoy
the benefit of a cheap and abundant supply of the manufactured article.
[8] The Journals of the House of Commons, of the 13th June, 1642,
contain the resolution "that Captain Wolseley, Ensign Dudley, and John
Lometon be forthwith sent for, as delinquents, by the Serjeant-at-Arms
attending on the House, for giving interruption to the execution of the
ordinance of the militia in the county of Leicester."
[9] Small pieces of artillery, specimens of which are still to be seen
in the museum at Woolwich Arsenal and at the Tower.
[10] State Paper Office, Dom. Charles II., vol. xi. 54.
[11] The Journals of the House of Commons, on the 2nd Nov. 1652, have
the following entry: "The House this day resumed the debate upon the
additional Bill for sale of several lands and estates forfeited to the
Commonwealth for treason, when it was resolved that the name of Dud
Dudley of Green Lodge be inserted into this Bill."
[12] Mr. Mushet, in his 'Papers on Iron,' says, that "although he had
carefully examined every spot and relic in Dean Forest likely to denote
the site of Dud Dudley's enterprising but unfortunate experiment of
making pig-iron with pit coal," it had been without success; neither
could he find any traces of the like operations of Cromwell and his
partners.
[13] Dudley says, "Major Wildman, more barbarous to me than a wild man,
although a minister, bought the author's estate, near 200L. per annum,
intending to compell from the author his inventions of making iron with
pitcole, but afterwards passed my estate unto two barbarous brokers of
London, that pulled down the author's two mantion houses, sold 500
timber trees off his land, and to this day are his houses unrepaired."
Wildman himself fell under the grip of Cromwell. Being one of the
chiefs of the Republican party, he was seized at Exton, near
Marlborough, in 1654, and imprisoned in Chepstow Castle.
[14] June 13, 1661. Petition of Col. Jas. Proger and three others to
the king for a patent for the sole exercise of their invention of
melting down iron and other metals with coal instead of wood, as the
great consumption of coal [charcoal?] therein causes detriment to
shipping, &c. With reference thereon to Attorney-General Palmer, and
his report, June 18, in favour of the petition,--State Papers, Charles
II. (Dom. vol. xxxvii, 49.)
[15] In his second petition he prays that a dwelling-house situated in
Worcester, and belonging to one Baldwin, "a known traitor," may be
assigned to him in lieu of Alderman Nash's, which had reverted to that
individual since his return to loyalty; Dudley reminding the king that
his own house in that city had been given up by him for the service of
his father Charles I., and turned into a factory for arms. It does not
appear that this part of his petition was successful.
[16] State Papers, vol. xxxi. Doquet Book, p.89.
[17]
Pulvis et umbra sumus
Memento mori.
Dodo Dudley chiliarchi nobilis Edwardi nuper domini de Dudley filius,
patri charus et regiae Majestatis fidissimus subditus et servus in
asserendo regein, in vindicartdo ecclesiam, in propugnando legem ac
libertatem Anglicanam, saepe captus, anno 1648, semel condemnatus et
tamen non decollatus, renatum denuo vidit diadaema hic inconcussa
semper virtute senex.
Differt non aufert mortem longissima vita
Sed differt multam cras hodiere mori.
Quod nequeas vitare, fugis:
Nec formidanda est.
Plot frequently alludes to Dudley in his Natural History of
Staffordshire, and when he does so he describes him as the "worshipful
Dud Dudley," showing the estimation in which he was held by his
contemporaries.
CHAPTER IV.
ANDREW YARRANTON.
"There never have been wanting men to whom England's improvement by sea
and land was one of the dearest thoughts of their lives, and to whom
England's good was the foremost of their worldly considerations. And
such, emphatically, was Andrew Yarranton, a true patriot in the best
sense of the word."--DOVE, Elements of Political Science.
That industry had a sore time of it during the civil wars will further
appear from the following brief account of Andrew Yarranton, which may
be taken as a companion memoir to that of Dud Dudley. For Yarranton
also was a Worcester ironmaster and a soldier--though on the opposite
side,--but more even than Dudley was he a man of public spirit and
enterprise, an enlightened political economist (long before political
economy had been recognised as a science), and in many respects a true
national benefactor. Bishop Watson said that he ought to have had a
statue erected to his memory because of his eminent public services;
and an able modern writer has gone so far as to say of him that he was
"the founder of English political economy, the first man in England who
saw and said that peace was better than war, that trade was better than
plunder, that honest industry was better than martial greatness, and
that the best occupation of a government was to secure prosperity at
home, and let other nations alone." [1]
Yet the name of Andrew Yarranton is scarcely remembered, or is at most
known to only a few readers of half-forgotten books. The following
brief outline of his history is gathered from his own narrative and
from documents in the State Paper Office.
Andrew Yarranton was born at the farmstead of Larford, in the parish of
Astley, in Worcestershire, in the year 1616.[2] In his sixteenth year
he was put apprentice to a Worcester linendraper, and remained at that
trade for some years; but not liking it, he left it, and was leading a
country life when the civil wars broke out. Unlike Dudley, he took the
side of the Parliament, and joined their army, in which he served for
some time as a soldier. His zeal and abilities commended him to his
officers, and he was raised from one position to another, until in the
course of a few years we find him holding the rank of captain. "While
a soldier," says he, "I had sometimes the honour and misfortune to
lodge and dislodge an army;" but this is all the information he gives
us of his military career. In the year 1648 he was instrumental in
discovering and frustrating a design on the part of the Royalists to
seize Doyley House in the county of Hereford, and other strongholds,
for which he received the thanks of Parliament "for his ingenuity,
discretion, and valour," and a substantial reward of 500L.[3] He was
also recommended to the Committee of Worcester for further employment.
But from that time we hear no more of him in connection with the civil
wars. When Cromwell assumed the supreme control of affairs, Yarranton
retired from the army with most of the Presbyterians, and devoted
himself to industrial pursuits.
We then find him engaged in carrying on the manufacture of iron at
Ashley, near Bewdley, in Worcestershire. "In the year 1652", says he,
"I entered upon iron-works, and plied them for several years." [4] He
made it a subject of his diligent study how to provide employment for
the poor, then much distressed by the late wars. With the help of his
wife, he established a manufacture of linen, which was attended with
good results. Observing how the difficulties of communication, by
reason of the badness of the roads, hindered the development of the
rich natural resources of the western counties,[5] he applied himself
to the improvement of the navigation of the larger rivers, making
surveys of them at his own cost, and endeavouring to stimulate local
enterprise so as to enable him to carry his plans into effect.
While thus occupied, the restoration of Charles II. took place, and
whether through envy or enmity Yarranton's activity excited the
suspicion of the authorities. His journeys from place to place seemed
to them to point to some Presbyterian plot on foot. On the 13th of
November, 1660, Lord Windsor, Lord-Lieutenant of the county, wrote to
the Secretary of State--"There is a quaker in prison for speaking
treason against his Majesty, and a countryman also, and Captain
Yarrington for refusing to obey my authority." [6] It would appear
from subsequent letters that Yarranton must have lain in prison for
nearly two years, charged with conspiring against the king's authority,
the only evidence against him consisting of some anonymous letter's.
At the end of May, 1662, he succeeded in making his escape from the
custody of the Provost Marshal. The High Sheriff scoured the country
after him at the head of a party of horse, and then he communicated to
the Secretary of State, Sir Edward Nicholas, that the suspected
conspirator could not be found, and was supposed to have made his way
to London. Before the end of a month Yarranton was again in custody,
as appears from the communication of certain justices of Surrey to Sir
Edward Nicholas.[7] As no further notice of Yarranton occurs in the
State Papers, and as we shortly after find him publicly occupied in
carrying out his plans for improving the navigation of the western
rivers, it is probable that his innocence of any plot was established
after a legal investigation. A few years later he published in London
a 4to. tract entitled 'A Full Discovery of the First Presbyterian Sham
Plot,' which most probably contained a vindication of his conduct.[8]
Yarranton was no sooner at liberty than we find him again occupied with
his plans of improved inland navigation. His first scheme was to
deepen the small river Salwarp, so as to connect Droitwich with the
Severn by a water communication, and thus facilitate the transport of
the salt so abundantly yielded by the brine springs near that town. In
1665, the burgesses of Droitwich agreed to give him 750L. and eight
salt vats in Upwich, valued at 80L. per annum, with three-quarters of a
vat in Northwich, for twenty-one years, in payment for the work. But
the times were still unsettled, and Yarranton and his partner Wall not
being rich, the scheme was not then carried into effect.[9] In the
following year we find him occupied with a similar scheme to open up
the navigation of the river Stour, passing by Stourport and
Kidderminster, and connect it by an artificial cut with the river
Trent. Some progress was made with this undertaking, so far in advance
of the age, but, like the other, it came to a stand still for want of
money, and more than a hundred years passed before it was carried out
by a kindred genius--James Brindley, the great canal maker. Mr.
Chambers says that when Yarranton's scheme was first brought forward,
it met with violent opposition and ridicule. The undertaking was
thought wonderfully bold, and, joined to its great extent, the sandy,
spongy nature of the ground, the high banks necessary to prevent the
inundation of the Stour on the canal, furnished its opponents, if not
with sound argument, at least with very specious topics for opposition
and laughter.[10] Yarranton's plan was to make the river itself
navigable, and by uniting it with other rivers, open up a communication
with the Trent; while Brindley's was to cut a canal parallel with the
river, and supply it with water from thence. Yarranton himself thus
accounts for the failure of his scheme in 'England's Improvement by Sea
and Land':--"It was my projection," he says, "and I will tell you the
reason why it was not finished. The river Stour and some other rivers
were granted by an Act of Parliament to certain persons of honor, and
some progress was made in the work, but within a small while after the
Act passed[11] it was let fall again; but it being a brat of my own, I
was not willing it should be abortive, wherefore I made offers to
perfect it, having a third part of the inheritance to me and my heirs
for ever, and we came to an agreement, upon which I fell on, and made
it completely navigable from Stourbridge to Kidderminster, and carried
down many hundred tons of coal, and laid out near 1000L., and there it
was obstructed for want of money." [12]
Another of Yarranton's far-sighted schemes of a similar kind was one to
connect the Thames with the Severn by means of an artificial cut, at
the very place where, more than a century after his death, it was
actually carried out by modern engineers. This canal, it appears, was
twice surveyed under his direction by his son. He did, however,
succeed in his own time in opening up the navigation of the Avon, and
was the first to carry barges upon its waters from Tewkesbury to
Stratford.
The improvement of agriculture, too, had a share of Yarranton's
attention. He saw the soil exhausted by long tillage and constantly
repeated crops of rye, and he urged that the land should have rest or
at least rotation of crop. With this object he introduced clover-seed,
and supplied it largely to the farmers of the western counties, who
found their land doubled in value by the new method of husbandry, and
it shortly became adopted throughout the country. Seeing how commerce
was retarded by the small accommodation provided for shipping at the
then principal ports, Yarranton next made surveys and planned docks for
the city of London; but though he zealously advocated the subject, he
found few supporters, and his plans proved fruitless. In this respect
he was nearly a hundred and fifty years before his age, and the London
importers continued to conduct their shipping business in the crowded
tideway of the Thames down even to the beginning of the present century.
While carrying on his iron works, it occurred to Yarranton that it
would be of great national advantage if the manufacture of tin-plate
could be introduced into England. Although the richest tin mines then
known existed in this country, the mechanical arts were at so low an
ebb that we were almost entirely dependent upon foreigners for the
supply of the articles manufactured from the metal. The Saxons were
the principal consumers of English tin, and we obtained from them in
return nearly the whole of our tin-plates. All attempts made to
manufacture them in England had hitherto failed; the beating out of the
iron by hammers into laminae sufficiently thin and smooth, and the
subsequent distribution and fixing of the film of tin over the surface
of the iron, proving difficulties which the English manufacturers were
unable to overcome. To master these difficulties the indefatigable
Yarranton set himself to work. "Knowing," says he, "the usefulness of
tin-plates and the goodness of our metals for that purpose, I did,
about sixteen years since (i.e. about 1665), endeavour to find out the
way for making thereof; whereupon I acquainted a person of much riches,
and one that was very understanding in the iron manufacture, who was
pleased to say that he had often designed to get the trade into
England, but never could find out the way. Upon which it was agreed
that a sum of monies should be advanced by several persons,[13] for the
defraying of my charges of travelling to the place where these plates
are made, and from thence to bring away the art of making them. Upon
which, an able fire-man, that well understood the nature of iron, was
made choice of to accompany me; and being fitted with an ingenious
interpreter that well understood the language, and that had dealt much
in that commodity, we marched first for Hamburgh, then to Leipsic, and
from thence to Dresden, the Duke of Saxony's court, where we had notice
of the place where the plates were made; which was in a large tract of
mountainous land, running from a place called Seger-Hutton unto a town
called Awe [Au], being in length about twenty miles." [14]
It is curious to find how much the national industry of England has
been influenced by the existence from time to time of religious
persecutions abroad, which had the effect of driving skilled Protestant
artisans, more particularly from Flanders and France, into England,
where they enjoyed the special protection of successive English
Governments, and founded various important branches of manufacture.
But it appears from the history of the tin manufactures of Saxony, that
that country also had profited in like manner by the religious
persecutions of Germany, and even of England itself. Thus we are told
by Yarranton that it was a Cornish miner, a Protestant, banished out of
England for his religion in Queen Mary's time, who discovered the tin
mines at Awe, and that a Romish priest of Bohemia, who had been
converted to Lutheranism and fled into Saxony for refuge, "was the
chief instrument in the manufacture until it was perfected." These two
men were held in great regard by the Duke of Saxony as well as by the
people of the country; for their ingenuity and industry proved the
source of great prosperity and wealth, "several fine cities," says
Yarranton, "having been raised by the riches proceeding from the
tin-works"--not less than 80,000 men depending upon the trade for their
subsistence; and when Yarranton visited Awe, he found that a statue had
been erected to the memory of the Cornish miner who first discovered
the tin.
Yarranton was very civilly received by the miners, and, contrary to his
expectation, he was allowed freely to inspect the tin-works and examine
the methods by which the iron-plates were rolled out, as well as the
process of tinning them. He was even permitted to engage a number of
skilled workmen, whom he brought over with him to England for the
purpose of starting the manufacture in this country. A beginning was
made, and the tin-plates manufactured by Yarranton's men were
pronounced of better quality even than those made in Saxony. "Many
thousand plates," Yarranton says, "were made from iron raised in the
Forest of Dean, and were tinned over with Cornish tin; and the plates
proved far better than the German ones, by reason of the toughness and
flexibleness of our forest iron. One Mr. Bison, a tinman in Worcester,
Mr. Lydiate near Fleet Bridge, and Mr. Harrison near the King's Bench,
have wrought many, and know their goodness." As Yarranton's account was
written and published during the lifetime of the parties, there is no
reason to doubt the accuracy of his statement.
Arrangements were made to carry on the manufacture upon a large scale;
but the secret having got wind, a patent was taken out, or "trumpt up"
as Yarranton calls it, for the manufacture, "the patentee being
countenanced by some persons of quality," and Yarranton was precluded
from carrying his operations further. It is not improbable that the
patentee in question was William Chamberlaine, Dud Dudley's quondam
partner in the iron manufacture.[15] "What with the patent being in
our way," says Yarranton, "and the richest of our partners being afraid
to offend great men in power, who had their eye upon us, it caused the
thing to cool, and the making of the tin-plates was neither proceeded
in by us, nor possibly could be by him that had the patent; because
neither he that hath the patent, nor those that have countenanced him,
can make one plate fit for use." Yarranton's labours were thus lost to
the English public for a time; and we continued to import all our
tin-plates from Germany until about sixty years later, when a tin-plate
manufactory was established by Capel Hanbury at Pontypool in
Monmouthshire, where it has since continued to be successfully carried
on.
We can only briefly refer to the subsequent history of Andrew
Yarranton. Shortly after his journey into Saxony, he proceeded to
Holland to examine the inland navigations of the Dutch, to inspect
their linen and other manufactures, and to inquire into the causes of
the then extraordinary prosperity of that country compared with
England. Industry was in a very languishing state at home. "People
confess they are sick," said Yarranton, "that trade is in a
consumption, and the whole nation languishes." He therefore determined
to ascertain whether something useful might not be learnt from the
example of Holland. The Dutch were then the hardest working and the
most thriving people in Europe. They were manufacturers and carriers
for the world. Their fleets floated on every known sea; and their
herring-busses swarmed along our coasts as far north as the Hebrides.
The Dutch supplied our markets with fish caught within sight of our own
shores, while our coasting population stood idly looking on. Yarranton
regarded this state of things as most discreditable, and he urged the
establishment of various branches of home industry as the best way of
out-doing the Dutch without fighting them.
Wherever he travelled abroad, in Germany or in Holland, he saw industry
attended by wealth and comfort, and idleness by poverty and misery.
The same pursuits, he held, would prove as beneficial to England as
they were abundantly proved to have been to Holland. The healthy life
of work was good for all--for individuals as for the whole nation; and
if we would out-do the Dutch, he held that we must out-do them in
industry. But all must be done honestly and by fair means. "Common
Honesty," said Yarranton, "is as necessary and needful in kingdoms and
commonwealths that depend upon Trade, as discipline is in an army; and
where there is want of common Honesty in a kingdom or commonwealth,
from thence Trade shall depart. For as the Honesty of all governments
is, so shall be their Riches; and as their Honour, Honesty, and Riches
are, so will be their Strength; and as their Honour, Honesty, Riches,
and Strength are, so will be their Trade. These are five sisters that
go hand in hand, and must not be parted." Admirable sentiments, which
are as true now as they were two hundred years ago, when Yarranton
urged them upon the attention of the English public.
On his return from Holland, he accordingly set on foot various schemes
of public utility. He stirred up a movement for the encouragement of
the British fisheries. He made several journeys into Ireland for the
purpose of planting new manufactures there. He surveyed the River
Slade with the object of rendering it navigable, and proposed a plan
for improving the harbour of Dublin. He also surveyed the Dee in
England with a view to its being connected with the Severn. Chambers
says that on the decline of his popularity in 1677, he was taken by
Lord Clarendon to Salisbury to survey the River Avon, and find out how
that river might be made navigable, and also whether a safe harbour for
ships could be made at Christchurch; and that having found where he
thought safe anchorage might be obtained, his Lordship proceeded to act
upon Yarranton's recommendations.[16]
Another of his grand schemes was the establishment of the linen
manufacture in the central counties of England, which, he showed, were
well adapted for the growth of flax; and he calculated that if success
attended his efforts, at least two millions of money then sent out of
the country for the purchase of foreign linen would be retained at
home, besides increasing the value of the land on which the flax was
grown, and giving remunerative employment to our own people, then
emigrating for want of work. "Nothing but Sloth or Envy," he said,
"can possibly hinder my labours from being crowned with the wished for
success; our habitual fondness for the one hath already brought us to
the brink of ruin, and our proneness to the other hath almost
discouraged all pious endeavours to promote our future happiness."
In 1677 he published the first part of his England's Improvement by Sea
and Land--a very remarkable book, full of sagacious insight as
respected the future commercial and manufacturing greatness of England.
Mr. Dove says of this book that "Yarranton chalks out in it the future
course of Britain with as free a hand as if second-sight had revealed
to him those expansions of her industrial career which never fail to
surprise us, even when we behold them realized." Besides his extensive
plans for making harbours and improving internal navigation with the
object of creating new channels for domestic industry, his schemes for
extending the iron and the woollen trades, establishing the linen
manufacture, and cultivating the home fisheries, we find him throwing
out various valuable suggestions with reference to the means of
facilitating commercial transactions, some of winch have only been
carried out in our own day. One of his grandest ideas was the
establishment of a public bank, the credit of which, based upon the
security of freehold land,[17] should enable its paper "to go in trade
equal with ready money." A bank of this sort formed one of the
principal means by which the Dutch had been enabled to extend their
commercial transactions, and Yarranton accordingly urged its
introduction into England. Part of his scheme consisted of a voluntary
register of real property, for the purpose of effecting simplicity of
title, and obtaining relief from the excessive charges for law,[18] as
well as enabling money to be readily raised for commercial purposes on
security of the land registered.
He pointed out very graphically the straits to which a man is put who
is possessed of real property enough, but in a time of pressure is
unable to turn himself round for want of ready cash. "Then," says he,
"all his creditors crowd to him as pigs do through a hole to a bean and
pease rick." "Is it not a sad thing," he asks, "that a goldsmith's boy
in Lombard Street, who gives notes for the monies handed him by the
merchants, should take up more monies upon his notes in one day than
two lords, four knights, and eight esquires in twelve months upon all
their personal securities? We are, as it were, cutting off our legs and
arms to see who will feed the trunk. But we cannot expect this from
any of our neighbours abroad, whose interest depends upon our loss."
He therefore proposed his registry of property as a ready means of
raising a credit for purposes of trade. Thus, he says, "I can both in
England and Wales register my wedding, my burial, and my christening,
and a poor parish clerk is entrusted with the keeping of the book; and
that which is registered there is held good by our law. But I cannot
register my lands, to be honest, to pay every man his own, to prevent
those sad things that attend families for want thereof, and to have the
great benefit and advantage that would come thereby. A register will
quicken trade, and the land registered will be equal as cash in a man's
hands, and the credit thereof will go and do in trade what ready money
now doth." His idea was to raise money, when necessary, on the land
registered, by giving security thereon after a form which he suggested.
He would, in fact, have made land, as gold now is, the basis of an
extended currency; and he rightly held that the value of land as a
security must always be unexceptionable, and superior to any metallic
basis that could possibly be devised.
This indefatigable man continued to urge his various designs upon the
attention of the public until he was far advanced in years. He
professed that he was moved to do so (and we believe him) solely by an
ardent love for his country, "whose future flourishing," said he, "is
the only reward I ever hope to see of all my labours." Yarranton,
however, received but little thanks for his persistency, while he
encountered many rebuffs. The public for the most part turned a deaf
ear to his entreaties; and his writings proved of comparatively small
avail, at least during his own lifetime. He experienced the lot of
many patriots, even the purest--the suspicion and detraction of his
contemporaries. His old political enemies do not seem to have
forgotten him, of which we have the evidence in certain rare
"broadsides" still extant, twitting him with the failure of his
schemes, and even trumping up false charges of disloyalty against
him.[19]
In 1681 he published the second part of 'England's Improvement,'[20] in
which he gave a summary account of its then limited growths and
manufactures, pointing out that England and Ireland were the only
northern kingdoms remaining unimproved; he re-urged the benefits and
necessity of a voluntary register of real property; pointed out a
method of improving the Royal Navy, lessening the growing power of
France, and establishing home fisheries; proposed the securing and
fortifying of Tangier; described a plan for preventing fires in London,
and reducing the charge for maintaining the Trained Bands; urged the
formation of a harbour at Newhaven in Sussex; and, finally, discoursed
at considerable length upon the tin, iron, linen, and woollen trades,
setting forth various methods for their improvement. In this last
section, after referring to the depression in the domestic tin trade
(Cornish tin selling so low as 70s. the cwt.), he suggested a way of
reviving it. With the Cornish tin he would combine "the Roman cinders
and iron-stone in the Forest of Dean, which makes the best iron for
most uses in the world, and works up to the best advantage, with
delight and pleasure to the workmen." He then described the history of
his own efforts to import the manufacture of tin-plates into England
some sixteen years before, in which he had been thwarted by
Chamberlaine's patent, as above described,--and offered sundry queries
as to the utility of patents generally, which, says he, "have the
tendency to drive trade out of the kingdom." Appended to the chapter on
Tin is an exceedingly amusing dialogue between a tin-miner of Cornwall,
an iron-miner of Dean Forest, and a traveller (himself). From this we
gather that Yarranton's business continued to be that of an
iron-manufacturer at his works at Ashley near Bewdley. Thus the
iron-miner says, "About 28 years since Mr. Yarranton found out a vast
quantity of Roman cinders, near the walls of the city of Worcester,
from whence he and others carried away many thousand tons or loads up
the river Severn, unto their iron-furnaces, to be melted down into
iron, with a mixture of the Forest of Dean iron-stone; and within 100
yards of the walls of the city of Worcester there was dug up one of the
hearths of the Roman foot-blasts, it being then firm and in order, and
was 7 foot deep in the earth; and by the side of the work there was
found a pot of Roman coin to the quantity of a peck, some of which was
presented to Sir [Wm.] Dugdale, and part thereof is now in the King's
Closet." [21]
In the same year (1681) in which the second part of 'England's
Improvement' appeared, Yarranton proceeded to Dunkirk for the purpose
of making a personal survey of that port, then belonging to England;
and on his return he published a map of the town, harbour, and castle
on the sea, with accompanying letterpress, in which he recommended, for
the safety of British trade, the demolition of the fortifications of
Dunkirk before they were completed, which he held would only be for the
purpose of their being garrisoned by the French king. His 'Full
Discovery of the First Presbyterian Sham Plot' was published in the
same year; and from that time nothing further is known of Andrew
Yarranton. His name and his writings have been alike nearly forgotten;
and, though Bishop Watson declared of him that he deserved to have a
statue erected to his memory as a great public benefactor, we do not
know that he was so much as honoured with a tombstone; for we have been
unable, after careful inquiry, to discover when and where he died.
Yarranton was a man whose views were far in advance of his age. The
generation for whom he laboured and wrote were not ripe for their
reception and realization; and his voice sounded among the people like
that of one crying in the wilderness. But though his exhortations to
industry and his large plans of national improvement failed to work
themselves into realities in his own time, he broke the ground, he
sowed the seed, and it may be that even at this day we are in some
degree reaping the results of his labours. At all events, his books
still live to show how wise and sagacious Andrew Yarranton was beyond
his contemporaries as to the true methods of establishing upon solid
foundations the industrial prosperity of England.
[1] PATRICK EDWARD DOVE, Elements of Political Science. Edinburgh,
1854.
[2] A copy of the entries in the parish register relating to the
various members of the Yarranton family, kindly forwarded to us by the
Rev. H. W. Cookes, rector of Astley, shows them to have resided in that
parish for many generations. There were the Yarrantons of Yarranton,
of Redstone, of Larford, of Brockenton, and of Longmore. With that
disregard for orthography in proper names which prevailed some three
hundred years since, they are indifferently designated as Yarran,
Yarranton, and Yarrington. The name was most probably derived from two
farms named Great and Little Yarranton, or Yarran (originally
Yarhampton), situated in the parish of Astley. The Yarrantons
frequently filled local offices in that parish, and we find several of
them officiating at different periods as bailiffs of Bewdley.
[3] Journals of the House of Commons, 1st July, 1648.
[4] YARRANTON'S England's Improvement by Sea and Land. Part I.
London, 1677.
[5] There seems a foundation of truth in the old English distich--
The North for Greatness, the East for Health,
The South for Neatness, the West for Wealth.
[6] State Paper Office. Dom. Charles II. 1660-1. Yarranton afterwards
succeeded in making a friend of Lord Windsor, as would appear from his
dedication of England's Improvement to his Lordship, whom he thanks for
the encouragement he had given to him in his survey of several rivers
with a view to their being rendered navigable.
[7] The following is a copy of the document from the State
Papers:--"John Bramfield, Geo. Moore, and Thos. Lee, Esqrs. and
Justices of Surrey, to Sir Edw. Nicholas.--There being this day brought
before us one Andrew Yarranton, and he accused to have broken prison,
or at least made his escape out of the Marshalsea at Worcester, being
there committed by the Deputy-Lieuts. upon suspicion of a plot in
November last; we having thereupon examined him, he allegeth that his
Majesty hath been sought unto on his behalf, and hath given order to
yourself for his discharge, and a supersedeas against all persons and
warrants, and thereupon hath desired to appeal unto you. The which we
conceiving to be convenient and reasonable (there being no positive
charge against him before us), have accordingly herewith conveyed him
unto you by a safe hand, to be further examined or disposed of as you
shall find meet."--S. P. O. Dom. Chas. II. 23rd June, 1662.
[8] We have been unable to refer to this tract, there being no copy of
it in the British Museum.
[9] NASH'S Worcestershire, i. 306.
[10] JOHN CHAMBERS, Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire.
London, 1820.
[11] The Act for making the Stour and Salwarp navigable originated in
the Lords and was passed in the year 1661.
[12] Nash, in his Hist. of Worc., intimates that Lord Windsor
subsequently renewed the attempt to make the Salwarp navigable. He
constructed five out of the six locks, and then abandoned the scheme.
Gough, in his edition of Camden's Brit. ii. 357, Lond. 1789, says, "It
is not long since some of the boats made use of in Yarranton's
navigation were found. Neither tradition nor our projector's account
of the matter perfectly satisfy us why this navigation was
neglected..... We must therefore conclude that the numerous works and
glass-houses upon the Stour, and in the neighbourhood of Stourbridge,
did not then exist, A.D. 1666. ....The navigable communication which
now connects Trent and Severn, and which runs in the course of
Yarranton's project, is already of general use.... The canal since
executed under the inspection of Mr. Brindley, running parallel with
the river.... cost the proprietors 105,000L."
[13] In the dedication of his book, entitled Englands Improvement by
Sea and Land, Part I., Yarranton gives the names of the "noble
patriots" who sent him on his journey of inquiry. They were Sir Waiter
Kirtham Blount, Bart., Sir Samuel Baldwin and Sir Timothy Baldwin,
Knights, Thomas Foley and Philip Foley, Esquires, and six other
gentlemen. The father of the Foleys was himself supposed to have
introduced the art of iron-splitting into England by an expedient
similar to that adopted by Yarranton in obtaining a knowledge of the
tin-plate manufacture (Self-Help, p.145). The secret of the
silk-throwing machinery of Piedmont was in like manner introduced into
England by Mr. Lombe of Derby, who shortly succeeded in founding a
flourishing branch of manufacture. These were indeed the days of
romance and adventure in manufactures.
[14] The district is known as the Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains, and the
Riesengebirge or Giant Mountains, MacCulloch says that upwards of 500
mines are wrought in the former district, and that one-thirtieth of the
entire population of Saxony to this day derive their subsistence from
mining industry and the manufacture of metallic products.--
Geographical Dict. ii. 643, edit. 1854.
[15] Chamberlaine and Dudley's first licence was granted in 1661 for
plating steel and tinning the said plates; and Chamberlaine's sole
patent for "plating and tinning iron, copper, &c.," was granted in
1673, probably the patent in question.
[16] JOHN CHAMBERS, Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire.
London, 1820.
[17] Yarranton's Land Bank was actually projected in 1695, and received
the sanction of Parliament; though the Bank of England (founded in the
preceding year) petitioned against it, and the scheme was dropped.
[18] It is interesting to note in passing, that part of Yarranton's
scheme has recently been carried into effect by the Act (25 and 26
Vict. c. 53) passed in 1862 for the Registration of Real Estate.
[19] One of these is entitled 'A Coffee-house Dialogue, or a Discourse
between Captain Y---- and a Young Barrister of the Middle Temple; with
some Reflections upon the Bill against the D. of Y.' In this broadside,
of 3 1/2 pages folio, published about 1679, Yarranton is made to favour
the Duke of York's exclusion from the throne, not only because he was a
papist, but for graver reasons than he dare express. Another
scurrilous pamphlet, entitled 'A Word Without Doors,' was also aimed at
him. Yarranton, or his friends, replied to the first attack in a folio
of two pages, entitled 'The Coffee-house Dialogue Examined and Refuted,
by some Neighbours in the Country, well-wishers to the Kingdom's
interest.' The controversy was followed up by 'A Continuation of the
Coffee-house Dialogue,' in which the chief interlocutor hits Yarranton
rather hard for the miscarriage of his "improvements." "I know," says
he, "when and where you undertook for a small charge to make a river
navigable, and it has cost the proprietors about six times as much, and
is not yet effective; nor can any man rationally predict when it will
be. I know since you left it your son undertook it, and this winter
shamefully left his undertaking." Yarranton's friends immediately
replied in a four-page folio, entitled 'England's Improvements
Justified; and the Author thereof, Captain Y., vindicated from the
Scandals in a paper called a Coffee-house Dialogue; with some
Animadversions upon the Popish Designs therein contained.' The writer
says he writes without the privity or sanction of Yarranton, but
declares the dialogue to be a forgery, and that the alleged conference
never took place. "His innocence, when he heard of it, only provoked a
smile, with this answer, Spreta vilescunt, falsehoods mu st perish, and
are soonest destroyed by contempt; so that he needs no further
vindication. The writer then proceeds at some length to vindicate the
Captain's famous work and the propositions contained in it.
[20] This work (especially with the plates) is excessively rare. There
is a copy of it in perfect condition in the Grenville Library, British
Museum.
[21] Dr. Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, has thrown some doubts
upon this story; but Mr. Green, in his Historical Antiquities of the
city, has made a most able defence of Yarranton's statement (vol.i. 9,
in foot-note).
CHAPTER V.
COALBROOKDALE IRON WORKS--THE DARBYS AND REYNOLDSES.
"The triumph of the industrial arts will advance the cause of
civilization more rapidly than its warmest advocates could have hoped,
and contribute to the permanent prosperity and strength of the country
far move than the most splendid victories of successful war."--C.
BABBAGE, The Exposition of 1851.
Dud Dudley's invention of smelting iron with coke made of pit-coal was,
like many others, born before its time. It was neither appreciated by
the iron-masters nor by the workmen. All schemes for smelting ore with
any other fuel than charcoal made from wood were regarded with
incredulity. As for Dudley's Metallum Martis, as it contained no
specification, it revealed no secret; and when its author died, his
secret, whatever it might be, died with him. Other improvements were
doubtless necessary before the invention could be turned to useful
account. Thus, until a more powerful blowing-furnace had been
contrived, the production of pit-coal iron must necessarily have been
limited. Dudley himself does not seem to have been able to make more
on an average than five tons a-week, and seven tons at the outside.
Nor was the iron so good as that made by charcoal; for it is admitted
to have been especially liable to deterioration by the sulphureous
fumes of the coal in the process of manufacture.
Dr. Plot, in his 'History of Staffordshire,' speaks of an experiment
made by one Dr. Blewstone, a High German, as "the last effort" made in
that county to smelt iron-ore with pit-coal. He is said to have "built
his furnace at Wednesbury, so ingeniously contrived (that only the
flame of the coal should come to the ore, with several other
conveniences), that many were of opinion he would succeed in it. But
experience, that great baffler of speculation, showed it would not be;
the sulphureous vitriolic steams that issue from the pyrites, which
frequently, if not always, accompanies pit-coal, ascending with the
flame, and poisoning the ore sufficiently to make it render much worse
iron than that made with charcoal, though not perhaps so much worse as
the body of the coal itself would possibly do." [1] Dr. Plot does not
give the year in which this "last effort" was made; but as we find that
one Dr. Frederic de Blewston obtained a patent from Charles II. on the
25th October, 1677, for "a new and effectual way of melting down,
forging, extracting, and reducing of iron and all metals and minerals
with pit-coal and sea-coal, as well and effectually as ever hath yet
been done by charcoal, and with much less charge;" and as Dr. Plot's
History, in which he makes mention of the experiment and its failure,
was published in 1686, it is obvious that the trial must have been made
between those years.
As the demand for iron steadily increased with the increasing
population of the country, and as the supply of timber for smelting
purposes was diminishing from year to year, England was compelled to
rely more and more upon foreign countries for its supply of
manufactured iron. The number of English forges rapidly dwindled, and
the amount of the home production became insignificant in comparison
with what was imported from abroad. Yarranton, writing in 1676, speaks
of "the many iron-works laid down in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, and in the
north of England, because the iron of Sweadland, Flanders, and Spain,
coming in so cheap, it cannot be made to profit here." There were many
persons, indeed, who held that it was better we should be supplied with
iron from Spain than make it at home, in consequence of the great waste
of wood involved by the manufacture; but against this view Yarranton
strongly contended, and held, what is as true now as it was then, that
the manufacture of iron was the keystone of England's industrial
prosperity. He also apprehended great danger to the country from want
of iron in event of the contingency of a foreign war. "When the
greatest part of the iron-works are asleep," said he, "if there should
be occasion for great quantities of guns and bullets, and other sorts
of iron commodities, for a present unexpected war, and the Sound happen
to be locked up, and so prevent iron coming to us, truly we should then
be in a fine case!"
Notwithstanding these apprehended national perils arising from the want
of iron, no steps seem to have been taken to supply the deficiency,
either by planting woods on a large scale, as recommended by Yarranton,
or by other methods; and the produce of English iron continued steadily
to decline. In 1720-30 there were found only ten furnaces remaining in
blast in the whole Forest of Dean, where the iron-smelters were
satisfied with working up merely the cinders left by the Romans. A
writer of the time states that we then bought between two and three
hundred thousand pounds' worth of foreign iron yearly, and that England
was the best customer in Europe for Swedish and Russian iron.[2] By
the middle of the eighteenth century the home manufacture had so much
fallen off, that the total production of Great Britain is supposed to
have amounted to not more than 18,000 tons a year; four-fifths of the
iron used in the country being imported from Sweden.[3]
The more that the remaining ironmasters became straitened for want of
wood, the more they were compelled to resort to cinders and coke made
from coal as a substitute. And it was found that under certain
circumstances this fuel answered the purpose almost as well as charcoal
of wood. The coke was made by burning the coal in heaps in the open
air, and it was usually mixed with coal and peat in the process of
smelting the ore. Coal by itself was used by the country smiths for
forging whenever they could procure it for their smithy fires; and in
the midland counties they had it brought to them, sometimes from great
distances, slung in bags across horses' backs,--for the state of the
roads was then so execrable as not to admit of its being led for any
considerable distance in carts. At length we arrive at a period when
coal seems to have come into general use, and when necessity led to its
regular employment both in smelting the ore and in manufacturing the
metal. And this brings us to the establishment of the Coalbrookdale
works, where the smelting of iron by means of coke and coal was first
adopted on a large scale as the regular method of manufacture.
Abraham Darby, the first of a succession of iron manufacturers who bore
the same name, was the son of a farmer residing at Wrensnest, near
Dudley. He served an apprenticeship to a maker of malt-kilns near
Birmingham, after which he married and removed to Bristol in 1700, to
begin business on his own account. Industry is of all politics and
religions: thus Dudley was a Royalist and a Churchman, Yarranton was a
Parliamentarian and a Presbyterian, and Abraham Darby was a Quaker. At
Bristol he was joined by three partners of the same persuasion, who
provided the necessary capital to enable him to set up works at Baptist
Mills, near that city, where he carried on the business of malt-mill
making, to which he afterwards added brass and iron founding.
At that period cast-iron pots were in very general use, forming the
principal cooking utensils of the working class. The art of casting
had, however, made such small progress in England that the pots were
for the most part imported from abroad. Darby resolved, if possible,
to enter upon this lucrative branch of manufacture; and he proceeded to
make a number of experiments in pot-making. Like others who had
preceded him, he made his first moulds of clay; but they cracked and
burst, and one trial failed after another. He then determined to find
out the true method of manufacturing the pots, by travelling into the
country from whence the best were imported, in order to master the
grand secret of the trade. With this object he went over to Holland in
the year 1706, and after diligent inquiry he ascertained that the only
sure method of casting "Hilton ware," as such castings were then
called, was in moulds of fine dry sand. This was the whole secret.
Returning to Bristol, accompanied by some skilled Dutch workmen, Darby
began the new manufacture, and succeeded to his satisfaction. The work
was at first carried on with great secrecy, lest other makers should
copy the art; and the precaution was taken of stopping the keyhole of
the workshop-door while the casting was in progress. To secure himself
against piracy, he proceeded to take out a patent for the process in
the year 1708, and it was granted for the term of fourteen years. The
recital of the patent is curious, as showing the backward state of
English iron-founding at that time. It sets forth that "whereas our
trusty and well-beloved Abraham Darby, of our city of Bristol, smith,
hath by his petition humbly represented to us, that by his study,
industry, and expense, he hath found out and brought to perfection a
new way of casting iron bellied pots and other iron bellied ware in
sand only, without loam or clay, by which such iron pots and other ware
may be cast fine and with more ease and expedition, and may be afforded
cheaper than they can be by the way commonly used; and in regard to
their cheapness may be of great advantage to the poor of this our
kingdom, who for the most part use such ware, and in all probability
will prevent the merchants of England going to foreign markets for such
ware, from whence great quantities are imported, and likewise may in
time supply other markets with that manufacture of our dominions,
&c..... grants the said Abraham Darby the full power and sole privilege
to make and sell such pots and ware for and during the term of fourteen
years thence ensuing."
Darby proceeded to make arrangements for carrying on the manufacture
upon a large scale at the Baptist Mills; but the other partners
hesitated to embark more capital in the concern, and at length refused
their concurrence. Determined not to be baulked in his enterprise,
Darby abandoned the Bristol firm; and in the year 1709 he removed to
Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, with the intention of prosecuting the
enterprise on his own account. He took the lease of a little furnace
which had existed at the place for more than a century, as the records
exist of a "smethe" or "smeth-house" at Coalbrookdale in the time of
the Tudors. The woods of oak and hazel which at that time filled the
beautiful dingles of the dale, and spread in almost a continuous forest
to the base of the Wrekin, furnished abundant fuel for the smithery.
As the trade of the Coalbrookdale firm extended, these woods became
cleared, until the same scarcity of fuel began to be experienced that
had already desolated the forests of Sussex, and brought the
manufacture of iron in that quarter to a stand-still.
It appears from the 'Blast Furnace Memorandum Book' of Abraham Darby,
which we have examined, that the make of iron at the Coalbrookdale
foundry, in 1713, varied from five to ten tons a week. The principal
articles cast were pots, kettles, and other "hollow ware," direct from
the smelting-furnace; the rest of the metal was run into pigs. In
course of time we find that other castings were turned out: a few
grates, smoothing-irons, door-frames, weights, baking-plates,
cart-bushes, iron pestles and mortars, and occasionally a tailor's
goose. The trade gradually increased, until we find as many as 150
pots and kettles cast in a week.
The fuel used in the furnaces appears, from the Darby Memorandum-Book,
to have been at first entirely charcoal; but the growing scarcity of
wood seems to have gradually led to the use of coke, brays or small
coke, and peat. An abundance of coals existed in the neighbourhood: by
rejecting those of inferior quality, and coking the others with great
care, a combustible was obtained better fitted even than charcoal
itself for the fusion of that particular kind of ore which is found in
the coal-measures. Thus we find Darby's most favourite charge for his
furnaces to have been five baskets of coke, two of brays, and one of
peat; next followed the ore, and then the limestone. The use of
charcoal was gradually given up as the art of smelting with coke and
brays improved, most probably aided by the increased power of the
furnace-blast, until at length we find it entirely discontinued.
The castings of Coalbrookdale gradually acquired a reputation, and the
trade of Abraham Darby continued to increase until the date of his
death, which occurred at Madeley Court in 1717. His sons were too
young at the time to carry on the business which he had so successfully
started, and several portions of the works were sold at a serious
sacrifice. But when the sons had grown up to manhood, they too entered
upon the business of iron-founding; and Abraham Darby's son and
grandson, both of the same name, largely extended the operations of the
firm, until Coalbrookdale, or, as it was popularly called, "Bedlam,"
became the principal seat of one of the most important branches of the
iron trade.
There seems to be some doubt as to the precise time when pit-coal was
first regularly employed at Coalbrookdale in smelting the ore. Mr.
Scrivenor says, "pit-coal was first used by Mr. Abraham Darby, in his
furnace at Coalbrookdale, in 1713;" [4] but we can find no confirmation
of this statement in the records of the Company. It is probable that
Mr. Darby used raw coal, as was done in the Forest of Dean at the same
time,[5] in the process of calcining the ore; but it would appear from
his own Memoranda that coke only was used in the process of smelting.
We infer from other circumstances that pit-coal was not employed for
the latter purpose until a considerably later period. The merit of its
introduction, and its successful use in iron-smelting, is due to Mr.
Richard Ford, who had married a daughter of Abraham Darby, and managed
the Coalbrookdale works in 1747. In a paper by the Rev. Mr. Mason,
Woodwardian Professor at Cambridge, given in the 'Philosophical
Transactions' for that year,[6] the first account of its successful
employment is stated as follows:--"Several attempts have been made to
run iron-ore with pit-coal: he (Mr. Mason) thinks it has not succeeded
anywhere, as we have had no account of its being practised; but Mr.
Ford, of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, from iron-ore and coal, both got
in the same dale, makes iron brittle or tough as he pleases, there
being cannon thus cast so soft as to bear turning like wrought-iron."
Most probably, however, it was not until the time of Richard Reynolds,
who succeeded Abraham Darby the second in the management of the works
in 1757, that pit-coal came into large and regular use in the
blasting-furnaces as well as the fineries of Coalbrookdale.
Richard Reynolds was born at Bristol in 1735. His parents, like the
Darbys, belonged to the Society of Friends, and he was educated in that
persuasion. Being a spirited, lively youth, the "old Adam"
occasionally cropped out in him; and he is even said, when a young man,
to have been so much fired by the heroism of the soldier's character
that he felt a strong desire to embrace a military career; but this
feeling soon died out, and he dropped into the sober and steady rut of
the Society. After serving an apprenticeship in his native town, he
was sent to Coalbrookdale on a mission of business, where he became
acquainted with the Darby family, and shortly after married Hannah, the
daughter of Abraham the second. He then entered upon the conduct of
the iron and coal works at Ketley and Horsehay, where he resided for
six years, removing to Coalbrookdale in 1763, to take charge of the
works there, on the death of his father-in-law.
By the exertions and enterprise of the Darbys, the Coalbrookdale Works
had become greatly enlarged, giving remunerative employment to a large
and increasing population. The firm had extended their operations far
beyond the boundaries of the Dale: they had established foundries at
London, Bristol, and Liverpool, and agencies at Newcastle and Truro for
the disposal of steam-engines and other iron machinery used in the deep
mines of those districts. Watt had not yet perfected his steam-engine;
but there was a considerable demand for pumping-engines of Newcomen's
construction, many of which were made at the Coalbrookdale Works. The
increasing demand for iron gave an impetus to coal-mining, which in its
turn stimulated inventors in their improvement of the power of the
steam-engine; for the coal could not be worked quickly and
advantageously unless the pits could be kept clear of water. Thus one
invention stimulates another; and when the steam-engine had been
perfected by Watt, and enabled powerful-blowing apparatus to be worked
by its agency, we shall find that the production of iron by means of
pit-coal being rendered cheap and expeditious, soon became enormously
increased.
We are informed that it was while Richard Reynolds had charge of the
Coalbrookdale works that a further important improvement was effected
in the manufacture of iron by pit-coal. Up to this time the conversion
of crude or cast iron into malleable or bar iron had been effected
entirely by means of charcoal. The process was carried on in a fire
called a finery, somewhat like that of a smith's forge; the iron being
exposed to the blast of powerful bellows, and in constant contact with
the fuel. In the first process of fusing the ironstone, coal had been
used for some time with increasing success; but the question arose,
whether coal might not also be used with effect in the second or
refining stage. Two of the foremen, named Cranege, suggested to Mr.
Reynolds that this might be performed in what is called a reverberatory
furnace,[7] in which the iron should not mix with the coal, but be
heated solely by the flame. Mr. Reynolds greatly doubted the
feasibility of the operation, but he authorized the Cranege, to make an
experiment of their process, the result of which will be found
described in the following extract of a letter from Mr. Reynolds to Mr.
Thomas Goldney of Bristol, dated "Coalbrookdale, 25th April, 1766":--
.... "I come now to what I think a matter of very great consequence.
It is some time since Thos. Cranege, who works at Bridgenorth Forge,
and his brother George, of the Dale, spoke to me about a notion they
had conceived of making bar iron without wood charcoal. I told them,
consistent with the notion I had adopted in common with all others I
had conversed with, that I thought it impossible, because the vegetable
salts in the charcoal being an alkali acted as an absorbent to the
sulphur of the iron, which occasions the red-short quality of the iron,
and pit coal abounding with sulphur would increase it. This specious
answer, which would probably have appeared conclusive to most, and
which indeed was what I really thought, was not so to them. They
replied that from the observations they had made, and repeated
conversations together, they were both firmly of opinion that the
alteration from the quality of pig iron into that of bar iron was
effected merely by heat, and if I would give them leave, they would
make a trial some day. I consented, but, I confess, without any great
expectation of their success; and so the matter rested some weeks, when
it happening that some repairs had to be done at Bridgenorth, Thomas
came up to the Dale, and, with his brother, made a trial in Thos.
Tilly's air-furnace with such success as I thought would justify the
erection of a small air-furnace at the Forge for the more perfectly
ascertaining the merit of the invention. This was accordingly done,
and a trial of it has been made this week, and the success has
surpassed the most sanguine expectations. The iron put into the
furnace was old Bushes, which thou knowest are always made of hard
iron, and the iron drawn out is the toughest I ever saw. A bar 1 1/4
inch square, when broke, appears to have very little cold short in it.
I look upon it as one of the most important discoveries ever made, and
take the liberty of recommending thee and earnestly requesting thou
wouldst take out a patent for it immediately.... The specification of
the invention will be comprised in a few words, as it will only set
forth that a reverberatory furnace being built of a proper
construction, the pig or cast iron is put into it, and without the
addition of anything else than common raw pit coal, is converted into
good malleable iron, and, being taken red-hot from the reverberatory
furnace to the forge hammer, is drawn out into bars of various shapes
and sizes, according to the will of the workmen."
Mr. Reynolds's advice was implicitly followed. A patent was secured in
the name of the brothers Cranege, dated the 17th June, 1766; and the
identical words in the above letter were adopted in the specification
as descriptive of the process. By this method of puddling, as it is
termed, the manufacturer was thenceforward enabled to produce iron in
increased quantity at a large reduction in price; and though the
invention of the Craneges was greatly improved upon by Onions, and
subsequently by Cort, there can be no doubt as to the originality and
the importance of their invention. Mr. Tylor states that he was
informed by the son of Richard Reynolds that the wrought iron made at
Coalbrookdale by the Cranege process "was very good, quite tough, and
broke with a long, bright, fibrous fracture: that made by Cort
afterwards was quite different." [8] Though Mr. Reynolds's generosity
to the Craneges is apparent; in the course which he adopted in securing
for them a patent for the invention in their own names, it does not
appear to have proved of much advantage to them; and they failed to
rise above the rank which they occupied when their valuable discovery
was patented. This, however, was no fault of Richard Reynolds, but was
mainly attributable to the circumstance of other inventions in a great
measure superseding their process, and depriving them of the benefits
of their ingenuity.
Among the important improvements introduced by Mr. Reynolds while
managing the Coalbrookdale Works, was the adoption by him for the first
time of iron instead of wooden rails in the tram-roads along which coal
and iron were conveyed from one part of the works to another, as well
as to the loading-places along the river Severn. He observed that the
wooden rails soon became decayed, besides being liable to be broken by
the heavy loads passing over them, occasioning much loss of time,
interruption to business, and heavy expenses in repairs. It occurred
to him that these inconveniences would be obviated by the use of rails
of cast-iron; and, having tried an experiment with them, it answered so
well, that in 1767 the whole of the wooden rails were taken up and
replaced by rails of iron. Thus was the era of iron railroads fairly
initiated at Coalbrookdale, and the example of Mr. Reynolds was shortly
after followed on all the tramroads throughout the Country.
It is also worthy of note that the first iron bridge ever erected was
cast and made at the Coalbrookdale Works--its projection as well as its
erection being mainly due to the skill and enterprise of Abraham Darby
the third. When but a young man, he showed indications of that
sagacity and energy in business which seemed to be hereditary in his
family. One of the first things he did on arriving at man's estate was
to set on foot a scheme for throwing a bridge across the Severn at
Coalbrookdale, at a point where the banks were steep and slippery, to
accommodate the large population which had sprung up along both banks
of the river. There were now thriving iron, brick, and pottery works
established in the parishes of Madeley and Broseley; and the old ferry
on the Severn was found altogether inadequate for ready communication
between one bank and the other. The want of a bridge had long been
felt, and a plan of one had been prepared during the life time of
Abraham Darby the second; but the project was suspended at his death.
When his son came of age, he resolved to take up his father's dropped
scheme, and prosecute it to completion, which he did. Young Mr. Darby
became lord of the manor of Madeley in 1776, and was the owner of
one-half of the ferry in right of his lordship. He was so fortunate as
to find the owner of the other or Broseley half of the ferry equally
anxious with himself to connect the two banks of the river by means of
a bridge. The necessary powers were accordingly obtained from
Parliament, and a bridge was authorized to be built "of cast-iron,
stone, brick, or timber." A company was formed for the purpose of
carrying out the project, and the shares were taken by the adjoining
owners, Abraham Darby being the principal subscriber.[9]
The construction of a bridge of iron was an entirely new idea. An
attempt had indeed been made at Lyons, in France, to construct such a
bridge more than twenty years before; but it had entirely failed, and a
bridge of timber was erected instead. It is not known whether the
Coalbrookdale masters had heard of that attempt; but, even if they had,
it could have been of no practical use to them.
Mr. Pritchard, an architect of Shrewsbury, was first employed to
prepare a design of the intended structure, which is still preserved.
Although Mr. Pritchard proposed to introduce cast-iron in the arch of
the bridge, which was to be of 120 feet span, it was only as a sort of
key, occupying but a few feet at the crown of the arch. This sparing
use of cast iron indicates the timidity of the architect in dealing
with the new material--his plan exhibiting a desire to effect a
compromise between the tried and the untried in bridge-construction.
But the use of iron to so limited an extent, and in such a part of the
structure, was of more than questionable utility; and if Mr.
Pritchard's plan had been adopted, the problem of the iron bridge would
still have remained unsolved.
The plan, however, after having been duly considered, was eventually
set aside, and another, with the entire arch of cast-iron, was prepared
under the superintendence of Abraham Darby, by Mr. Thomas Gregory, his
foreman of pattern-makers. This plan was adopted, and arrangements
were forthwith made for carrying it into effect. The abutments of the
bridge were built in 1777-8, during which the castings were made at the
foundry, and the ironwork was successfully erected in the course of
three months. The bridge was opened for traffic in 1779, and proved a
most serviceable structure. In 1788 the Society of Arts recognised Mr.
Darby's merit as its designer and erector by presenting him with their
gold medal; and the model of the bridge is still to be seen in the
collection of the Society. Mr. Robert Stephenson has said of the
structure: "If we consider that the manipulation of cast-iron was then
completely in its infancy, a bridge of such dimensions was doubtless a
bold as well as an original undertaking, and the efficiency of the
details is worthy of the boldness of the conception." [10] Mr.
Stephenson adds that from a defect in the construction the abutments
were thrust inwards at the approaches and the ribs partially fractured.
We are, however, informed that this is a mistake, though it does appear
that the apprehension at one time existed that such an accident might
possibly occur.
To remedy the supposed defect, two small land arches were, in the year
1800, substituted for the stone approach on the Broseley side of the
bridge. While the work was in progress, Mr. Telford, the well-known
engineer, carefully examined the bridge, and thus spoke of its
condition at the time:--"The great improvement of erecting upon a
navigable river a bridge of cast-iron of one arch only was first put in
practice near Coalbrookdale. The bridge was executed in 1777 by Mr.
Abraham Darby, and the ironwork is now quite as perfect as when it was
first put up. Drawings of this bridge have long been before the
public, and have been much and justly admired." [11] A Coalbrookdale
correspondent, writing in May, 1862, informs us that "at the present
time the bridge is undergoing repair; and, special examination having
been made, there is no appearance either that the abutments have moved,
or that the ribs have been broken in the centre or are out of their
proper right line. There has, it is true, been a strain on the land
arches, and on the roadway plates, which, however, the main arch has
been able effectually to resist."
The bridge has now been in profitable daily use for upwards of eighty
years, and has during that time proved of the greatest convenience to
the population of the district. So judicious was the selection of its
site, and so great its utility, that a thriving town of the name of
Ironbridge has grown up around it upon what, at the time of its
erection, was a nameless part of "the waste of the manor of Madeley."
And it is probable that the bridge will last for centuries to come.
Thus, also, was the use of iron as an important material in
bridge-building fairly initiated at Coalbrookdale by Abraham Darby, as
the use of iron rails was by Richard Reynolds. We need scarcely add
that since the invention and extensive adoption of railway locomotion,
the employment of iron in various forms in railway and bridge
structures has rapidly increased, until iron has come to be regarded as
the very sheet-anchor of the railway engineer.
In the mean time the works at Coalbrookdale had become largely
extended. In 1784, when the government of the day proposed to levy a
tax on pit-coal, Richard Reynolds strongly urged upon Mr. Pitt, then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, as well as on Lord Gower, afterwards
Marquis of Stafford, the impolicy of such a tax. To the latter he
represented that large capitals had been invested in the iron trade,
which was with difficulty carried on in the face of the competition
with Swedish and Russian iron. At Coalbrookdale, sixteen "fire
engines," as steam engines were first called, were then at work, eight
blast-furnaces and nine forges, besides the air furnaces and mills at
the foundry, which, with the levels, roads, and more than twenty miles
of iron railways, gave employment to a very large number of people.
"The advancement of the iron trade within these few years," said he,
"has been prodigious. It was thought, and justly, that the making of
pig-iron with pit coal was a great acquisition to the country by saving
the wood and supplying a material to manufactures, the production of
which, by the consumption of all the wood the country produced, was
formerly unequal to the demand, and the nail trade, perhaps the most
considerable of any one article of manufactured iron, would have been
lost to this country had it not been found practicable to make nails of
iron made with pit coal. We have now another process to attempt, and
that is to make BAR IRON with pit coal; and it is for that purpose we
have made, or rather are making, alterations at Donnington Wood,
Ketley, and elsewhere, which we expect to complete in the present year,
but not at a less expense than twenty thousand pounds, which will be
lost to us, and gained by nobody, if this tax is laid upon our coals."
He would not, however, have it understood that he sought for any
PROTECTION for the homemade iron, notwithstanding the lower prices of
the foreign article. "From its most imperfect state as pig-iron," he
observed to Lord Sheffield, "to its highest finish in the regulating
springs of a watch, we have nothing to fear if the importation into
each country should be permitted without duty." We need scarcely add
that the subsequent history of the iron trade abundantly justified
these sagacious anticipations of Richard Reynolds.
He was now far advanced in years. His business had prospered, his
means were ample, and he sought retirement. He did not desire to
possess great wealth, which in his opinion entailed such serious
responsibilities upon its possessor; and he held that the accumulation
of large property was more to be deprecated than desired. He therefore
determined to give up his shares in the ironworks at Ketley to his sons
William and Joseph, who continued to carry them on. William was a man
of eminent ability, well versed in science, and an excellent mechanic.
He introduced great improvements in the working of the coal and iron
mines, employing new machinery for the purpose, and availing himself
with much ingenuity of the discoveries then being made in the science
of chemistry. He was also an inventor, having been the first to employ
(in 1788) inclined planes, consisting of parallel railways, to connect
and work canals of different levels,--an invention erroneously
attributed to Fulton, but which the latter himself acknowledged to
belong to William Reynolds. In the first chapter of his 'Treatise on
Canal Navigation,' published in 1796, Fulton says:--"As local
prejudices opposed the Duke of Bridgewater's canal in the first
instance, prejudices equally strong as firmly adhered to the principle
on which it was constructed; and it was thought impossible to lead one
through a country, or to work it to any advantage, unless by locks and
boats of at least twenty-five tons, till the genius of Mr. William
Reynolds, of Ketley, in Shropshire, stepped from the accustomed path,
constructed the first inclined plane, and introduced boats of five
tons. This, like the Duke's canal, was deemed a visionary project, and
particularly by his Grace, who was partial to locks; yet this is also
introduced into practice, and will in many instances supersede lock
canals." Telford, the engineer, also gracefully acknowledged the
valuable assistance he received from William Reynolds in planning the
iron aqueduct by means of which the Ellesmere Canal was carried over
the Pont Cysylltau, and in executing the necessary castings for the
purpose at the Ketley foundry.
The future management of his extensive ironworks being thus placed in
able hands, Richard Reynolds finally left Coalbrookdale in 1804, for
Bristol, his native town, where he spent the remainder of his life in
works of charity and mercy. Here we might leave the subject, but
cannot refrain from adding a few concluding words as to the moral
characteristics of this truly good man. Though habitually religious,
he was neither demure nor morose, but cheerful, gay, and humorous. He
took great interest in the pleasures of the young people about him, and
exerted himself in all ways to promote their happiness. He was fond of
books, pictures, poetry, and music, though the indulgence of artistic
tastes is not thought becoming in the Society to which he belonged.
His love for the beauties of nature amounted almost to a passion, and
when living at The Bank, near Ketley, it was his great delight in the
summer evenings to retire with his pipe to a rural seat commanding a
full view of the Wrekin, the Ercall Woods, with Cader Idris and the
Montgomeryshire hills in the distance, and watch the sun go down in the
west in his glory. Once in every year he assembled a large party to
spend a day with him on the Wrekin, and amongst those invited were the
principal clerks in the company's employment, together with their
families. At Madeley, near Coalbrookdale, where he bought a property,
he laid out, for the express use of the workmen, extensive walks
through the woods on Lincoln Hill, commanding beautiful views. They
were called "The Workmen's Walks," and were a source of great enjoyment
to them and their families, especially on Sunday afternoons.
When Mr. Reynolds went to London on business, he was accustomed to make
a round of visits, on his way home, to places remarkable for their
picturesque beauty, such as Stowe, Hagley Park, and the Leasowes.
After a visit to the latter place in 1767, he thus, in a letter to his
friend John Maccappen, vindicated his love for the beautiful in
nature:--"I think it not only lawful but expedient to cultivate a
disposition to be pleased with the beauties of nature, by frequent
indulgences for that purpose. The mind, by being continually applied
to the consideration of ways and means to gain money, contracts an
indifferency if not an insensibility to the profusion of beauties which
the benevolent Creator has impressed upon every part of the material
creation. A sordid love of gold, the possession of what gold can
purchase, and the reputation of being rich, have so depraved the finer
feelings of some men, that they pass through the most delightful grove,
filled with the melody of nature, or listen to the murmurings of the
brook in the valley, with as little pleasure and with no more of the
vernal delight which Milton describes, than they feel in passing
through some obscure alley in a town."
When in the prime of life, Mr. Reynolds was an excellent rider,
performing all his journeys on horseback. He used to give a ludicrous
account of a race he once ran with another youth, each having a lady
seated on a pillion behind him; Mr. Reynolds reached the goal first,
but when he looked round he found that he had lost his fair companion,
who had fallen off in the race! On another occasion he had a hard run
with Lord Thurlow during a visit paid by the latter to the Ketley
Iron-Works. Lord Thurlow pulled up his horse first, and observed,
laughing, "I think, Mr. Reynolds, this is probably the first time that
ever a Lord Chancellor rode a race with a Quaker!" But a stranger
rencontre was one which befel Mr. Reynolds on Blackheath. Though he
declined Government orders for cannon, he seems to have had a secret
hankering after the "pomp and circumstance" of military life. At all
event's he was present on Blackheath one day when George III. was
reviewing some troops. Mr. Reynold's horse, an old trooper, no sooner
heard the sound of the trumpet than he started off at full speed, and
made directly for the group of officers before whom the troops were
defiling. Great was the surprise of the King when he saw the Quaker
draw up alongside of him, but still greater, perhaps, was the confusion
of the Quaker at finding himself in such company.
During the later years of his life, while living at Bristol, his hand
was in every good work; and it was often felt where it was not seen.
For he carefully avoided ostentation, and preferred doing his good in
secret. He strongly disapproved of making charitable bequests by will,
which he observed in many cases to have been the foundation of enormous
abuses, but held it to be the duty of each man to do all the possible
good that he could during his lifetime. Many were the instances of his
princely, though at the time unknown, munificence. Unwilling to be
recognised as the giver of large sums, he employed agents to dispense
his anonymous benefactions. He thus sent 20,000L. to London to be
distributed during the distress of 1795. He had four almoners
constantly employed in Bristol, finding out cases of distress,
relieving them, and presenting their accounts to him weekly, with
details of the cases relieved. He searched the debtors' prisons, and
where, as often happened, deserving but unfortunate men were found
confined for debt, he paid the claims against them and procured their
release. Such a man could not fail to be followed with blessings and
gratitude; but these he sought to direct to the Giver of all Good. "My
talent," said he to a friend, "is the meanest of all talents--a little
sordid dust; but as the man in the parable who had but one talent was
held accountable, I also am accountable for the talent that I possess,
humble as it is, to the great Lord of all." On one occasion the case
of a poor orphan boy was submitted to him, whose parents, both dying
young, had left him destitute, on which Mr. Reynolds generously offered
to place a sum in the names of trustees for his education and
maintenance until he could be apprenticed to a business. The lady who
represented the case was so overpowered by the munificence of the act
that she burst into tears, and, struggling to express her gratitude,
concluded with--"and when the dear child is old enough, I will teach
him to thank his benefactor." "Thou must teach him to look higher,"
interrupted Reynolds: "Do we thank the clouds for rain? When the child
grows up, teach him to thank Him who sendeth both the clouds and the
rain." Reynolds himself deplored his infirmity of temper, which was by
nature hasty; and, as his benevolence was known, and appeals were made
to him at all times, seasonable and unseasonable, he sometimes met them
with a sharp word, which, however, he had scarcely uttered before he
repented of it: and he is known to have followed a poor woman to her
home and ask forgiveness for having spoken hastily in answer to her
application for help.
This "great good man" died on the 10th of September, 1816, in the 81st
year of his age. At his funeral the poor of Bristol were the chief
mourners. The children of the benevolent societies which he had
munificently supported during his lifetime, and some of which he had
founded, followed his body to the grave. The procession was joined by
the clergy and ministers of all denominations, and by men of all
classes and persuasions. And thus was Richard Reynolds laid to his
rest, leaving behind him a name full of good odour, which will long be
held in grateful remembrance by the inhabitants of Bristol.
[1] Dr. PLOT, Natural History of Staffordshire, 2nd ed. 1686, p. 128.
[2] JOSHUA GEE, The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain considered,
1731.
[3] When a bill was introduced into Parliament in 1750 with the object
of encouraging the importation of iron from our American colonies, the
Sheffield tanners petitioned against it, on the ground that, if it
passed, English iron would be undersold; many forges would consequently
be discontinued; in which case the timber used for fuel would remain
uncut, and the tanners would thereby be deprived of bark for the
purposes of their trade!
[4] History of the Iron Trade, p. 56.
[5] See Mr. Powle's account of the Iron Works in the Forest of Dean
(1677-8), in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. ii. p. 418, where he
says, "After they have pounded their ore, their first work is to
calcine it, which is done in kilns, much after the fashion of ordinary
lime-kilns, These they fill up to the top with coal and ore, stratum
super stratum, until it be full; and so setting fire to the bottom,
they let it burn till the coal be wasted, and then renew the kilns with
fresh ore and coal, in the same manner as before. This is done without
fusion of the metal, and serves to consume the more drossy parts of the
ore and to make it friable." The writer then describes the process of
smelting the ore mixed with cinder in the furnaces, where, he says, the
fuel is "always of charcoal." "Several attempts," he adds, "have been
made to introduce the use of sea-coal in these works instead of
charcoal, the former being to be had at an easier rate than the latter;
but hitherto they have proved ineffectual, the workmen finding by
experience that a sea-coal fire, how vehement soever, will not
penetrate the most fixed parts of the ore, and so leaves much of the
metal unmelted"
[6] Phil. Trans. vol. xliv. 305.
[7] Reverberatory, so called because the flame or current of heated
gases from the fuel is caused to be reverberated or reflected down upon
the substance under operation before passing into the chimney. It is
curious that Rovenson, in his Treatise of Metallica of 1613, describes
a reverberatory furnace in which iron was to be smelted by pit-coal,
though it does not appear that he succeeded in perfecting his
invention. Dr. Percy, in his excellent work on Metallurgy, thus
describes a reverberatory furnace:--"It consists essentially of three
parts--a fireplace at one end, a stack or chimney at the other, and a
bed between both on which the matter is heated. The fireplace is
separated from the bed by a low partition wall called the fire-bridge,
and both are covered by an arched roof which rises from the end wall of
the fireplace and gradually dips toward the furthest end of the bed
connected with the stack. On one or both sides of the bed, or at the
end near the stack, may be openings through which the ore spread over
the surface of the bed may be stirred about and exposed to the action
of the air. The matter is heated in such a furnace by flame, and is
kept from contact with the solid fuel. The flame in its course from
the fireplace to the stack is reflected downwards or REVERBERATED on
the matter beneath, whence the name REVERBERATORY furnace."
[8] Mr. TYLOR on Metal Work--Reports on the Paris Exhibition of 1855.
Part II. 182. We are informed by Mr. Reynolds of Coed-du, a grandson
of Richard Reynolds, that "on further trials many difficulties arose.
The bottoms of the furnaces were destroyed by the heat, and the quality
of the iron varied. Still, by a letter dated May, 1767, it appears
there had been sold of iron made in the new way to the value of 247L.
14s. 6d."
[9] Among the other subscribers were the Rev. Mr. Harris, Mr. Jennings,
and Mr. John Wilkinson, an active promoter of the scheme, who gave the
company the benefit of his skill and experience when it was determined
to construct the bridge of iron. For an account of John Wilkinson see
Lives of the Engineers, vol. ii. 337, 356. In the description of the
first iron bridge given in that work we have, it appears, attributed
rather more credit to Mr. Wilkinson than he is entitled to. Mr. Darby
was the most active promoter of the scheme, and had the principal share
in the design. Wilkinson nevertheless was a man of great energy and
originality. Besides being the builder of the first iron ship, he was
the first to invent, for James Watt, a machine that would bore a
tolerably true cylinder. He afterwards established iron works in
France, and Arthur Young says, that "until that well-known English
manufacturer arrived, the French knew nothing of the art of casting
cannon solid and then boring them" (Travels in France, 4to. ed. London,
1792, p.90). Yet England had borrowed her first cannon-maker from
France in the person of Peter Baude, as described in chap. iii.
Wilkinson is also said to have invented a kind of hot-blast, in respect
of which various witnesses gave evidence on the trial of Neilson's
patent in 1839; but the invention does not appear to have been
perfected by him.
[10] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 8th ed. Art.
[11] PLYMLEY, General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire. "Iron
Bridges."
CHAPTER VI.
INVENTION OF CAST STEEL--BENJAMIN HUNTSMAN.
"It may be averred that as certainly as the age of iron superseded that
of bronze, so will the age of steel reign triumphant over iron."--HENRY
BESSEMER.
"Aujourd'hui la revolution que devait amener en Grande-Bretagne la
memorable decouverte de Benjamin Huntsman est tout a fait accomplie, et
chaque jour les consequetces sen feront plus vivement sentir sur le
confinent."--LE PLAY, Sur la Fabrication de l' Acier en Yorkshire.
Iron, besides being used in various forms as bar and cast iron, is also
used in various forms as bar and cast steel; and it is principally
because of its many admirable qualities in these latter forms that iron
maintains its supremacy over all the other metals.
The process of converting iron into steel had long been known among the
Eastern nations before it was introduced into Europe. The Hindoos were
especially skilled in the art of making steel, as indeed they are to
this day; and it is supposed that the tools with which the Egyptians
covered their obelisks and temples of porphyry and syenite with
hieroglyphics were made of Indian steel, as probably no other metal was
capable of executing such work. The art seems to have been well known
in Germany in the Middle Ages, and the process is on the whole very
faithfully described by Agricola in his great work on Metallurgy.[1]
England then produced very little steel, and was mainly dependent for
its supply of the article upon the continental makers.
From an early period Sheffield became distinguished for its manufacture
of iron and steel into various useful articles. We find it mentioned
in the thirteenth century as a place where the best arrowheads were
made,--the Earl of Richmond owing his success at the battle of Bosworth
partly to their superior length, sharpness, and finish. The
manufactures of the town became of a more pacific character in the
following centuries, during which knives, tools, and implements of
husbandry became the leading articles.
Chaucer's reference to the 'Sheffield thwytel' (or case-knife) in his
Canterbury Tales, written about the end of the fourteenth century,
shows that the place had then become known for its manufacture of
knives. In 1575 we find the Earl of Shrewsbury presenting to his
friend Lord Burleigh "a case of Hallamshire whittells, being such
fruites as his pore cuntrey affordeth with fame throughout the realme."
Fuller afterwards speaks of the Sheffield knives as "for common use of
the country people," and he cites an instance of a knave who cozened
him out of fourpence for one when it was only worth a penny.
In 1600 Sheffield became celebrated for its tobacco-boxes and
Jew's-harps. The town was as yet of small size and population; for
when a survey of it was made in 1615 it was found to contain not more
than 2207 householders, of whom one-third, or 725, were "not able to
live without the charity of their neighbours: these are all Begging
poor." [2] It must, however, have continued its manufacture of knives;
for we find that the knife with which Felton stabbed the Duke of
Buckingham at Portsmouth in 1628 was traced to Sheffield. The knife
was left sticking in the duke's body, and when examined was found to
bear the Sheffield corporation mark. It was ultimately ascertained to
have been made by one Wild, a cutler, who had sold the knife for
tenpence to Felton when recruiting in the town. At a still later
period, the manufacture of clasp or spring knives was introduced into
Sheffield by Flemish workmen. Harrison says this trade was begun in
1650. The clasp-knife was commonly known in the North as a jocteleg.
Hence Burns, describing the famous article treasured by Captain Grose
the antiquarian, says that--
"It was a faulding jocteleq,
Or lang-kail gully;"
the word being merely a corruption of Jacques de Liege, a famous
foreign cutler, whose knives were as well known throughout Europe as
those of Rogers or Mappin are now. Scythes and sickles formed other
branches of manufacture introduced by the Flemish artisans, the makers
of the former principally living in the parish of Norton, those of the
latter in Eckington.
Many improvements were introduced from time to time in the material of
which these articles were made. Instead of importing the German steel,
as it was called, the Sheffield manufacturers began to make it
themselves, principally from Dannemora iron imported from Sweden. The
first English manufacturer of the article was one Crowley, a Newcastle
man; and the Sheffield makers shortly followed his example. We may
here briefly state that the ordinary method of preparing this valuable
material of manufactures is by exposing iron bars, placed in contact
with roughly-granulated charcoal, to an intense heat,--the process
lasting for about a week, more or less, according to the degree of
carbonization required. By this means, what is called BLISTERED STEEL
is produced, and it furnishes the material out of which razors, files,
knives, swords, and various articles of hardware are manufactured. A
further process is the manufacture of the metal thus treated into SHEAR
STEEL, by exposing a fasciculus of the blistered steel rods, with sand
scattered over them for the purposes of a flux, to the heat of a
wind-furnace until the whole mass becomes of a welding heat, when it is
taken from the fire and drawn out under a forge-hammer,--the process of
welding being repeated, after which the steel is reduced to the
required sizes. The article called FAGGOT steel is made after a
somewhat similar process.
But the most valuable form in which steel is now used in the
manufactures of Sheffield is that of cast-steel, in which iron is
presented in perhaps its very highest state of perfection. Cast-steel
consists of iron united to carbon in an elastic state together with a
small portion of oxygen; whereas crude or pig iron consists of iron
combined with carbon in a material state.[3] Chief merits of
cast-steel consist in its possessing great cohesion and closeness of
grain, with an astonishing degree of tenacity and
flexibility,--qualities which render it of the highest value in all
kinds of tools and instruments where durability, polish, and fineness
of edge are essential requisites. It is to this material that we are
mainly indebted for the exquisite cutting instrument of the surgeon,
the chisel of the sculptor, the steel plate on which the engraver
practises his art, the cutting tools employed in the various processes
of skilled handicraft, down to the common saw or the axe used by the
backwoodsman in levelling the primeval forest.
The invention of cast-steel is due to Benjamin Huntsman, of
Attercliffe, near Sheffield. M. Le Play, Professor of Metallurgy in
the Royal School of Mines of France, after making careful inquiry and
weighing all the evidence on the subject, arrived at the conclusion
that the invention fairly belongs to Huntsman. The French professor
speaks of it as a "memorable discovery," made and applied with
admirable perseverance; and he claims for its inventor the
distinguished merit of advancing the steel manufactures of Yorkshire to
the first rank, and powerfully contributing to the establishment on a
firm foundation of the industrial and commercial supremacy of Great
Britain. It is remarkable that a French writer should have been among
the first to direct public attention to the merits of this inventor,
and to have first published the few facts known as to his history in a
French Government Report,--showing the neglect which men of this class
have heretofore received at home, and the much greater esteem in which
they are held by scientific foreigners.[4] Le Play, in his
enthusiastic admiration of the discoverer of so potent a metal as
cast-steel, paid a visit to Huntsman's grave in Atterclifle Churchyard,
near Sheffield, and from the inscription on his tombstone recites the
facts of his birth, his death, and his brief history. With the
assistance of his descendants, we are now enabled to add the following
record of the life and labours of this remarkable but almost forgotten
man.
Benjamin Huntsman was born in Lincolnshire in the year 1704. His
parents were of German extraction, and had settled in this country only
a few years previous to his birth. The boy being of an ingenious turn,
was bred to a mechanical calling; and becoming celebrated for his
expertness in repairing clocks, he eventually set up in business as a
clock maker and mender in the town of Doncaster. He also undertook
various other kinds of metal work, such as the making and repairing of
locks, smoke-jacks, roasting-jacks, and other articles requiring
mechanical skill. He was remarkably shrewd, observant, thoughtful, and
practical; so much so that he came to be regarded as the "wise man" of
his neighbourhood, and was not only consulted as to the repairs of
machinery, but also of the human frame. He practised surgery with
dexterity, though after an empirical fashion, and was held in especial
esteem as an oculist. His success was such that his advice was sought
in many surgical diseases, and he was always ready to give it, but
declined receiving any payment in return.
In the exercise of his mechanical calling, he introduced several
improved tools, but was much hindered by the inferior quality of the
metal supplied to him, which was common German steel. He also
experienced considerable difficulty in finding a material suitable for
the springs and pendulums of his clocks. These circumstances induced
him to turn his attention to the making of a better kind of steel than
was then procurable, for the purposes of his trade. His first
experiments were conducted at Doncaster;[5] but as fuel was difficult
to be had at that place, he determined, for greater convenience, to
remove to the neighbourhood of Sheffield, which he did in 1740. He
first settled at Handsworth, a few miles to the south of that town, and
there pursued his investigations in secret. Unfortunately, no records
have been preserved of the methods which he adopted in overcoming the
difficulties he had necessarily to encounter. That they must have been
great is certain, for the process of manufacturing cast-steel of a
first-rate quality even at this day is of a most elaborate and delicate
character, requiring to be carefully watched in its various stages. He
had not only to discover the fuel and flux suitable for his purpose,
but to build such a furnace and make such a crucible as should sustain
a heat more intense than any then known in metallurgy. Ingot-moulds
had not yet been cast, nor were there hoops and wedges made that would
hold them together, nor, in short, were any of those materials at his
disposal which are now so familiar at every melting-furnace.
Huntsman's experiments extended over many years before the desired
result was achieved. Long after his death, the memorials of the
numerous failures through which he toilsomely worked his way to
success, were brought to light in the shape of many hundredweights of
steel, found buried in the earth in different places about his
manufactory. From the number of these wrecks of early experiments, it
is clear that he had worked continuously upon his grand idea of
purifying the raw steel then in use, by melting it with fluxes at an
intense heat in closed earthen crucibles. The buried masses were found
in various stages of failure, arising from imperfect melting, breaking
of crucibles, and bad fluxes; and had been hid away as so much spoiled
steel of which nothing could be made. At last his perseverance was
rewarded, and his invention perfected; and though a hundred years have
passed since Huntsman's discovery, the description of fuel (coke) which
he first applied for the purpose of melting the steel, and the
crucibles and furnaces which he used, are for the most part similar to
those in use at the present day. Although the making of cast-steel is
conducted with greater economy and dexterity, owing to increased
experience, it is questionable whether any maker has since been able to
surpass the quality of Huntsman's manufacture.
The process of making cast-steel, as invented by Benjamin Huntsman, may
be thus summarily described. The melting is conducted in clay pots or
crucibles manufactured for the purpose, capable of holding about 34
lbs. each. Ten or twelve of such crucibles are placed in a
melting-furnace similar to that used by brass founders; and when the
furnace and pots are at a white heat, to which they are raised by a
coke fire, they are charged with bar steel reduced to a certain degree
of hardness, and broken into pieces of about a pound each. When the
pots are all thus charged with steel, lids are placed over them, the
furnace is filled with coke, and the cover put down. Under the intense
heat to which the metal is exposed, it undergoes an apparent
ebullition. When the furnace requires feeding, the workmen take the
opportunity of lifting the lid of each crucible and judging how far the
process has advanced. After about three hours' exposure to the heat,
the metal is ready for "teeming." The completion of the melting
process is known by the subsidence of all ebullition, and by the clear
surface of the melted metal, which is of a dazzling brilliancy like the
sun when looked at with the naked eye on a clear day. The pots are
then lifted out of their place, and the liquid steel is poured into
ingots of the shape and size required. The pots are replaced, filled
again, and the process is repeated; the red-hot pots thus serving for
three successive charges, after which they are rejected as useless.
When Huntsman had perfected his invention, it would naturally occur to
him that the new metal might be employed for other purposes besides
clock-springs and pendulums. The business of clock-making was then of
a very limited character, and it could scarcely have been worth his
while to pursue so extensive and costly a series of experiments merely
to supply the requirements of that trade. It is more probable that at
an early stage of his investigations he shrewdly foresaw the extensive
uses to which cast-steel might be applied in the manufacture of tools
and cutlery of a superior kind; and we accordingly find him early
endeavouring to persuade the manufacturers of Sheffield to employ it in
the manufacture of knives and razors. But the cutlers obstinately
refused to work a material so much harder than that which they had been
accustomed to use; and for a time he gave up all hopes of creating a
demand in that quarter. Foiled in his endeavours to sell his steel at
home, Huntsman turned his attention to foreign markets; and he soon
found he could readily sell abroad all that he could make. The merit
of employing cast-steel for general purposes belongs to the French,
always so quick to appreciate the advantages of any new discovery, and
for a time the whole of the cast-steel that Huntsman could manufacture
was exported to France. When he had fairly established his business
with that country, the Sheffield cutlers became alarmed at the
reputation which cast-steel was acquiring abroad; and when they heard
of the preference displayed by English as well as French consumers for
the cutlery manufactured of that metal, they readily apprehended the
serious consequences that must necessarily result to their own trade if
cast-steel came into general use. They then appointed a deputation to
wait upon Sir George Savile, one of the members for the county of York,
and requested him to use his influence with the government to obtain an
order to prohibit the exportation of cast-steel. But on learning from
the deputation that the Sheffield manufacturers themselves would not
make use of the new steel, he positively declined to comply with their
request. It was indeed fortunate for the interests of the town that
the object of the deputation was defeated, for at that time Mr.
Huntsman had very pressing and favourable offers from some spirited
manufacturers in Birmingham to remove his furnaces to that place; and
it is extremely probable that had the business of cast-steel making
become established there, one of the most important and lucrative
branches of its trade would have been lost to the town of Sheffield.
The Sheffield makers were therefore under the necessity of using the
cast-steel, if they would retain their trade in cutlery against France;
and Huntsman's home trade rapidly increased. And then began the
efforts of the Sheffield men to wrest his secret from him. For
Huntsman had not taken out any patent for his invention, his only
protection being in preserving his process as much a mystery as
possible. All the workmen employed by him were pledged to inviolable
secrecy; strangers were carefully excluded from the works; and the
whole of the steel made was melted during the night. There were many
speculations abroad as to Huntsman's process. It was generally
believed that his secret consisted in the flux which he employed to
make the metal melt more readily; and it leaked out amongst the workmen
that he used broken bottles for the purpose. Some of the
manufacturers, who by prying and bribing got an inkling of the process,
followed Huntsman implicitly in this respect; and they would not allow
their own workmen to flux the pots lest they also should obtain
possession of the secret. But it turned out eventually that no such
flux was necessary, and the practice has long since been discontinued.
A Frenchman named Jars, frequently quoted by Le Play in his account of
the manufacture of steel in Yorkshire,[6] paid a visit to Sheffield
towards the end of last century, and described the process so far as he
was permitted to examine it. According to his statement all kinds of
fragments of broken steel were used; but this is corrected by Le Play,
who states that only the best bar steel manufactured of Dannemora iron
was employed. Jars adds that "the steel is put into the crucible with
A FLUX, the composition of which is kept secret;" and he states that
the time then occupied in the conversion was five hours.