Metallurgical dynasty Coalbrookdale

Coalbrookdale is a special place on the historical map. It was here for the first time: cast iron was smelted using mineral fuel - coke, the first iron rails were used, the first iron bridge was built, parts for the oldest steam engines were made. The area was famous for building bridges, manufacturing steam engines and artistic casting. Several generations of the Darby family living here have connected their lives with metallurgy.

Black vision of the energy crisis

In past centuries, the energy source was the muscles of humans and animals. In the Middle Ages, water wheels and windmills spread throughout Europe, using the power of the blowing wind and flowing water. Firewood was used to heat houses in winter, to build houses and ships.

It was also the raw material for the production of charcoal, which was used in many branches of the old industry - mainly for the production of glass, metal smelting, beer production, dyeing and gunpowder production. Metallurgy consumed the largest amount of charcoal, especially for military purposes, but not only.

The tools were built first from bronze, then from iron. In the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, the great demand for cannons devastated the forests in the areas of the centers metallurgical. In addition, the withdrawal of new land for agricultural land contributed to the destruction of forests.

The forest grew, and it seemed that countries like Spain and England faced a major crisis in the first place due to the depletion of forest resources. Theoretically, the role of charcoal can take on coal.

However, this required a lot of time, technological and mental changes, as well as the provision of economical ways to transport raw materials from remote mining basins. Already in the XNUMXth century, coal began to be used in kitchen stoves, and then for heating purposes in England. It required the reconstruction of fireplaces or the use of previously rare tiled stoves.

At the end of the 1st century, only about 3/XNUMX/XNUMX of the mined hard coal was used in industry. Using the technologies known at that time and replacing charcoal directly with coal, it was not possible to smelt iron of decent quality. In the XNUMXth century, the import of iron to England from Sweden, from a country with an abundance of forests and iron ore deposits, increased rapidly.

Use of coke to produce pig iron

Abraham Darby I (1678-1717) began his professional career as an apprentice in the manufacture of malt milling equipment in Birmingham. He then moved to Bristol, where he first made these machines and then moved on to the manufacture of brass.

1. Plants in Coalbrookdale (photo: B. Srednyava)

Probably, it was the first to replace charcoal with coal in the process of its production. From 1703 he started making cast iron pots and soon patented his method of using sand molds.

In 1708 he began working in Coalbrookdale, then an abandoned smelting center on the River Severn (1). There he repaired the blast furnace and installed new bellows. Soon, in 1709, charcoal was replaced with coke and iron of good quality was obtained.

Previously, many times the use of coal instead of firewood was unsuccessful. Thus, it was an epochal technical achievement, which is sometimes called the actual beginning of the industrial age. Darby did not patent his invention, but kept it a secret.

The success was due to the fact that he used the aforementioned coke rather than regular hard coal, and that the local coal was low in sulfur. However, in the next three years, he struggled with such a decline in production that his business partners were about to withdraw capital.

So Darby experimented, he mixed charcoal with coke, he imported coal and coke from Bristol, and the coal itself from South Wales. Production increased slowly. So much so that in 1715 he built a second smelter. He not only produced pig iron, but also smelted it into cast-iron kitchen utensils, pots and teapots.

These products were sold in the region and their quality was better than before, and over time the company began to perform very well. Darby also mined and smelted the copper needed to make brass. In addition, he had two forges. He died in 1717 at the age of 39.

Innovations

In addition to the production of cast iron and kitchen utensils, already six years after the construction of the first Newcomen atmospheric steam engine in the history of mankind (see: МТ 3/2010, p. 16) in 1712, in Coalbrookdale the production of parts for it began. It was a national production.

2. One of the pools, which is part of the reservoir system for driving the blast furnace bellows. The railway viaduct was built later (photo: M. J. Richardson)

In 1722 a cast-iron cylinder for such an engine was made, and over the next eight years ten were made, and then many more. The first cast-iron wheels for industrial railways were made here back in the 20s.

In 1729, 18 pieces were made and then cast in the usual way. Abraham Darby II (1711-1763) began working in factories in Coalbrookdale in 1728, that is, eleven years after the death of his father, at the age of seventeen. In English climatic conditions, the smelting furnace was extinguished in the spring.

For almost three of the hottest months he could not work, because the bellows were driven by water wheels, and at this time of the year the amount of rainfall was insufficient for their work. Therefore, downtime was used for repairs and maintenance.

To extend the oven's eventual life, a series of water storage tanks were built that used an animal-powered pump to pump water from the lowest tank to the highest (2).

In 1742-1743, Abraham Darby II adapted Newcomen's atmospheric steam engine to pump water, so that the summer break in metallurgy was no longer required. This was the first use of the steam engine in metallurgy.

3. Iron bridge, put into operation in 1781 (photo by B. Srednyava)

In 1749 year in territory Coalbrookdale The first industrial railway was created. Interestingly, from the 40s to the 1790s, the enterprise was also engaged in the production of weapons, or rather, a department.

This may come as a surprise, since Darby belonged to the Religious Society of Friends, whose members were widely known as Quakers and whose pacifist beliefs prevented the manufacture of weapons.

The greatest achievement of Abraham Darby II was the use of coke in the production of pig iron, from which ductile iron was later obtained. He tried this process at the turn of the 40s and 50s. It is not clear how he achieved the desired effect.

One element of the new process was the selection of iron ore with as little phosphorus as possible. Once he was successful, the growing demand prompted Darby II to build new blast furnaces. Also in the 50s, he began renting land from which he mined coal and iron ore; he also built a steam engine to drain the mine. He expanded the water supply system. He built a new dam. It cost him a lot of money and time.

Moreover, a new industrial railway was started in the area of ​​this activity. On May 1, 1755, the first iron ore was obtained from a steam-dried mine, and two weeks later another blast furnace was put into operation, producing an average of 15 tons of pig iron per week, although there were weeks when it was possible to get up to 22 tons.

The coke oven was better than the coal oven. Cast iron was sold to local blacksmiths. In addition, the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) improved metallurgy so much that Darby II, with his business partner Thomas Goldney II, leased more land and built three more blast furnaces along with a reservoir system.

The famous John Wilkinson had his steel company nearby, making the region Britain's most important steel center in the 51st century. Abraham Darby II died at the age of 1763 in XNUMX.

The biggest flower

After 1763, Richard Reynolds took over the company. Five years later, eighteen-year-old Abraham Darby III (1750-1789) began to work. A year earlier, in 1767, railroads were laid for the first time, in Coalbrookdale. By 1785, 32 km of them had been built.

4. Iron Bridge - fragment (photo by B. Srednyava)

At the beginning of Darby III's activity, three smelters operated in his kingdom - a total of seven blast furnaces, forges, mine fields and farms were leased. The new boss also had shares in the steamer Darby, which brought timber from Gdansk to Liverpool.

The third Darby's biggest boom came in the 70s and early 80s when he bought blast furnaces and one of the first tar furnaces. He built coke and tar furnaces and took over a group of coal mines.

He expanded the forge in Coalbrookdale and about 3 km to the north, he built a forge at Horshey, which was later equipped with a steam engine and produced forged rolled products. The next forge was established in 1785 at Ketley, another 4 km to the north, where two James Watt forges were established.

Colebrookdale replaced the aforementioned Newcomen atmospheric steam engine between 1781 and 1782 with a Watt steam engine, named "Decision" after Captain James Cook's ship.

It is estimated that it was the largest steam engine built in the 1800th century. It is worth adding that there were about two hundred steam engines in operation in Shropshire in XNUMX. Darby and partners opened wholesalers, incl. in Liverpool and London.

They were also engaged in the extraction of limestone. Their farms supplied the railroads with horses, grew grain, fruit trees, raised cattle and sheep. All of them were carried out in a modern manner for that time.

It is estimated that the enterprises of Abraham Darby III and his associates constituted the largest center of iron production in Great Britain. Undoubtedly, the most spectacular and historic work of Abraham Darby III was the construction of the world's first iron bridge (3, 4). A 30-meter facility was built nearby Coalbrookdale, joined the banks of the River Severn (see MT 10/2006, p. 24).

Six years passed between the first meeting of shareholders and the opening of the bridge. Iron elements with a total weight of 378 tons were cast in the works of Abraham Darby III, who was the builder and treasurer of the entire project - he paid extra for the bridge from his own pocket, which jeopardized the financial security of his activities.

5. Shropshire Canal, Coal Pier (photo: Crispin Purdy)

The products of the metallurgical center were shipped to recipients along the Severn River. Abraham Darby III was also involved in the construction and maintenance of roads in the area. In addition, work began on the construction of a boat-beam track along the banks of the Severn. However, the goal was reached only after twenty years.

Let us add that Abraham III's brother Samuel Darby was a shareholder, and William Reynolds, grandson of Abraham Darby II, was the builder of the Shropshire Canal, an important waterway in the region (5). Abraham Darby III was a man of enlightenment, he was interested in science, especially geology, he had many books and scientific instruments, such as an electric machine and a camera obscura.

He met Erasmus Darwin, the physician and botanist, Charles's grandfather, he collaborated with James Watt and Matthew Boulton, builders of increasingly modern steam engines (see MT 8/2010, p. 22 and MT 10/2010, p. 16 ) .

In metallurgy, in which he specialized, he did not know anything new. He died in 1789 at the age of 39. Francis, his eldest child, was then six years old. In 1796, Abraham's brother Samuel died, leaving his 14-year-old son Edmund.

At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

6. Philip James de Lutherbourg, Coalbrookdale by Night, 1801

7. Iron Bridge in Sydney Gardens, Bath, cast in Coalbrookdale in 1800 (photo: Plumbum64)

After the death of Abraham III and his brother, the family businesses fell into disrepair. In letters from Boulton & Watt, buyers complained about delays in deliveries and the quality of the iron they received from the Ironbridge area on the River Severn.

The situation began to improve at the turn of the century (6). From 1803, Edmund Darby ran an ironworks specializing in the production of iron bridges. In 1795, there was a unique flood on the River Severn that washed away all the bridges across this river, only the Darby iron bridge survived.

This made him even more famous. cast bridges in Coalbrookdale were posted throughout the UK (7), the Netherlands and even Jamaica. In 1796, Richard Trevithick, the inventor of the high-pressure steam engine, visited the factory (MT 11/2010, p. 16).

He made here, in 1802, an experimental steam engine operating on this principle. Soon he built the first steam locomotive here, which, unfortunately, was never put into operation. In 1804 in Coalbrookdale developed a high-pressure steam engine for a textile factory in Macclesfield.

At the same time, engines of the Watt type and even the older Newcomen type were being produced. In addition, architectural elements were made, such as cast-iron arches for the glass roof or neo-Gothic window frames.

The offer includes an exceptionally wide range of iron products such as parts for Cornish tin mines, plows, fruit presses, bed frames, clock scales, grates and ovens, to name but a few.

Nearby, in the aforementioned Horshey, activity had a completely different profile. They produced pig iron, which was usually processed on site in the forge, into forged bars and sheets, forged pots were built - the rest of the pig iron was sold to other counties.

The period of the Napoleonic wars, which was at that time, was the heyday of metallurgy and factories in the region. Coalbrookdaleusing new technologies. However, Edmund Darby, as a member of the Religious Society of Friends, was not involved in the manufacture of weapons. He died in 1810.

8. Halfpenny Bridge, Dublin, cast in Coalbrookdale in 1816.

After the Napoleonic Wars

After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the period of high profitability of metallurgy ended. AT Coalbrookdale Castings were still made, but only from purchased cast iron. The company also made bridges all the time.

9. Macclesfield Bridge in London, built in 1820 (photo by B. Srednyava)

The most famous are the column in Dublin (8) and the columns of the Macclesfield Bridge over the Regent's Canal in London (9). After Edmund, the factories were run by Francis, son of Abraham III, with his brother-in-law. In the late 20s, it was the turn of Abraham IV and Alfred, sons of Edmund.

In the 30s, it was no longer a technological plant, but the new owners introduced the well-known modern processes in furnaces and furnaces, as well as new steam engines.

At that time, for example, 800 tons of iron sheets were produced here for the hull of the Great Britain ship, and soon iron pipe for driving light rail vehicles on the way from London to Croydon.

Since the 30s, the foundry St. Coalbrookdale cast-iron art objects - busts, monuments, bas-reliefs, fountains (10, 11). The modernized foundry was in 1851 the largest in the world, and in 1900 it employed a thousand workers.

Products from it successfully took part in numerous international exhibitions. AT Coalbrookdale in the 30s, the production of bricks and tiles for sale was also started, and 30 years later, clay was mined, from which vases, vases and pots were made.

Of course, kitchen equipment, steam engines and bridges have traditionally been built continuously. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the factories have been run by people mostly outside the Darby family. Alfred Darby II, who retired in 1925, was the last person in the business to keep an eye on the business.

Since the early 60s, iron bridge kilns, like other iron-smelting centers in Shropshire, have gradually lost their importance. They could no longer compete with the enterprises of this industry located on the coast, which were supplied with cheaper imported iron ore directly from ships.

10. The Peacock Fountain, cast in Coalbrookdale, currently stands in Christchurch, New Zealand, today's view (photo by Johnston DJ)

11. Detail of the Peacock Fountain (photo: Christoph Mahler)