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Index

Introduction ……………………………………….. 2

Furnace history …………………………………… 3

Early progress in the Melting of Iron …………….. 10

The Development of the Blast Furnace ………....... 11

Refinements in the Process of Making cast Iron … 16

The Early Use of Ferrosilicon in Cast iron ……..... 17

LINKS and REFERENCE …………………………… 19

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Introduction:

It is hard to picture the former iron industry in

today's countryside of small fields, woodlands and steep,
narrow, gill valleys. But in this landscape exist all the
necessary raw materials that allowed iron to be smelted for
over 2,000 years. There were no planning laws in those days
and no planning officers to put a spanner in the works.

Furnace Pond

The Wealden geology of sands and clays yielded the iron

ore, as well as the stone and brick to build the furnaces; the
woodland provided the charcoal fuel; and the numerous small
streams and valleys ensured water power for the bellows and
hammers of the forges and furnaces.

For two periods - in the first two centuries of the Roman

occupation, and during Tudor and early-Stuart times - the
Weald was the main iron-producing region in Britain.

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 Julius Caesar first drew attention to iron being produced
in the coastal parts of Britain. Archaeologists have found
evidence of iron working from the late Iron Age at sites near
Crowhurst and Sedlescombe in the south-eastern High Weald.

When the Romans invaded in AD 43, they found a well-

established local tradition of iron making, using small, clay
bloomery furnaces. With growing markets generated by the
building of towns, villas and farms, the Romans encouraged
this native industry. Sites from the period have been found all
over the eastern part of the High Weald.

Furnace history

The 'Classis Britannica', or British Fleet, an imperial

supply organization as well as a navy, took a strategic role in
iron production. It managed several large smelting sites in the
area around Hastings, such as one at Beauport Park, near
Battle. This may have produced as much as 30,000 tonnes of
iron over 130 years, and a substantial bathhouse was built
there for some of the workforce.

We know little about iron making in the Weald in Saxon

times, and the industry receives only one mention in the
Domesday Book for Sussex, at a location near East
Grinstead.

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 Iron making furnace in blast

However, during the Middle Ages iron production grew

steadily, concentrated more in the northern part of the Weald.
Accounts have survived from 14th-century works at Tudeley
in Kent, and excavations have confirmed medieval references
to iron makers in Crawley and near Horsham. Towards the
end of the period, water-power began to be used for forging
iron, heralding the introduction, in 1496, of the blast furnace.

Introduced from northern France, and operated by

skilled, immigrant workers, the blast furnace was a much
larger, and more permanent structure than the bloomery; and
instead of a few kilos of iron being made, daily output was
nearer a tonne.

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 More ore and charcoal were required, and the need to
operate the bellows by waterpower, instead of by hand,
meant that ponds had to be created to store the water. In
addition, the higher temperatures in the furnace meant that a
different type of iron was being produced. A second process ˜
the forge, with its own pond and supply of charcoal - was
needed to refine the iron.

By the mid-16th century there were 50 furnaces and

forges, and that number had doubled 25 years later. All over
the Weald, the iron industry was having an effect, with large
numbers of people employed in digging ore, cutting wood and
transporting both raw materials and products.

Most furnaces made "sows", or lengths, of iron for

refining, but from the 1540s a small number began to make
cast-iron cannon, a product that grew to be a profitable, and
sometimes illegal, export.

Improvements in house design led to the building of

chimneys, and the need for iron fire-backs to protect the
brickwork. Many Wealden farmhouses contain examples of
these decorative and functional plates. In several Wealden
churches there are examples of iron memorials. The oldest is
in Burwash, dating from the 1530s, while Wadhurst church
has over 30, dating from the early-17th to the late-18th
centuries.

As competition from imported iron increased, the

Wealden ironmasters began to concentrate increasingly on
gun founding, and examples can be found all over the world,
wherever Britain fought or traded. Eventually, the onset of the
Industrial Revolution took heavy industry north to the
coalfields, and the last furnace in the Weald, at Ashburnham,
closed in 1813.

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 So, where are the remains of iron production? Building
stone was too valuable in the Weald to be left unused, so the
works were dismantled, and the woods grew back over the
former sites. Only the tell-tale waste, called slag, from the
smelting process, and some of the hammer and furnace
ponds are left to remind us of a once-great Wealden industry.

Iron ore pits

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THE WEALDEN IRON RESEARCH GROUP

The Wealden Iron Research Group was founded in 1968,

by Henry Cleere and David Crossley, to update the pioneering
work of Ernest Straker whose monograph, Wealden Iron, had
been published in 1931. Starting off as a federation of local
groups, it coalesced in the early 1970s under the leadership
of the late Fred Tebbutt, a distinguished amateur
archæologist, who became its first Chairman. Much of the
early work of the group centred around the update of
Straker's work, but it was soon realised that much lay
undiscovered.
.

A survey of an area of the central Weald revealed a dense

concentration of early iron smelting sites, or bloomeries, and
this has acted as an incentive for future work. Experiments in
making iron were started, and the group won the BBC's
'Chronicle' Award for Archæology in 1981. The publication, in
1985, of The Iron Industry of the Weald, by Cleere and
Crossley, was the fulfilment of the group's initial aim, but
many questions remained unanswered, and the group
continues an active programme of research.

Text by Jeremy Hodgkinson of the Wealden Iron Research

Group. Illustrations by Mike Codd, West Sussex County
Council

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 The Wealden Iron Research Group (WIRG) website
provides information on a wide range of the groups activities
together with a general introduction to iron production in the
Weald. The Weald has been identified as a key iron-producing
region for the British Isles and it contains nearly 800
identified iron-making sites dating from the pre-Roman period
up to the 19th century. The WIRG, established in 1968, has
carried out a wide range of activities on the Weald.

The website contains information on the group's research

aims, meetings, excavations and other fieldwork together
with details on how to become a member.

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Nasmyth’s steam hammer of 1840 at work in 1871

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Early progress in the Melting of Iron

According to history, cast iron was first produced

succesfully by the Chinese 800-700 B.C.(1) Even though iron
was produced many centuries before, it apparently could not
be cast because the furnaces were incapable of producing the
required temperatures. However, the Chinese, as pointed out
by Simpson(1), "had developed melting equipment capable of
producing greater draft than hitherto had been possible".

Another reason for the succes of the Chinese in being

able to produce cast iron, as mentioned by Simpson 1), was
that they reduced iron oxide by heating in the presence of an
exess amount of carbon, apparently in the form of charcoal.
This procedure resulted in a soft, pure iron with a melting
point of 15300C (27860F).

The iron was then carburized, reducing its melting point

to about 11700C (21380F) thereby making it easier to melt in
their high draft furnaces.

Additional references indicate that the Chinese used

some high phosphorus coal along with high phosphorus iron
ore as charge materials (1,2). These materials, by lowering
melting temperatures, reduced the amount of blast needed to
melt the iron.

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 From these early beginnings, the interest in cast iron
continued to grow. Many applications for this "new cast
metal" were made possible by improvements in melting
equipment and techniques as well as great progress in the art
of molding.

Several engineering applications employed cast iron

from time to time, including iron chain suspension bridges,
the first of which were constructed by the Chines in 56 A.D.
(2) However, iron was not generally cast in what might be
called "substantial quantities" in Europe until the fourteenth
century A.D. (1).

The Development of the Blast Furnace

Although the early furnaces for melting iron were probably a

very crude form of blast furnace, the development of the
Catalan forge in Spain in the eight century A.D. was most
likely the forerunner of the blast furnace (1).

In the Catalan forge, iron ore and charcoal were charged

vertically in the top, resulting in a "loupe" or ball of iron which
was "hooked out and hammered into a bloom".(1) By
modifying this simple furnace, the Swiss made an improved
melting unit which was vertical, above the ground, and
charged with alternate layers of ore and charcoal. The next
improvements leading to the development of the true blast
furnace were made by German and Swedish craftsmen in
about 1000 A.D.(1).

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 During the next 300 years these early blast furnaces
were improved and made larger. In 1325 A.D., water driven
bellows, which delivered sufficient draft to make hot molten
metal directly from the blast furnace, were introduced.

Development of these bellows led to the production of

substantial amounts of pig iron in Europe by 1400 A.D.(1)
and marked the beginning of modern iron foundry practice.

Early Improvements in the Quality of Cast Iron through

the Use of Fluxes.

When the famous Spanish Armada attempted to invade

England in the sixteenth century, an important step in
improving the quality of cast iron was discovered(3). In his
historical book "Full Fathom Five" about an expedition
organized to recover the buried wrecks of the "invincible"
Armada off the coast of England, Colin Martin (3) indicates
that the cast iron cannons, shot and anchors of the Spanish
fleet were inferior to those used by the British.

Martin cites this as an important reason why the British

were able to defeat the Spanish and thus prevent the
conquest of England.

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 Even though the Spaniards possessed a good quality
hematite ore, they produced poor quality iron guns, anchors
and shot due to their lack of knowledge of the behavior of
cast iron.

The historical evidence indicates that in the smelting and

fluxing of the ore, the refining after smelting, and in the
molding and casting techniques, the Spanish were years
behind the English. Practically all of their iron castings
contained slag.

The inferior quality and brittle nature of the shot, coupled

with the explosive force of the potent "black powder" caused
the shot to crack and partially disintegrate prior to hitting its
target. Similarly, many of the cast iron guns exploded during
the firing, indicating poor strength and poor ability to absorb
shock and vibration. For the same reasons Spanish anchors
broke under the stresses of heavy seas and were the cause of
many shipwrecks.

What were the reasons for the superiority of the English

cast iron, which was the envy of their continental
competitors? Martin points out that there was no magic
formula. All of the practices of the 16th century founders of
the Weald of Sussex, the seat of the English iron industry at
that time, are known to us. The practice of weathering the
ore for several months washed out many impurities. The ore
was then crushed and washed again. Fossilized gray shells
inherent in the ore resulted in a high degree of fluxing during
smelting, allowing the removal of surface dross and other
impurities.

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 The advanced knowledge of the British founders during
this period is demonstrated by the fact that the gun and shot
molds were dried and warmed prior to the casting of the iron.
The metal, in turn, was poured each time at as even a
temperature as possible. This practice minimized what we
refer to today as "undercooling" and established close to
equilibrium conditions of solidification.

After pouring, the castings were allowed to cool gradually

in the molds to room temperature. This procedure minimized
the stresses in the finished castings. The Spanish, on the
other hand, as pointed out by Martin, cooled the castings as
quick as possible in order to expedite production. Their
practice often involved water quenching the castings, which
contributed to stresses and cracking.

For several years after the defeat of the Spanish

Armada, iron founders on the continent attempted to
determine the reasons for the better quality of the British
castings. In 1619, a Dutchman, Jan Andries Moerbeck, proved
that he was on to something new and revolutionary in the art
of iron founding, by applying for and obtaining a twelve year
patent involving the use of iron ore from the Weald of Sussex.

By comparing the English ore having build-in flux, with

their flux free, but otherwise good quality hematite ore, the
Dutch developed the use of limestone for fluxing. This new
technique spread rapidly across the continent to Germany,
France and, eventually, Spain, and should be credited as a
major contribution in the development of engineering cast
irons.

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Schematic of modern iron making blast furnace

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Refinements in the Process of Making cast Iron

The next significant development, credited to an English

iron-founder named Darby in 1730, was the discovery and
production of coke which lowered the cost of producing cast
iron. This development encouraged experiment for better
quality cast iron with improved mechanical properties. As a
result, the French founders tried remelting pig iron in
separate, smaller furnaces.

This type of refining resulted in more uniform iron with

respect to chemistry and was another big step toward the
development of engineering grade cast iron. Untill this time,
apparently most iron castings were poured from iron directly
from the blast furnace.

The improved quality iron produced by remelting pig

iron in separate furnaces made it possible for James Watt to
build the first steam engine in 1765. Watt's steam engine, in
turn, was used to provide the air blast for operating the first
cupola build in 1794 by John Wilkinson (1). The controlled air
blast plus the higher melting temperatures in the cupola
further improved the quality of the cast iron. As a result,
designers, engineers, builders and others became more
interested in cast iron as an engineering material.

Applications for the steam engine in such fields as land

and sea transportation, agricultural equipment and, later,
electrical poweer generation, created a demand for large
quantities of high quality gray cast iron. As this demand grew,
so did the need for higher strength and better quality iron
requiring more efficient melting equipment, improved charge
materials, and closer control of the melting operations.

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The Early Use of Ferrosilicon in Cast iron

About 1810, Bergelius, a Swedish chemist, and,

Stromeyer, a German physicist, operating independently,
produced ferrosilicon (1). A mixture of silica, carbon and iron
fillings was melted in a sealed crucible. Stromeyer produced
several grades of ferrosilicon by this method.

Although there appears to be no record as to how the

ferrosilicon was used, it was probably added to the melting
furnace. Most likely the iron founders became interested in a
source of silicon because of the differences in silicon content
in the various pig irons produced by the different furnaces
due to varying silica content in the iron ores used.

The advantages of higher silicon in making softer and

less brittle irons were obvious. By adding silicon to the
furnaces along with charge materials consisting of scrap and
pig iron, the foundrymen were able to make consistently good
quality cast iron. They soon learned that it was advantageous
to have the silicon low in thick section castings and high in
thin section. It is not known that ferrosilicon was added to the
ladles in the early to middle 19th century.

In 1885, Turner (4) ran a number of experiments in

which ferrosilicon was added to white iron to produce high
quality gray iron castings. It is reasonable to assume that the
ferrosilicon was added to the iron in the ladle. If so, this
would be an indication that some of the early investigators
recognized the chill reducing potential of adding ferrosilicon to
the ladle.

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 In 1920, G.Schury (5) discussed the use of ferrosilicon
briquettes in the cupola. A discusser of the paper indicated
that he had added ferrosilicon to molten iron as early as 1890
for improving cast iron properties.

The knowledge of silicon control would trigger another

series of improvements on cast iron structures and
mechanical properties, a process that in fact is continuing up
till the present day.

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 LINKS and REFERENCE

Tim Young (Exp Bloomery at St Fagans, Cardiff)

Rievaulx reconstructed medieval bloomery
Evelyne Godfrey, Gerry McDonnell et al Bradford University
INAGINA
Video of operation of a bloomery in Mali in the 1990s by the Dogon tribe
Tranemo Sweden - experimental bloomery operation (in Swedish)
Ancient iron & Steel Industry in the Black Mountains (South of France)
Pierre-Michel Decombeix et al - UTAU, Toulouse (Translation from French)
'The Smelters Art' - Rockbridge Bloomery, Lee Sauders & Skip Williams
• http://www.villagenet.co.uk/history/1543-ironmasters.html
• http://www.bushywood.com/wealden_iron_industry.htm
• http://www.fernhurstsociety.org.uk/furnace.html Fernhurst's iron industry
History and Archeology

The Making of the High Weald Sussex Archaeological Society The Sussex
Weald
CBA SouthEast Romans in Sussex Classis Britannica

Metallurgy and Smelting

Experimental Iron Smelting at Scatness Experimental Bloomery Site in

Wales
Whitehall Farm Roman Villa smelting experiments Experimental Iron
Smelting at Rievaulx Historical Metallurgy Society
Department of Materials Science, Oxford University

Museums / Educational

The Ironbridge Gorge Museums - Shropshire UK Sowley Ironworks,

Hampshire Duddon Furnace, Cumbria
The Real Wrought Iron Company The Wilkinson Family, Ironmasters

Sites outside UK

Forges du Saint Maurice, in Canada Saugus Furnace, Massachusetts,

USA Hopewell Furnace, Pennsylvania, USA
Maison de la Métallurgie et de l'Industrie de Liège (in French) Lapphyttan
Ironworks - Sweden

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