Comparing The Iron Industry And Steam Engine

The Iron Industry and Steam Engine There is always a chance for improvement. This statement is proven many times over, in the duration of time known as the “Technological Revolution”. The definition of “Technological Revolution” is quite simple. It is a space in time when one technological appliance is replaced by a better, improved piece of technology. Nothing exemplifies this phrase better than the improvement of the Iron Industry and creation of the Steam Engine. These devices and systems are still in use today, because they are so beneficial to society. Let us begin with the Iron Industry. We can split the development of iron into three parts. Part One, the Iron Industry before revolution. Part Two, breakthroughs with iron. And finally,

The first advancement in iron was in the year of 1709. A man named Abraham Darby made the conclusion that you could use “coke” (coal from impurities cooked out of the iron ore) instead of regular old charcoal. Now, you must know that “coke” was extremely inexpensive compared to the original coal used in iron smelting. This allowed for much more iron to be smelted. But, the resulting iron had many impurities and was very weak. The next advancement was in 1784. Henry Cort found a way to remove the impurities from “coke-iron” by a process called “puddling”. Puddling involves stirring molten iron with long rods, in a way, to stir the impurities out of the iron when it was still hot. On to the

Abraham Darby’s breakthrough with “coke” allowed cheap iron to be produced in mass quantities. The iron was lower quality but it was much cheaper. Darby is now known as the forefather of cheap iron. Henry Cort’s process of “puddling” allowed the “coke-iron” to remove its impurities at a cheap cost. This made it possible to turn coal into “coke”, to in turn, produce wrought-iron very cheaply. The succession of these events rose the production of iron from 17,000 tons in 1740, to 3 million tons in 1844. In such a relatively short span of time, nothing (but iron of course) has ever been produced in such large quantities. Following in the footsteps of great iron smelters, Abraham Darby III built a bridge completely made of iron, just because he could. The bridge still stands today. Another fun location wrought of iron is the Crystal Palace- an exhibition hall made only of iron and glass (not crystal as it’s name suggests). It also resulted in the mass production of iron guns, hardware and