The adoption of coke-smelting by the British iron industry, 1709–1790

Abstract

The application of coal to the production of pig iron was one of the important innovations af the British Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century. Coal (in the form of coke) was first used to make pig iron at the Coalbrookdale furnace of Abraham Darby around 1709 and was in continuous use there after that date.’ Other ironmasters did not adopt the new technique until the early 1750s and actually increased their charcoal-smeiting capacity in the interim, constructing at least twenty-two new charcoal furnaces during the period 1720-1755.2 The standard interpretation of the iron industry’s failure to adopt coke-smelting before mid-century was first advanced by T. S. Ashton in his classic history of the iron industry3 and has gone largely unchallenged by other scholars.4 Ashton argued that the technical limitations of coke-smelting, particularly the poor quality of the product, prevented its adoption for nearly a haIf-century.’