One of the problems facing eighteenth-century England was the lack of an alternative to wood as a fuel for use in industrial applications. Large amounts of coal were available, but unsuitable for use in contemporary blast furnaces. In 1709, English engineer Abraham Darby (1678–1717) started using not charcoal but coke, a residue of distilled coal, to heat the Coalbrookdale blast furnace to the temperatures required to smelt iron. This was a major breakthrough that would later prove decisive. By the mid-1780s, the production of iron was no longer dependent at any stage on the supply of charcoal. This assured iron production a major role in shaping the Industrial Revolution in Britain.
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Further Readings:
- Weightman, Gavin. Industrial Revolutionaries: The Making of the Modern World 1776–1914. New York: Grove Press, 2007.
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1709