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1 Darby, Abraham
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 1678 near Dudley, Worcestershire, Englandd. 5 May 1717 Madely Court, Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England[br]English ironmaster, inventor of the coke smelting of iron ore.[br]Darby's father, John, was a farmer who also worked a small forge to produce nails and other ironware needed on the farm. He was brought up in the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and this community remained important throughout his personal and working life. Darby was apprenticed to Jonathan Freeth, a malt-mill maker in Birmingham, and on completion of his apprenticeship in 1699 he took up the trade himself in Bristol. Probably in 1704, he visited Holland to study the casting of brass pots and returned to Bristol with some Dutch workers, setting up a brassworks at Baptist Mills in partnership with others. He tried substituting cast iron for brass in his castings, without success at first, but in 1707 he was granted a patent, "A new way of casting iron pots and other pot-bellied ware in sand without loam or clay". However, his business associates were unwilling to risk further funds in the experiments, so he withdrew his share of the capital and moved to Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. There, iron ore, coal, water-power and transport lay close at hand. He took a lease on an old furnace and began experimenting. The shortage and expense of charcoal, and his knowledge of the use of coke in malting, may well have led him to try using coke to smelt iron ore. The furnace was brought into blast in 1709 and records show that in the same year it was regularly producing iron, using coke instead of charcoal. The process seems to have been operating successfully by 1711 in the production of cast-iron pots and kettles, with some pig-iron destined for Bristol. Darby prospered at Coalbrookdale, employing coke smelting with consistent success, and he sought to extend his activities in the neighbourhood and in other parts of the country. However, ill health prevented him from pursuing these ventures with his previous energy. Coke smelting spread slowly in England and the continent of Europe, but without Darby's technological breakthrough the ever-increasing demand for iron for structures and machines during the Industrial Revolution simply could not have been met; it was thus an essential component of the technological progress that was to come.Darby's eldest son, Abraham II (1711–63), entered the Coalbrookdale Company partnership in 1734 and largely assumed control of the technical side of managing the furnaces and foundry. He made a number of improvements, notably the installation of a steam engine in 1742 to pump water to an upper level in order to achieve a steady source of water-power to operate the bellows supplying the blast furnaces. When he built the Ketley and Horsehay furnaces in 1755 and 1756, these too were provided with steam engines. Abraham II's son, Abraham III (1750–89), in turn, took over the management of the Coalbrookdale works in 1768 and devoted himself to improving and extending the business. His most notable achievement was the design and construction of the famous Iron Bridge over the river Severn, the world's first iron bridge. The bridge members were cast at Coalbrookdale and the structure was erected during 1779, with a span of 100 ft (30 m) and height above the river of 40 ft (12 m). The bridge still stands, and remains a tribute to the skill and judgement of Darby and his workers.[br]Further ReadingA.Raistrick, 1989, Dynasty of Iron Founders, 2nd edn, Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (the best source for the lives of the Darbys and the work of the company).H.R.Schubert, 1957, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry AD 430 to AD 1775, London: Routledge \& Kegan Paul.LRD -
2 Metallurgy
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3 Reynolds, Richard
[br]b. 1 November 1735 Bristol, Englandd. 10 September 1816 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England[br]English ironmaster who invented iron rails.[br]Reynolds was born into a Quaker family, his father being an iron merchant and a considerable customer for the products of the Darbys (see Abraham Darby) of Coalbrookdale in Shropshire. After education at a Quaker boarding school in Pickwick, Wiltshire, Reynolds was apprenticed to William Fry, a grocer of Bristol, from whom he would have learned business methods. The year before the expiry of his apprenticeship in 1757, Reynolds was being sent on business errands to Coalbrookdale. In that year he met and married Hannah Darby, the daughter of Abraham Darby II. At the same time, he acquired a half-share in the Ketley ironworks, established not long before, in 1755. There he supervised not only the furnaces at Ketley and Horsehay and the foundry, but also the extension of the railway, linking this site to Coalbrookdale itself.On the death of Abraham Darby II in 1763, Reynolds took charge of the whole works during the minority of Abraham Darby III. During this period, the most notable development was the introduction by the Cranage brothers of a new way of converting pig-iron to wrought iron, a process patented in 1766 that used coal in a reverberatory furnace. This, with other processes for the same purpose, remained in use until superseded by the puddling process patented by Henry Cort in 1783 and 1784. Reynolds's most important innovation was the introduction of cast-iron rails in 1767 on the railway around Coalbrookdale. A useful network had been in operation for some time with wooden rails, but these wore out quickly and were expensive to maintain. Reynolds's iron rails were an immediate improvement, and some 20 miles (32 km) were laid within a short time. In 1768 Abraham Darby III was able to assume control of the Coalbrookdale works, but Reynolds had been extending his own interest in other ironworks and various other concerns, earning himself considerable wealth. When Darby was oppressed with loan repayments, Reynolds bought the Manor of Madely, which made him Landlord of the Coalbrookdale Company; by 1780 he was virtually banker to the company.[br]Further ReadingH.M.Rathbone, 1852, Letters of Richard Reynolds with a Memoir of his Life, London.A.Raistrick, 1989, Dynasty of Iron Founders, 2nd edn, Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (contains many details of Reynolds's life).LRD -
4 Champion, Nehemiah
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 1678 probably Bristol, Englandd. 9 September 1747 probably Bristol, England[br]English merchant and brass manufacturer of Bristol.[br]Several members of Champion's Quaker family were actively engaged as merchants in Bristol during the late seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Port records show Nehemiah in receipt of Cornish copper ore at Bristol's Crews Hole smelting works by 1706, in association with the newly formed brassworks of the city. He later became a leading partner, managing the company some time after Abraham Darby left the Bristol works to pursue his interest at Coalbrookdale. Champion, probably in company with his father, became the largest customer for Darby's Coalbrookdale products and also acted as Agent, at least briefly, for Thomas Newcomen.A patent in 1723 related to two separate innovations introduced by the brass company.The first improved the output of brass by granulating the copper constituent and increasing its surface area. A greater proportion of zinc vapour could permeate the granules compared with the previous practice, resulting in the technique being adopted generally in the cementation process used at the time. The latter part of the same patent introduced a new type of coal-fired furnace which facilitated annealing in bulk so replacing the individual processing of pieces. The principle of batch annealing was generally adopted, although the type of furnace was later improved. A further patent, in 1739, in the name of Nehemiah, concerned overshot water-wheels possibly intended for use in conjunction with the Newcomen atmospheric pumping engine employed for recycling water by his son William.Champion's two sons, John and William, and their two sons, both named John, were all concerned with production of non-ferrous metals and responsible for patented innovations. Nehemiah, shortly before his death, is believed to have partnered William at the Warmley works to exploit his son's new patent for producing metallic zinc.[br]Bibliography1723, British patent no. 454 (granulated copper technique and coal-fired furnace). 1739, British patent no. 567 (overshot water-wheels).Further ReadingA.Raistrick, 1950, Quakers in Science and Industry, London: Bannisdale Press (for the Champion family generally).J.Day, 1973, Bristol Brass, a History of the Industry, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles (for the industrial activities of Nehemiah).JD -
5 Champion, William
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 1710 Bristol, Englandd. 1789 England[br]English metallurgist, the first to produce metallic zinc in England on an industrial scale.[br]William, the youngest of the three sons of Nehemiah Champion, stemmed from a West Country Quaker family long associated with the metal trades. His grandfather, also called Nehemiah, had been one of Abraham Darby's close Quaker friends when the brassworks at Baptist Mills was being established in 1702 and 1703. Nehemiah II took over the management of these works soon after Darby went to Coalbrookdale, and in 1719, as one of a group of Bristol copper smelters, he negotiated an agreement with Lord Falmouth to develop copper mines in the Redruth area in Cornwall. In 1723 he was granted a patent for a cementation brass-making process using finely granulated copper rather than the broken fragments of massive copper hitherto employed.In 1730 he returned to Bristol after a tour of European metallurgical centres, and he began to develop an industrial process for the manufacture of pure zinc ingots in England. Metallic zinc or spelter was then imported at great expense from the Far East, largely for the manufacture of copper alloys of golden colour used for cheap jewellery. The process William developed, after six years of experimentation, reduced zinc oxide with charcoal at temperatures well above the boiling point of zinc. The zinc vapour obtained was condensed rapidly to prevent reoxidation and finally collected under water. This process, patented in 1738, was operated in secret until 1766 when Watson described it in his Chemical Essays. After encountering much opposition from the Bristol merchants and zinc importers, William decided to establish his own integrated brassworks at Warmley, five meals east of Bristol. The Warmley plant began to produce in 1748 and expanded rapidly. By 1767, when Warmley employed about 2,000 men, women and children, more capital was needed, requiring a Royal Charter of Incorporation. A consortium of Champion's competitors opposed this and secured its refusal. After this defeat William lost the confidence of his fellow directors, who dismissed him. He was declared bankrupt in 1769 and his works were sold to the British Brass Company, which never operated Warmley at full capacity, although it produced zinc on that site until 1784.[br]Bibliography1723, British patent no. 454 (cementation brass-making process).1738, British patent no. 564 (zinc ingot production process).1767, British patent no. 867 (brass manufacture wing zinc blende).Further ReadingJ.Day, 1973, Bristol Brass: The History of the Industry, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.A.Raistrick, 1970, Dynasty of Ironfounders: The Darbys and Coalbrookdale, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.J.R.Harris, 1964, The Copper King, Liverpool University Press.ASD -
6 Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering[br]b. probably Shrewsbury, Englandd. 23 December 1777 Shrewsbury, England[br]English architect and builder renowned for designing the first cast-iron bridge in England.[br]In 1775 Pritchard designed the Ironbridge bridge, which was built over the River Severn by Abraham Darby of Coalbrookdale in 1777–9. It is constructed of five parallel arch ribs almost 200 ft (61 m) in length. The spandrels are filled by circles and ogee arch heads, while the roadway above is made from cast-iron plates 2½ in. (64 mm) thick. The bridge, which weighs 400 tons, was made in the Coalbrookdale foundry and took only three months to erect.DYBiographical history of technology > Pritchard, Thomas Farnolls
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7 Roebuck, John
SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology[br]b. 1718 Sheffield, Englandd. 17 July 1794[br]English chemist and manufacturer, inventor of the lead-chamber process for sulphuric acid.[br]The son of a prosperous Sheffield manufacturer, Roebuck forsook the family business to pursue studies in medicine at Edinburgh University. There he met Dr Joseph Black (1727–99), celebrated Professor of Chemistry, who aroused in Roebuck a lasting interest in chemistry. Roebuck continued his studies at Leyden, where he took his medical degree in 1742. He set up in practice in Birmingham, but in his spare time he continued chemical experiments that might help local industries.Among his early achievements was his new method of refining gold and silver. Success led to the setting up of a large laboratory and a reputation as a chemical consultant. It was at this time that Roebuck devised an improved way of making sulphuric acid. This vital substance was then made by burning sulphur and nitre (potassium nitrate) over water in a glass globe. The scale of the process was limited by the fragility of the glass. Roebuck substituted "lead chambers", or vessels consisting of sheets of lead, a metal both cheap and resistant to acids, set in wooden frames. After the first plant was set up in 1746, productivity rose and the price of sulphuric acid fell sharply. Success encouraged Roebuck to establish a second, larger plant at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. He preferred to rely on secrecy rather than patents to preserve his monopoly, but a departing employee took the secret with him and the process spread rapidly in England and on the European continent. It remained the standard process until it was superseded by the contact process towards the end of the nineteenth century. Roebuck next turned his attention to ironmaking and finally selected a site on the Carron river, near Falkirk in Scotland, where the raw materials and water power and transport lay close at hand. The Carron ironworks began producing iron in 1760 and became one of the great names in the history of ironmaking. Roebuck was an early proponent of the smelting of iron with coke, pioneered by Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale. To supply the stronger blast required, Roebuck consulted John Smeaton, who c. 1760 installed the first blowing cylinders of any size.All had so far gone well for Roebuck, but he now leased coal-mines and salt-works from the Duke of Hamilton's lands at Borrowstonness in Linlithgow. The coal workings were plagued with flooding which the existing Newcomen engines were unable to overcome. Through his friendship with Joseph Black, patron of James Watt, Roebuck persuaded Watt to join him to apply his improved steam-engine to the flooded mine. He took over Black's loan to Watt of £1,200, helped him to obtain the first steam-engine patent of 1769 and took a two-thirds interest in the project. However, the new engine was not yet equal to the task and the debts mounted. To satisfy his creditors, Roebuck had to dispose of his capital in his various ventures. One creditor was Matthew Boulton, who accepted Roebuck's two-thirds share in Watt's steam-engine, rather than claim payment from his depleted estate, thus initiating a famous partnership. Roebuck was retained to manage Borrowstonness and allowed an annuity for his continued support until his death in 1794.[br]Further ReadingMemoir of John Roebuck in J.Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. 4 (1798), pp. 65–87.S.Gregory, 1987, "John Roebuck, 18th century entrepreneur", Chem. Engr. 443:28–31.LRD
См. также в других словарях:
Darby, Abraham — born 1678?, near Dudley, Worcestershire, Eng. died March 8, 1717, Madeley Court, Worcestershire British ironmaster. In 1709 Darby s Bristol Iron Co. became the first to successfully smelt iron ore with coke (see smelting). He demonstrated the… … Universalium
Darby, Abraham — (¿1678?, cerca de Dudley, Worcestershire, Inglaterra–8 mar. 1717, Madeley Court, Worcestershire). Empresario siderúrgico británico. En 1709, la empresa Bristol Iron Co. de Darby llegó a ser la primera en fundir con éxito mineral de hierro con… … Enciclopedia Universal
DARBY, Abraham III — (1750 1791) See CAST IRON … Historical Dictionary of Architecture
Abraham Darby I — Abraham Darby (April 14, 1678 ndash; May 5, 1717) was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing high… … Wikipedia
Abraham Darby I — Abraham Darby (14 de abril de 1678 – 8 de marzo de 1717[1] ) fue el primero y más conocido de tres generaciones del mismo nombre, perteneciente a una familia de cuáqueros ingleses, que representó un papel primordial durante la revolución… … Wikipedia Español
Abraham Darby II — (1711 ndash; 1763) was the second Abraham Darby in three generations of an English Quaker family that played a role in the Industrial Revolution. He followed in his father s footsteps at the Darby foundry in Coalbrookdale, refining techniques for … Wikipedia
DARBY (A.) — DARBY ABRAHAM (1711 1763) Métallurgiste anglais, né et mort à Coalbrookdale, dans le Shropshire. Fils du maître de forges anglais Abraham Darby (1678 1717), il réussit le premier à fondre des minerais de fer avec du coke dans un haut fourneau.… … Encyclopédie Universelle
Abraham Darby (rose) — Abraham Darby Abraham Darby (appelé aussi Country Darby ) est un cultivar de rosier obtenu par David Austin en 1985, nommé d après le quaker Abraham Darby. C est un croisement d Aloha et du floribunda jaune Yellow Cushion . Il forme un buisson de … Wikipédia en Français
Abraham — V. «seno de Abraham». * * * Abraham. □ V. seno de Abraham. * * * Abraham (en hebreo, אַבְרָהָם, en árabe, ابراهيم, Ibrāhīm), es uno de los patriarcas del pueblo de Israel; según la Biblia, debió de nacer en Ur de los caldeos, en la desembocadura… … Enciclopedia Universal
Abraham — /ay breuh ham , heuhm/, n. 1. the first of the great Biblical patriarchs, father of Isaac, and traditional founder of the ancient Hebrew nation: considered by Muslims an ancestor of the Arab peoples through his son Ishmael. 2. a male given name:… … Universalium
Abraham Darby — est le nom de plusieurs membres d une famille britannique quaker qui a tenu un rôle clef dans le développement industriel pendant la révolution industrielle. Sommaire 1 Abraham Darby (1678 1717) 2 Abraham Darby II (1711 1763) 3 Abraham Darby II … Wikipédia en Français
