The Early Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The first decades of the nineteenth century saw little fundamentally new technology entering the industry. While this was particularly true on the smelting side, nevertheless the general size of blast furnaces increased as coke was taken up, for it was found possible to increase the weight of the charge beyond that of charcoal furnaces. Average output for furnaces in the Black Country, for instance, had risen from about 30 tons a week at the end of the eighteenth century to 40–50 tons in the 1820s, and some made much more. Indeed, powered loading ramps were developed to fuel the higher furnaces. These furnaces were reaching 60 feet by the 1830s, and they were becoming circular in outward profile and internal section, being constructed externally of ordinary brick and inside of firebrick. Furnaces also began to be strengthened by binding with wrought iron hoops; blast pressure was rising and was made more even by regulators (though their value is disputable); internal capacity increased rapidly. By the late 1830s a Black Country furnace produced 236 tons a week [29, Ch. 5]. An important process of development was thus going on in smelting even if there was no essentially new technology.