Progress in the iron industry ……………

Until the eighteenth century, the method of smelting
iron from ironstone and making it into wrought or cast
iron or steel had hardly altered for hundreds of years.
Beginning with Abraham Darby's use of coke instead
of charcoal for smelting, many Inventions and
Improvements gradually followed. Changes in the iron
industry were not as rapid as those in textiles but. by
the end of the ; eighteenth century, fiercer furnaces,
the crucible process for steel, the use of power for
puddling and rolling and other inventions had
enormously increased efficiency. Larger masses of
metal could be handled with less labour and in a
shorter time. The inventive genius of many men and
much patient effort over the years were devoted to
achieving these successes.