Industrial developments

Abstract

The foundation of all modern industrial economies is an iron and steel industry; British industries were able to develop rapidly during the nineteenth century because of the prior development of the iron and steel industry. The inventions of the Darbys and Cort, by making available for the production of iron the vast resources of Britain’s coalfields, had enormously accelerated the growth of the industry, with the result that the output of pig iron grew from 250,000 tons in 1806 to 650,000 tons in 1830 and 1 million tons by 1835. Another important advance was made in 1828 when a Scot, James B. Neilson, invented the hot blast process.