Abraham Darby used coke to make pig iron at Coalbrookdale to make pig iron

1709

Benjamin Huntsman "rediscovered" steel.

1740

The first iron rolling mill (to make wrought iron) was opened at Foreham, Hampshire.

1754

Darby laid an iron plateway

1760's

Matthew Boulton established an ironworks, using coke as the fuel, in Birmingham.

1762

The iron industry was centred around Merthyr, in the heart of the Welsh coalfields.

1765

Iron had replaced wood as the material for making industrial machines.

1770

Wilkinson bored cylinders for Watt's engine

1775

Abraham Darby III built the first iron bridge at Coalbrookdale.

1779

Henry Cort invented a new and improved method to produce wrought iron. He also developed a new way of making wrought iron railings.

1783

Henry Bessemer developed the "basic oxygen converter" to make steel.

1856

Britain was producing 60 times as much pig iron as in 1800.

1870

Percy Gilchrist and S.G. Thomas adapted Bessemer's process to suit phosphoric ores.

1879