Peter King wrote:

> Evidence I have recently found indicates that the first foundry air furnaces
> were built in the early 1690s.   My source indicates that the first was at
> 'Fox Hall',  probably Vauxhall on the south bank of the Thames near London.
> Other early ones mentioned by the same source were at Southwark and 'Corborow
> Dale in Shropshire' [i.e. Coalbrookdale].   I also have evidence indicative of
> coke smelting at Coalbrookdale by Shadrach Fox also in the early 1690s.   I
> will be submitting an article for publication dealing with these and othe
> matters in the next few days. I know of one foundry in Stourbridge built
> 1717,  two in Bristol converted from brass foundries in 1705 and about 1709
> respecively,  one at Gateshead (Newcastle upon Tyne) built about 1721.   The
> Falcon Foundry in Southwark (London's south bank suburb) built in the 1690s
> continued into 19th century.   Another in Southwark was built possibly 1730s
> and several more around London were casting shot ofr the Board of Orndnace in
> in 1770s and beyond.   Near Sheffield there was one at Grenoside from 1741 and
> one in the edge of the town from 1751.   I have refrerences to a funder at
> Birmingham,  but no exact date.    These are about all I have come
> across. More closely linked to furnaces there was a foundry on the Gardden
> estate connected with Ruabon and Bersham Furnaces in the 1720s and Abraham
> Darby I had air furnaces at Coalbrookdale soon after his arrival there.
> Nevertheless separate foundries remianed relatively scarce until the mid 18th
> century. Isaac Wilkinson (John's father) was a potfounder at Little Clifton
> (Cumberland) and then Backbarrow.   The is a picture of him at work and the
> partners in the Backbarrow Company looking on reproduced by W.H. Chaloner,
> 'Isaac Wilkinson potfounder' in L.S. Pressnell,  Studies in the industrial
> revolution presented to T.S. Ashton (1960).   It appears to show a lot of men
> at work,  but I suspect they are all portraits of Wilkinson.   The picture
> also shows what is probably the casting arch of the furnace,  so that this is
> not a remelting foundry. John Wilkinson is reported to have  invented the
> first foundry cupola of the modern type.   The date usually given is 1794,
> but I strongly suspect that date is too late.   Excavations at Bersham and
> examination of old maps suggested that a building that survives (more recently
> used as a corn mill had originally been a foundry with air furnaces.
> Subsequently he built a Round House foundry (actually octagonal) with a
> central crane which also survives.   Adjoining this is an enigmatic structure
> with walls that are heavily slagged.   When the Historical Metallurgy Society
> visited Bersham a few years ago no one could explain what this was.   I
> strongly suspect this was John Wilkinson's foundry cupola,  in whcih case it
> may well be the original foundry cupola.   I would appreciate comments on
> this. Also in the late 18th century there were what were known as snapper
> furnaces,  small blast furnaces.   I understand these to have been used for
> remelting pig iron,  but have not seen any clear statement to that effect.
> There are partial remains of one of these at Coalbrookdale.   Can any one say
> who invented these and when?    I may have seen some one say that the
> Coalbrookdale snapper furnace was in use in the 1790s. The term 'foundry
> cupola' is a misleading one.   In other metallurgical industries a cupola was
> a reverbatory furnace with the charge and fuel kept separate.   The foundry
> air furnaces of the early 18th century seem to accord with this definition,
> but John Wilkinson's 'cupola' and the modern foundry cupola are actually more
> like small blast furnaces.   The name cupola is still attached to the
> locations of both the foundries in or near Sheffield (mentioned above),  but
> there is no evidence that I know of as to what kind of foundry they were. Late
> 18th century and 19th century directories indicate that most towns of any size
> had an iron founder or iron and brass founder.   For example Charles Finch,
> who came from a family of Duddley and Cambridge (wholesale) ironmongers built
> a foundry in Bridge Street Cambridge in 1794. I have also not found material
> on the technology plentiful.   I suspect most of the following will not be
> readily available to you:Rhys Jenkins, 'The reverbatory furnace with coal fuel
> 1612-1712' Trans. Newcomen Soc. 14 (1933-4), 67-82.
>
> Rhys Jenkins, 'Foundry cupola and chilled iron' Edgar Allen News 29 (1950-1),
> 629-30.
>
> Michael Hallett, 'The technical revolution [in Founding]', appendix to Guy
> Hadley, Citizens and founders: a history of the Worshipful Company of
> Founders, London (Phillimore, Chichester, 1976). This book has little else
> pertinent to iron founding.As I am not yet a member of the industrial
> archaeology list,  I have not been able to send a reply there.   No doubt they
> will be interested and some one may like to forward this message. Peter King




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