You might want to look at:
Rehder, J.E.
1987 The change from charcoal to coke in iron smelting. Journal of the
Historical Metallurgy Society 21(1):37-43. Institute of Materials, London.
1998 Abraham Darby and Coke in the Blast Furnace. Iron and Steelmaker
(I&SM), December 1998:29-33. The Iron & Steel Society, Warrendale,
Pennsylvania.
Hyde, Charles K.
1977 Technological Change and the British Iron Industry 1700-1870.
Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Evans, Chris
1993 The statistical surveys of the British iron industry in 1797-98 and 1806.
Journal of the Historical Metallurgy Society 27(2):84-101. Instate of
Materials, London.
Rehder and Hyde cover different aspects of the change from charcoal to coke in
the British iron industry. Hyde's discussion is economically oriented, but has
a fairly complete history of the changeover. Rehder's first article is more
technical.
There are other histories of the British iron industry. You might also look at
Ashton, Thomas Southcliffe
1951 Iron and Steel in the Industrial Revolution. Manchester University
Press, Manchester.
Gale, W. K. V.
1967 The British Iron & Steel Industry: A Technical History. David & Charles,
Newton Abbot.
Birch, Alan
1968 The Economic History of the British Iron and Steel Industry
1784-1879. Augustus M. Kelley, Publishers, New York.
For the American take on the problem look at
Gordon, Robert B.
1996 American Iron 1607-1900. The Johns Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore and London.
There are also numerous articles in the various "iron industry" magazines. In
the US there is the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.
There are undoubtedly English equivalents.
JH Brothers IV
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|