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117-513: Bedlington Ironworks , in Blyth Dene , Northumberland, England, operated between 1736 and 1867. It is most remembered as the place where wrought iron rails were invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820, which triggered the railway age, with their first major use being in the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825, about 45 miles (72 km) to the south. Blyth Dene, near Bedlington ,

234-548: A rolling mill and the nailing business which had separated out steadily declined in importance. The ancient corn mill at Bedlington was taken over in 1759 by Malings & Co of Sunderland , who built a blast furnace for foundry work. However, they did not do well. Later there was a forge driven by a huge water wheel and a puddling furnace which needed the coal that was all around. By 1788, both works had passed to William Hawks and Thomas Longridge, brothers-in-law from Gateshead, who were both ironmasters. Though in 1809

351-410: A 20-horsepower (15 kW) stationary engine situated at the bottom, the ascending and descending cradles partly balancing one another. Only one railway wagon could be handled in each direction at a time, limiting the throughput to twelve an hour. After Hownes Gill the line passed the site of Consett Iron Works, later very much enlarged and developed; the line climbed at 1 in 71 to Carr House. There

468-445: A 5-ton chain was housed in a shaft, and at first it was coiled on the base. As the load descended the chain was increasingly pulled up, neatly counterbalancing the weight of the loaded chaldron; when the chaldron was discharged the weight of the chain pulled it back up. The main line was 33 + 7 ⁄ 8 miles (54.5 km) in length; there was a branch to Medomsley Colliery ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 miles (2.0 km)), and in 1835

585-524: A bar, expelling slag in the process. During the Middle Ages , water-power was applied to the process, probably initially for powering bellows, and only later to hammers for forging the blooms. However, while it is certain that water-power was used, the details remain uncertain. That was the culmination of the direct process of ironmaking. It survived in Spain and southern France as Catalan Forges to

702-468: A branch to Tanfield Moor colliery was opened, partly by restoration of an earlier waggonway, 2 + 1 ⁄ 8 miles (3.4 km), this was known as the Harelaw branch. There were no large towns on the line of route, which was planned purely for mineral transport. The rails used on the line were of fish-bellied form, weighing 20 and 40 pounds per yard (10 and 20 kg/m), on stone blocks. The gauge of

819-582: A carbon content of less than 0.008 wt% . Bar iron is a generic term sometimes used to distinguish it from cast iron. It is the equivalent of an ingot of cast metal, in a convenient form for handling, storage, shipping and further working into a finished product. The bars were the usual product of the finery forge , but not necessarily made by that process: Wrought iron is a form of commercial iron containing less than 0.10% of carbon, less than 0.25% of impurities total of sulfur, phosphorus, silicon and manganese, and less than 2% slag by weight. Wrought iron

936-470: A final product. Sometimes European ironworks would skip the shingling process completely and roll the puddle balls. The only drawback to that is that the edges of the rough bars were not as well compressed. When the rough bar was reheated, the edges might separate and be lost into the furnace. The bloom was passed through rollers and to produce bars. The bars of wrought iron were of poor quality, called muck bars or puddle bars. To improve their quality,

1053-463: A high silky luster and fibrous appearance. Wrought iron lacks the carbon content necessary for hardening through heat treatment , but in areas where steel was uncommon or unknown, tools were sometimes cold-worked (hence cold iron ) to harden them. An advantage of its low carbon content is its excellent weldability. Furthermore, sheet wrought iron cannot bend as much as steel sheet metal when cold worked. Wrought iron can be melted and cast; however,

1170-489: A loss-making railway was not a plan for easy success, and it was not until 1844 when the through route from London to Gateshead opened, using part of the P&;SSR line, that the finances improved. Around the area of Carr House there were extensive deposits of iron ore as well as coal, and the availability from relatively near of abundant limestone encouraged consideration of iron smelting, and in 1840 Jonathan Richardson founded

1287-434: A low scale to supply the steel to the artisan swordmakers. Osmond iron consisted of balls of wrought iron, produced by melting pig iron and catching the droplets on a staff, which was spun in front of a blast of air so as to expose as much of it as possible to the air and oxidise its carbon content. The resultant ball was often forged into bar iron in a hammer mill. In the 15th century, the blast furnace spread into what

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1404-449: A lower melting point than iron or steel. Cast and especially pig iron have excess slag which must be at least partially removed to produce quality wrought iron. At foundries it was common to blend scrap wrought iron with cast iron to improve the physical properties of castings. For several years after the introduction of Bessemer and open hearth steel, there were different opinions as to what differentiated iron from steel; some believed it

1521-538: A mile annually. The wild hills of the western section were less useful agriculturally and the wayleave fees were considerably less. Nonetheless the annual wayleave charge was about £5,600. Most of the capital required for the construction was found by London financiers. The terrain at the western end of the line was exceedingly difficult due to its hilly nature and the high altitude; construction at Stanhope started in July 1832. The eastern section across much easier terrain

1638-459: A modest amount of wrought iron was refined into steel , which was used mainly to produce swords , cutlery , chisels , axes , and other edged tools, as well as springs and files. The demand for wrought iron reached its peak in the 1860s, being in high demand for ironclad warships and railway use. However, as properties such as brittleness of mild steel improved with better ferrous metallurgy and as steel became less costly to make thanks to

1755-603: A number of patented processes for that, which are referred to today as potting and stamping . The earliest were developed by John Wood of Wednesbury and his brother Charles Wood of Low Mill at Egremont , patented in 1763. Another was developed for the Coalbrookdale Company by the Cranage brothers . Another important one was that of John Wright and Joseph Jesson of West Bromwich . A number of processes for making wrought iron without charcoal were devised as

1872-440: A number of wedge-formed shapes to reduce the amount of iron, taking out a patent in 1820, and the rails were made with a swell or curvature in the middle. The 2-mile (3 km) wagonway (which cost 15 shillings a yard or 16 shillings 4¾ pence a metre) was a great success and deeply impressed George Stephenson , a close friend of Longridge who went on to use Birkinshaw's invention in the Stockton and Darlington Railway and by 1822

1989-588: A partnership was formed. They arranged wayleaves to get their line from Consett to Stanhope, avoiding the expense of obtaining an act of Parliament. Stanhope was the location of extensive reserves of limestone, required in the process of smelting iron ore. At this stage, the plan was to use the Tanfield Waggonway to transport the materials to the Tyne. As well as the limestone quarries at Stanhope, there were limekilns, producing quicklime . The partnership

2106-410: A process for manufacturing wrought iron quickly and economically. It involved taking molten steel from a Bessemer converter and pouring it into cooler liquid slag. The temperature of the steel is about 1500 °C and the liquid slag is maintained at approximately 1200 °C. The molten steel contains a large amount of dissolved gases so when the liquid steel hit the cooler surfaces of the liquid slag

2223-621: A railway from Waskerley on the section it had acquired from the Stanhope company. It arranged wayleaves for the purpose in 1843, and arranged with the Stockton and Darlington Railway for the latter to lease the line from Waskerley and the existing former section, which it reopened. The Stockton and Darlington Railway took possession on 1 January 1845 and named the lines "the Wear and Derwent Junction Railway". The line from Crook to Waskerley Junction

2340-410: A refinery where raw coal was used to remove silicon and convert carbon within the raw material, found in the form of graphite, to a combination with iron called cementite. In the fully developed process (of Hall), this metal was placed into the hearth of the puddling furnace where it was melted. The hearth was lined with oxidizing agents such as haematite and iron oxide. The mixture was subjected to

2457-569: A revolution in ironmaking by using coke instead of charcoal . The Bedlington ironworks originally consisted of two elements – a mill in Bebside and a furnace at Bedlington Mill A lease of 50 acres (20 ha) on the Bebside side of the river was taken in 1736 by William Thomlinson , an established ironmaster from Skinnerburn in Newcastle upon Tyne , though he died in 1737 before the works

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2574-472: A siding containing spare wagons; a man and a boy were killed. The eastern section was opened on 10 September 1834, the first public railway on Tyneside. Horse traction was used as well as locomotives, and in the hilly section there were inclines worked by stationary engines as well as self-acting inclines. The first consignment of coal was brought from the Medomsley collieries in a train of 100 wagons, and

2691-481: A single hearth for all stages. The introduction of coke for use in the blast furnace by Abraham Darby in 1709 (or perhaps others a little earlier) initially had little effect on wrought iron production. Only in the 1750s was coke pig iron used on any significant scale as the feedstock of finery forges. However, charcoal continued to be the fuel for the finery. From the late 1750s, ironmasters began to develop processes for making bar iron without charcoal. There were

2808-412: A strong current of air and stirred with long bars, called puddling bars or rabbles, through working doors. The air, the stirring, and the "boiling" action of the metal helped the oxidizing agents to oxidize the impurities and carbon out of the pig iron. As the impurities oxidize, they formed a molten slag or drifted off as gas, while the remaining iron solidified into spongy wrought iron that floated to

2925-460: A through north-south route: the beginnings of an East Coast main line, although not the present-day route. In 1844 the final link in this chain (Belmont Junction to Rainton Crossing) was opened and on 24 May 1844 a special train carrying the directors of the Newcastle and Darlington Junction Railway ran through from York to Gateshead. On 18 June 1844 a special train was run from London to Gateshead,

3042-424: Is redshort or hot short if it contains sulfur in excess quantity. It has sufficient tenacity when cold, but cracks when bent or finished at a red heat. Hot short iron was considered unmarketable. Cold short iron, also known as coldshear , colshire , contains excessive phosphorus. It is very brittle when cold and cracks if bent. It may, however, be worked at high temperature. Historically, coldshort iron

3159-414: Is a more important measure of the quality of wrought iron. In tensile testing, the best irons are able to undergo considerable elongation before failure. Higher tensile wrought iron is brittle. Because of the large number of boiler explosions on steamboats in the early 1800s, the U.S. Congress passed legislation in 1830 which approved funds for correcting the problem. The treasury awarded a $ 1500 contract to

3276-520: Is an archaic past participle of the verb "to work", and so "wrought iron" literally means "worked iron". Wrought iron is a general term for the commodity, but is also used more specifically for finished iron goods, as manufactured by a blacksmith . It was used in that narrower sense in British Customs records, such manufactured iron was subject to a higher rate of duty than what might be called "unwrought" iron. Cast iron , unlike wrought iron,

3393-435: Is brittle and cannot be worked either hot or cold. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, wrought iron went by a wide variety of terms according to its form, origin, or quality. While the bloomery process produced wrought iron directly from ore, cast iron or pig iron were the starting materials used in the finery forge and puddling furnace . Pig iron and cast iron have higher carbon content than wrought iron, but have

3510-491: Is deceptive. Most of the manganese, sulfur, phosphorus, and silicon in the wrought iron are incorporated into the slag fibers, making wrought iron purer than plain carbon steel. Amongst its other properties, wrought iron becomes soft at red heat and can be easily forged and forge welded . It can be used to form temporary magnets , but it cannot be magnetized permanently, and is ductile , malleable , and tough . For most purposes, ductility rather than tensile strength

3627-467: Is highly refined, with a small amount of silicate slag forged out into fibers. It comprises around 99.4% iron by mass. The presence of slag can be beneficial for blacksmithing operations, such as forge welding, since the silicate inclusions act as a flux and give the material its unique, fibrous structure. The silicate filaments in the slag also protect the iron from corrosion and diminish the effect of fatigue caused by shock and vibration. Historically,

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3744-407: Is no longer manufactured commercially. Wrought iron was originally produced by a variety of smelting processes, all described today as "bloomeries". Different forms of bloomery were used at different places and times. The bloomery was charged with charcoal and iron ore and then lit. Air was blown in through a tuyere to heat the bloomery to a temperature somewhat below the melting point of iron. In

3861-450: Is no longer produced on a commercial scale. Many products described as wrought iron, such as guard rails , garden furniture , and gates are made of mild steel. They are described as "wrought iron" only because they have been made to resemble objects which in the past were wrought (worked) by hand by a blacksmith (although many decorative iron objects, including fences and gates, were often cast rather than wrought). The word "wrought"

3978-628: Is now Belgium where it was improved. From there, it spread via the Pays de Bray on the boundary of Normandy and then to the Weald in England. With it, the finery forge spread. Those remelted the pig iron and (in effect) burnt out the carbon, producing a bloom, which was then forged into bar iron. If rod iron was required, a slitting mill was used. The finery process existed in two slightly different forms. In Great Britain, France, and parts of Sweden, only

4095-555: The Bessemer process and the Siemens–Martin process , the use of wrought iron declined. Many items, before they came to be made of mild steel , were produced from wrought iron, including rivets , nails , wire , chains , rails , railway couplings , water and steam pipes , nuts , bolts , horseshoes , handrails , wagon tires, straps for timber roof trusses , and ornamental ironwork , among many other things. Wrought iron

4212-481: The Industrial Revolution began during the latter half of the 18th century. The most successful of those was puddling, using a puddling furnace (a variety of the reverberatory furnace ), which was invented by Henry Cort in 1784. It was later improved by others including Joseph Hall , who was the first to add iron oxide to the charge. In that type of furnace, the metal does not come into contact with

4329-469: The River Wear . The deposits very close to the waterways soon became worked out, and the location of the mining moved progressively away in the seventeenth century, requiring longer transits overland. The mineral could be conveyed to a quay by cart. Even in the early decades of the nineteenth century, there were very few public roads, and the carts made their way across private land, paying a wayleave to

4446-609: The Walloon process was used. That employed two different hearths, a finery hearth for finishing the iron and a chafery hearth for reheating it in the course of drawing the bloom out into a bar. The finery always burnt charcoal, but the chafery could be fired with mineral coal , since its impurities would not harm the iron when it was in the solid state. On the other hand, the German process, used in Germany, Russia, and most of Sweden used

4563-524: The bloomery ever being used in China. The fining process involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and removing carbon from the molten cast iron through oxidation . Wagner writes that in addition to the Han dynasty hearths believed to be fining hearths, there is also pictorial evidence of the fining hearth from a Shandong tomb mural dated 1st to 2nd century AD, as well as a hint of written evidence in

4680-413: The finery forge at least by the 2nd century BC, the earliest specimens of cast and pig iron fined into wrought iron and steel found at the early Han dynasty site at Tieshengguo. Pigott speculates that the finery forge existed in the previous Warring States period (403–221 BC), due to the fact that there are wrought iron items from China dating to that period and there is no documented evidence of

4797-701: The 1960s, the price of steel production was dropping due to recycling, and even using the Aston process, wrought iron production was labor-intensive. It has been estimated that the production of wrought iron is approximately twice as expensive as that of low-carbon steel. In the United States, the last plant closed in 1969. The last in the world was the Atlas Forge of Thomas Walmsley and Sons in Bolton , Great Britain, which closed in 1973. Its 1860s-era equipment

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4914-418: The 4th century AD Daoist text Taiping Jing . Wrought iron has been used for many centuries, and is the "iron" that is referred to throughout Western history. The other form of iron, cast iron , was in use in China since ancient times but was not introduced into Western Europe until the 15th century; even then, due to its brittleness, it could be used for only a limited number of purposes. Throughout much of

5031-509: The Bedlington Iron Company had delivered 1,200 long tons (1,200 t) of malleable iron rails to the venture. This level of production was far beyond that possible by the manual casting techniques used at the time and was an important factor in the success of the railways. By 1836, the ambitious Longridge was also making locomotives for the railways, despite the opposition of Robert Stephenson , George Stephenson's son, and

5148-681: The Carrhouse station at Consett was not feasible for passenger trains at the time because of the means of crossing the deep ravine and Hownes Gill on the intervening section. The Wear Valley Railway company had been established in July 1845, to extend the Bishop Auckland line from Witton-le-Wear to Frosterley, and in 1846 the Wear Valley Railway took possession of the Derwent Iron Company's lines taken from

5265-524: The Crawley engine was 1 ⁄ 2 mile (0.8 km) long on gradients of 1 in 8 and 1 in 12, passing through Hog Hill tunnel, about 120 yards (110 m) long. At the Crawley engine (1,223 feet (373 m) above sea level) the ropes were changed and the sets of wagons were drawn up to the Weatherhill engine, over 1 mile (1.6 km) away, over gradients of 1 in 21 and 1 in 13. From Weatherhill

5382-484: The Derwent Iron Company there. Within ten years the district had a population of 2,500 due to the iron works. When the Stanhope and Tyne Railway fell into financial difficulties, the Derwent Iron Company had to take urgent steps to ensure continuity of the Stanhope limestone, and it was this factor that caused the acquisition referred to above. The Derwent Iron Company sought to connect with the Stockton and Darlington Railway at Crook (near Bishop Auckland ) and projected

5499-575: The Franklin Institute to conduct a study. As part of the study, Walter R. Johnson and Benjamin Reeves conducted strength tests on boiler iron using a tester they had built in 1832 based on a design by Lagerhjelm in Sweden. Because of misunderstandings about tensile strength and ductility, their work did little to reduce failures. The importance of ductility was recognized by some very early in

5616-520: The Medomsley colliery branch of the S&;TR trailed in. From Carr House the line continued, falling at 1 in 108; both inclines were worked by a stationary engine at Carr House. The line then ran northeast along the ridge near the collieries of Stanley and Annfield Plain. It passed over the Pontop Ridge (between East Castle and Annfield) on an incline, gradient 1 in 148, worked by a stationary engine at

5733-542: The Middle Ages, iron was produced by the direct reduction of ore in manually operated bloomeries , although water power had begun to be employed by 1104. The raw material produced by all indirect processes is pig iron. It has a high carbon content and as a consequence, it is brittle and cannot be used to make hardware. The osmond process was the first of the indirect processes, developed by 1203, but bloomery production continued in many places. The process depended on

5850-481: The Park Head wheelhouse, the waggons were attached to a tail-rope and let down an incline at gradients of 1 in 80 and 1 in 82, 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (2.4 km) in length, to a stationary engine at Meeting Slacks. Here the rope was changed, they continued their descent down a second incline 1 + 1 ⁄ 4 miles (2.0 km) in length; the steepest gradients were 1 in 35, 1 in 41 and 1 in 47. This brought

5967-518: The Parkhead summit were on moderate gradients and the technical improvements in locomotive design enabled consideration of their use. A deviation over a distance of just over 1 mile (1.6 km) bypassed the inclines and located the line a little further down the hillside. This enabled elimination of the rope-working and was inaugurated in 1847. It was done without Parliamentary authorisation. The Stockton and Darlington Railway took direct control of

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6084-659: The Pontop and South Shields Railway Company (P&SSR); it was incorporated by an act of Parliament, the Stanhope and Tyne Railroad Company (Dissolution) Act 1842 ( 5 & 6 Vict. c. xxvii), on 23 May 1842. The section of line between Stanhope and Consett (then called Carr House), and the limestone quarries at Stanhope, were sold to the Derwent Iron Company . The blast furnace method of iron production required considerable quantities of limestone. Taking over

6201-598: The S&TR at an oblique angle at Boldon Lane (the later site of Tyne Dock station) and at Brockley Whins near Boldon, where there was a square flat crossing (see Brockley Whins, below). It was desired to connect the two lines, and this was done by a loop line about 8 chains (160 m) in length, the cost of which was borne by the S&TR, the Brandling Junction Railway, and the Durham Junction Railway in equal proportions. This loop

6318-503: The S&TR. The S&TR subscribed more than 50% of the share capital of the Durham Junction Railway: £40,000 of the £80,000 share capital. An agreement had been made on 17 May 1834, that the line would be worked by the locomotives of the Stanhope and Tyne Railway Company. In fact the company never progressed the line further south than Rainton Meadows. At the end of 1840 the company was unable to pay its debts, and

6435-478: The Stanhope and Tyne Railroad Company, was formed for the purpose. This much more ambitious scheme required engineering expertise, and Thomas Elliot Harrison was appointed as the company's engineer. Harrison later became the first General Manager of the North Eastern Railway . Robert Stephenson was appointed consulting engineer, and he accepted his fee of £1,000 in stock of the company. Although

6552-699: The Stanhope and Tyne was forced to fall back upon a line running by way of West Stanley to Stella Gill and thence to the Durham road. On 17 May the tenders were let, and the works began very soon afterwards. The South Shields Improvement Commissioners objected to the railway passing through the town at street level, and the Company was forced to alter the line to run at a higher level, crossing the main roads by bridges; these were completed in November, 1833. Early in May 1834,

6669-515: The Stanhope and Tyne. The Wear Valley Railway was still building its own line. A further act of Parliament, the Wear Valley Railway Act 1847 ( 10 & 11 Vict. c. ccxcii) confirmed the statutory position of those lines on 28 September 1847. The Wear Valley Railway was in effect a subsidiary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, which worked the Derwent Iron Company section. The rope-worked inclines leading north from Crawley to

6786-431: The area. The waggonways too required wayleaves to traverse privately held land. Early in 1831, Pontop Colliery (a landsale pit ) at Medomsley was advertised to be let. William Wallis of Westoe (near South Shields) found the potential attractive and later in the year he agreed to leases of coal seams at West Consett and Medomsley, and limestone quarries at Stanhope. A railway would be needed to connect those places, and

6903-451: The bars were cut up, piled and tied together by wires, a process known as faggoting or piling. They were then reheated to a welding state, forge welded, and rolled again into bars. The process could be repeated several times to produce wrought iron of desired quality. Wrought iron that has been rolled multiple times is called merchant bar or merchant iron. The advantage of puddling was that it used coal, not charcoal as fuel. However, that

7020-471: The business passed to Gordon and Biddulph, by 1819 Michael Longridge , nephew of the previous co-owner was in charge. One of his first acts was to make an agreement in 1819 with a coal mine at Choppington , 2 miles (3 km) away, for reduced prices on coal provided a wagonway was established to link the two works. Longridge, influenced by a report from Robert Stevenson of Edinburgh , decided on malleable iron rails and his agent John Birkinshaw developed

7137-399: The coal train, afterwards we ran a coach once a fortnight on pay days with an engine at considerable loss. In 1835, from 16 April, we carried 2,814 passengers. There was a considerable loss that year by carrying passengers, not less than £220. In 1838 we carried 17,490 passengers. There was an apparent gain that year of £117 15s. In 1839 we carried 15,010 passengers. In that year I consider

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7254-554: The colliery to the Waldridge waggonway, and together they formed a branch railway over 3 miles (5 km) in length. The Sacriston pit was to bring considerable traffic to the S&TR. It joined the S&TR at Pelton Fell. On 11 November 1840 the Brandling Junction Railway opened its Tanfield Moor branch. This resulted immediately in Tanfield Moor traffic diverting away from the Stanhope and Tyne line. The cost of working

7371-457: The course of present-day East Coast main line, opened here in 1868, north of Chester-le-Street. This section was level enough for locomotive working, passing through Washington and Boldon, and near Brockley Whins to reach South Shields. Running at high level through the town, the line ended at quays off Wapping Street and Long Row. On 28 August 1839 the Sacriston waggonway opened; it ran from

7488-413: The course of the smelt, slag would melt and run out, and carbon monoxide from the charcoal would reduce the ore to iron, which formed a spongy mass (called a "bloom") containing iron and also molten silicate minerals (slag) from the ore. The iron remained in the solid state. If the bloomery were allowed to become hot enough to melt the iron, carbon would dissolve into it and form pig or cast iron, but that

7605-498: The development of effective methods of steelmaking and the availability of large quantities of steel, wrought iron was the most common form of malleable iron. It was given the name wrought because it was hammered, rolled, or otherwise worked while hot enough to expel molten slag. The modern functional equivalent of wrought iron is mild steel , also called low-carbon steel. Neither wrought iron nor mild steel contain enough carbon to be hardened by heating and quenching. Wrought iron

7722-593: The development of the blast furnace, of which medieval examples have been discovered at Lapphyttan , Sweden and in Germany . The bloomery and osmond processes were gradually replaced from the 15th century by finery processes, of which there were two versions, the German and Walloon. They were in turn replaced from the late 18th century by puddling , with certain variants such as the Swedish Lancashire process . Those, too, are now obsolete, and wrought iron

7839-399: The development of tube boilers, evidenced by Thurston's comment: If made of such good iron as the makers claimed to have put into them "which worked like lead," they would, as also claimed, when ruptured, open by tearing, and discharge their contents without producing the usual disastrous consequences of a boiler explosion. Stanhope and Tyne Railway The Stanhope and Tyne Railway

7956-607: The earlier ones—those originally used on the Stanhope and Tyne Railway—were of india rubber solution, a material found to swell and become soft in wet weather, and therefore unfitted to stand the friction on the inclines. From 1835 to 1841 no other than hempen ropes were used and, as these were occasionally tarred, a smooth and glossy surface was soon formed upon them which diminished the wear from friction. Varying in girth from 4 to 8 + 1 ⁄ 8 inches [10 to 21 cm] and in weight from nearly 2 to 6 tons per mile, these ropes rarely lasted longer than 10 months—their average duration

8073-488: The entire line was closed for a week so that the ropes could be changed and the machinery inspected; this coincided with colliery closures for corresponding reasons. In 1839 the Brandling Junction Railway opened much of its network. It was conceived to connect Gateshead and collieries nearby to Monkwearmouth, and its main line was on that axis. It also took over the Tanfield Waggonway. It intersected

8190-432: The first locomotive (built by Robert Stephenson & Company) was placed on the line at South Shields, and on 15 May the upper part of the line, a section of 15 + 1 ⁄ 4 miles (24.5 km) from Stanhope to Annfield, was opened for traffic. The day was marred when a shackle broke on a set of four wagons, conveying 40 people, on the Weatherhill incline. The wagons ran away down the incline and were diverted into

8307-594: The first locomotive, the "Michael Longridge", was delivered in 1837 to the Stanhope and Tyne Railway . Though the locomotive plant closed in 1855, the Bedlington works exported both rails and locomotives to many parts of Europe and played a significant part in the explosive growth of the railway system. The works were at their peak in 1850 producing rails and castings for the Crimean War effort. Longridge sold

8424-409: The force of circumstances that compelled us to take passengers at all. We had constant applications from poor people to ride on the coal waggons and, at first, permission was granted them to ride on the waggons without any payment at all, then passenger carriages were put on the way to save the trouble of these applications and to obviate the risk of accidents. We first put on an open carriage attached to

8541-432: The fuel, and so is not contaminated by its impurities. The heat of the combustion products passes over the surface of the puddle and the roof of the furnace reverberates (reflects) the heat onto the metal puddle on the fire bridge of the furnace. Unless the raw material used is white cast iron, the pig iron or other raw product of the puddling first had to be refined into refined iron , or finers metal. That would be done in

8658-401: The gases were liberated. The molten steel then froze to yield a spongy mass having a temperature of about 1370 °C. The spongy mass would then be finished by being shingled and rolled as described under puddling (above). Three to four tons could be converted per batch with the method. Steel began to replace iron for railroad rails as soon as the Bessemer process for its manufacture

8775-430: The iron. The included slag in wrought iron also imparts corrosion resistance. Antique music wire , manufactured at a time when mass-produced carbon-steels were available, was found to have low carbon and high phosphorus; iron with high phosphorus content, normally causing brittleness when worked cold, was easily drawn into music wires. Although at the time phosphorus was not an easily identified component of iron, it

8892-472: The journey lasting 9 hours 21 minutes, including 70 minutes of stoppage. The following day a public service was inaugurated. The trains ran over the Durham Junction Railway to Washington and then over the Pontop and South Shields line (former S&TR) to Boldon North Junction, reversing there and running over the Brandling Junction line via Brockley Whins. On 19 August 1844 a south-to-west curve

9009-437: The landowner. The wayleave was a contract for permission to cross the land in return for a payment, usually based on a rate per unit of weight. Even so, crossing undeveloped land by cart was slow and difficult, and waggonways were developed; at first they consisted of wooden rails, and individual wagons were hauled along the route by horse traction. In the course of time a considerable number of such waggonways were constructed in

9126-415: The line climbed on a further rope-worked incline at 1 in 57 to the summit level at Parkhead, 1,474 feet (449 m) above sea level. This was the highest railway summit in England. Horses worked the next section, about 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 miles (2.4 km) in length, descending gently for over 1 ⁄ 2 mile (0.8 km), and then for 1 mile (1.6 km) at the rate of 1 in 80 and 1 in 88. At

9243-432: The line was 4 feet 8 inches (1,420 mm). The original proprietors had forecast considerable profits but this did not prove to be the case. Dividends of 5% were declared in 1835 and 1836, but these were paid from capital, not income. The finances of the company were mismanaged and traffic did not reach expected volumes. The company burnt lime at Stanhope and Annfield, consuming nearly 10,000 tons of coal in

9360-580: The line. The line opened on 15 May 1834, but it was not financially successful. It had been formed by a partnership, and the heavily indebted partners floated a new company, the Pontop and South Shields Railway , to continue operation and take over the debt. Part of the line was bought by the Derwent Iron Company , which later became the Consett Iron Company . Much of the S&TR system was built through hilly, sparsely populated terrain across

9477-432: The line. The cleft at Hownes Gill is 800 feet (240 m) wide and 160 feet (49 m) deep, with steep rocky sides. When the line was planned, it was obvious that a viaduct was unaffordable and an alternative means of crossing was adopted. A track of with four rails, the outer pair at a gauge of 7 ft 1 ⁄ 8  in (2,137 mm) and the inner pair at 5 ft 1 + 3 ⁄ 4  in (1,568 mm),

9594-404: The loss of the Tanfield Moor traffic emphasised the difficulty. As it was a partnership the partners were each liable for the debt without limit. The authorised capital of the company was £150,000 and loans to the extent of £440,000 had been taken, in violation of the terms of the deeds of the company. It had closed the Stanhope to Carr House section to save money, although it was obliged to continue

9711-443: The loss was £166 6s. 10d. Up to the close of 1839 I think there was distinctly a loss to the Company and I recommended the directors to discontinue it. They thought it a great public convenience and determined not to discontinue it. The quarries at Stanhope are at an altitude of 796 feet (243 m) above sea level. The railway left the quarry sidings and turned north up the hillside, by rope worked inclines. From Stanhope to

9828-514: The mid 19th century, in Austria as the stuckofen to 1775, and near Garstang in England until about 1770; it was still in use with hot blast in New York in the 1880s. In Japan the last of the old tatara bloomeries used in production of traditional tamahagane steel, mainly used in swordmaking, was extinguished only in 1925, though in the late 20th century the production resumed on

9945-498: The moors of County Durham, and it incorporated several rope-worked inclines as well as using horse traction and steam locomotives on level sections. Dependent on the activity of mineral workings, and subject to competition from more modern routes, the line closed in stages in the 20th century, although a short section near South Shields is still extant; today much of the route is used as the Consett and Sunderland Railway Path , part of

10062-472: The national Sustrans foot and cycle path network. The Durham and Northumberland coalfield was rich in the mineral, and it was extracted in increasing volumes from the Middle Ages. Transport of the heavy mineral to market was expensive and difficult; water transport, on rivers and by coastal shipping was the most practicable, and the earliest pits were close to waterways, particularly the River Tyne and

10179-445: The numerous subsidiary companies in 1858 and on 3 September 1858 ownership of the Derwent Iron Company section was transferred to the Stockton and Darlington Railway. When the Brandling Junction Railway main line was constructed in 1839 it crossed the S&TR near Boldon by a flat crossing, with a west-to-north connection curve and a south-to-east curve. In the following years a number of local railways were opened which together formed

10296-410: The process; the resultant quicklime was distributed at seven depots, and it was a significant traffic in the early years, but it was not profitable and it was discontinued in 1839. Except for one locomotive with four uncoupled wheels, the S&T had 0-4-2 locomotives, of which eight were built by Robert Stephenson and Company . There were seven locomotives on the line by 1837. On 16 April 1835,

10413-666: The product is no longer wrought iron, since the slag stringers characteristic of wrought iron disappear on melting, so the product resembles impure, cast, Bessemer steel. There is no engineering advantage to melting and casting wrought iron, as compared to using cast iron or steel, both of which are cheaper. Due to the variations in iron ore origin and iron manufacture, wrought iron can be inferior or superior in corrosion resistance, compared to other iron alloys. There are many mechanisms behind its corrosion resistance. Chilton and Evans found that nickel enrichment bands reduce corrosion. They also found that in puddled, forged, and piled iron,

10530-433: The railway began to carry passengers, between South Shields and Durham Road, near the corner of Lambton Park. At first this was free of charge in coal wagons, but later in open carriages attached to the coal trains. The landowners now demanded higher charges for the wayleaves on the grounds that the earlier arrangement had been for the carriage of minerals only. The engineer of the line, T. E. Harrison, recorded: It as only

10647-403: The rental of the quarry and the wayleave fees for the line. On 29 December 1840 an extraordinary general meeting was held at which it was decided to promote a statutory company, with capital of £440,000, to take over the railway and its debts. On 5 February 1841 the Stanhope and Tyne Railroad Company was dissolved, and its assets and debts transferred to a new company. The new company was called

10764-531: The same manner as mild steel, but the presence of oxide or inclusions will give defective results. The material has a rough surface, so it can hold platings and coatings better than smooth steel. For instance, a galvanic zinc finish applied to wrought iron is approximately 25–40% thicker than the same finish on steel. In Table 1, the chemical composition of wrought iron is compared to that of pig iron and carbon steel . Although it appears that wrought iron and plain carbon steel have similar chemical compositions, that

10881-425: The scheme was now to be a considerable railway with an estimated capital of £150,000, in the interests of keeping confidential the rich mineral resources to be exploited, the company decided to continue the practice of arranging wayleaves rather than applying to Parliament for authority to build the line. In the event this resulted in massive charges being demanded by the landowners on the eastern section, averaging £300

10998-577: The self-acting inclines on the Stanhope and Tyne Railway in 1839 was £415 per mile; the inclines with stationary engines in the same period was about £485 per mile. Tomlinson, writing about the North Eastern Railway in 1903, said: Sixty great ropes, of a total length of 68 miles [109 km], were daily travelling over these stationary engine and self-acting inclines at a speed of from 7 to 11 miles per hour [11 to 18 km/h] with loads of 24, 32, 48 and even 96 tons attached to them. Some of

11115-656: The summit, at Loud Bank, then reaching Annfield. Here the Harelaw Waggonway, adopted by the S&TR as a branch, trailed in. The gradients then fell further towards the east, descending by self-acting inclines consisting, from west to east, of the Stanley bank (maximum gradient 1 in 21), Twizell bank (1 in 17 + 1 ⁄ 2 ), Eden bank (1 in 17), and the Long Waldridge bank (1 in 20 + 1 ⁄ 2 to 1 in 24 + 1 ⁄ 2 ). The line then crossed

11232-465: The top of the puddle and was fished out of the melt as puddle balls, using puddle bars. There was still some slag left in the puddle balls, so while they were still hot they would be shingled to remove the remaining slag and cinder. That was achieved by forging the balls under a hammer, or by squeezing the bloom in a machine. The material obtained at the end of shingling is known as bloom. The blooms are not useful in that form, so they were rolled into

11349-417: The wagons to Waskerley. Next the line descended down to the valley by means of a self-acting plane called Nanny Mayor's bank (or Nanny Mayer's bank); it was 3 ⁄ 4 mile (1.2 km) long, with a gradient of 1 in 41. From the bottom of this incline, horses drew the wagons along the near-level past White Hall and Rowley (or Cold Rowley), then reaching the ravine at Hownes Gill where a break occurred in

11466-560: The working-over of the metal spread out copper, nickel, and tin impurities that produce electrochemical conditions that slow down corrosion. The slag inclusions have been shown to disperse corrosion to an even film, enabling the iron to resist pitting. Another study has shown that slag inclusions are pathways to corrosion. Other studies show that sulfur in the wrought iron decreases corrosion resistance, while phosphorus increases corrosion resistance. Chloride ions also decrease wrought iron's corrosion resistance. Wrought iron may be welded in

11583-532: The works in 1853 and from there on it declined rapidly and was closed in 1867. The same year, Daniel Gooch , Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's locomotive engineer on the Great Western Railway , who was brought up in Bedlington and spent his childhood playing around the works, found some rails on the GWR that had come from Bedlington still in very good order after 37 years of use. Wrought iron Before

11700-411: Was 7 months... By means of these stationary engines it was possible to work over the principal inclines from 2,000 to 4,000 tons a day... The power of the "Vigo" engine was the measure of the carrying capacity of the Stanhope and Tyne Railway. In 1837, with waggons at both sides, it was capable of making 4 "runs" an hour with 24 waggons, equal to 1,158 waggons in a day of 12 hours. In January of each year

11817-479: Was adopted (1865 on). Iron remained dominant for structural applications until the 1880s, because of problems with brittle steel, caused by introduced nitrogen, high carbon, excess phosphorus, or excessive temperature during or too-rapid rolling. By 1890 steel had largely replaced iron for structural applications. Sheet iron (Armco 99.97% pure iron) had good properties for use in appliances, being well-suited for enamelling and welding, and being rust-resistant. In

11934-463: Was an early British mineral railway that ran from Stanhope to South Shields at the mouth of the River Tyne in County Durham , England. It ran through the towns of Birtley , Chester Le Street , West Stanley and Consett . The object was to convey limestone from Stanhope and coal from West Consett and elsewhere to the Tyne, and to local consumers. Passengers were later carried on parts of

12051-491: Was an idyllic location next to the River Blyth which had all the right ingredients for an ironworks at the time: there were nodules of ironstone in the coal-laden banks of the river, there was plenty of wood for the traditional approach of charcoal making, water for driving the hammers, and the port of Blyth was only two miles downriver for shipping of the products. At the time, a Shropshire man, Abraham Darby had started

12168-504: Was begun in May 1833. From Kyo (near Annfield Plain) eastward to the Durham turnpike road near Pelaw Grange, it had been intended to take over the Beamish Colliery Railway and use it for the line. The Beamish had recently been converted from wooden rails to iron rails; it was to be reached along the old Shield Row waggonway. However the negotiations with Morton John Davison for the purchase of his railway fell through, and

12285-490: Was considered sufficient for nails . Phosphorus is not necessarily detrimental to iron. Ancient Near Eastern smiths did not add lime to their furnaces. The absence of calcium oxide in the slag, and the deliberate use of wood with high phosphorus content during the smelting, induces a higher phosphorus content (typically <0.3%) than in modern iron (<0.02–0.03%). Analysis of the Iron Pillar of Delhi gives 0.11% in

12402-487: Was designed by John Harris and known as the Weardale Extension Railway , and it opened on 16 May 1845. A passenger service was operated from Crook to Stanhope from 1 September 1845, but at the end of October 1845 it was cut back to run from Crook to Waskerley only. From 1 April 1846 it started running from Crook to Cold Rowley (later simply "Rowley"), reversing at Waskerley Junction. Continuation to

12519-698: Was formalised as the Stanhope Railroad Company under the deed of 30 January 1832 and the company reviewed the means of reaching the Tyne. The waggonway had the disadvantage of reaching the Tyne at the mouth of the River Derwent . As this was upstream of Newcastle bridge, the size of vessels reaching the berth was seriously limited, and it was decided to make an independent railway to a downstream location, at South Shields. This would require considerably more capital than had been envisaged so far, and on 20 April 1832 an unincorporated company,

12636-515: Was hypothesized that the type of iron had been rejected for conversion to steel but excelled when tested for drawing ability. During the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), new iron smelting processes led to the manufacture of new wrought iron implements for use in agriculture, such as the multi-tube seed drill and iron plough . In addition to accidental lumps of low-carbon wrought iron produced by excessive injected air in ancient Chinese cupola furnaces . The ancient Chinese created wrought iron by using

12753-492: Was laid down each face of the ravine, with gradients of 1 in 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 on the west side and 1 in 3 on the east. A special cradle was built for each side, with the lower wheels larger than the upper wheels, so as to keep the platform level. The wagons were run onto one of these cradles and were lowered to the bottom, where they were transferred to the other cradle for the ascent of the other side. The wagons travelled sideways-on. Both cradles worked simultaneously, driven by

12870-477: Was loaded on a ship named "Sally". There were three drops or staiths at the South Shields quays, of a design considered to be advanced for the period; they were capable of dealing with 25 to 35 chaldrons per hour, and the berths could take vessels at low water of spring tides. The chaldrons were lowered to the ship on a swinging derrick; as they descended the tension on the restraining cable increased;

12987-477: Was moved to the Blists Hill site of Ironbridge Gorge Museum for preservation. Some wrought iron is still being produced for heritage restoration purposes, but only by recycling scrap. The slag inclusions, or stringers , in wrought iron give it properties not found in other forms of ferrous metal. There are approximately 250,000 inclusions per square inch. A fresh fracture shows a clear bluish color with

13104-445: Was not the intention. However, the design of a bloomery made it difficult to reach the melting point of iron and also prevented the concentration of carbon monoxide from becoming high. After smelting was complete, the bloom was removed, and the process could then be started again. It was thus a batch process, rather than a continuous one such as a blast furnace. The bloom had to be forged mechanically to consolidate it and shape it into

13221-541: Was of little advantage in Sweden, which lacked coal. Gustaf Ekman observed charcoal fineries at Ulverston , which were quite different from any in Sweden. After his return to Sweden in the 1830s, he experimented and developed a process similar to puddling but used firewood and charcoal, which was widely adopted in the Bergslagen in the following decades. In 1925, James Aston of the United States developed

13338-500: Was opened on 9 March 1840, when the new service of trains was started, and passengers were carried for the first time over the Durham Junction Railway. On 16 June 1834 the Durham Junction Railway obtained its authorising act of Parliament, the Durham Junction Railway Act 1834 ( 4 & 5 Will. 4 . c. lvii), to build a 7-mile (11 km) railway from collieries at Houghton-le-Spring to Washington where it joined

13455-641: Was opened, avoiding the reversal. It had been constructed at the joint expense of the Pontop and South Shields and Brandling Junction companies. Although a short line it involved a crossing of a deep valley of the River Don, and a considerable wooden viaduct had had to be built. The structure was 217 feet (66 m) long and was 42 feet (13 m) above water level. It consisted of single timber trestles of various heights, about 20 feet (6 m) apart, on which were laid longitudinal beams and cross girders. Use of this route by main line trains continued until 1850, when

13572-534: Was properly established. By 1757, when it was sold again, there was a slitting mill which employed 40 nailers, a quay on the Bedlington side of the river and a "commodious dwelling house, fit for a gentleman's family consisting of ten fine rooms, four of which are hung with genteel papers, with good cellars, a stable, large garden and other conveniences". In 1782 (or 1792) the works, which by then were producing 500 long tons (510 t) of rod iron and iron hoops per year and exporting as far away as London. They introduced

13689-473: Was the chemical composition and others that it was whether the iron heated sufficiently to melt and "fuse". Fusion eventually became generally accepted as relatively more important than composition below a given low carbon concentration. Another difference is that steel can be hardened by heat treating . Historically, wrought iron was known as "commercially pure iron"; however, it no longer qualifies because current standards for commercially pure iron require

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