Abraham Darby
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: The 17th and 18th Centuries
- Categories: Technology, Inventions
- Subcategories: Inventors, Industry, Manufacturing, Factories, Industrial Revolution, Industrialization
- Curriculum: British History
Article abstract: Darby solved the problem of substituting coal for wood in the making of iron. His use of coke, after further improvements made by his son, Abraham Darby II, and others, changed English ironmaking from a declining industry into the second leading sector, along with cotton production, of the first Industrial Revolution.
Early Life
Abraham Darby was born around 1678 in the Midlands of England near Dudley, a village southwest of Birmingham. This area, dotted with small furnaces and forges, would in later years contain such a concentration...
[The entire page is 2291 words long]