Extra Special Best Best: Black Country iron puddling and wrought iron manufacture in the nineteenth century
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Published
Nov 13, 2021
Abstract
This paper examines a unique document, the pocket book of a worker at Noah Hingley and Sons’ ironworks at Netherton, near Dudley. This book (in a private collection) records the ingredients for the different types of puddled iron produced by the firm during the years 1891–1893. Hingleys were famous for their chains and anchors, and prided themselves on the superior tensile strength and anticorrosion properties of their wrought-iron chains and cables. The notebook makes it clear that differentiation between ‘best’, ‘best best’ and other grades took place at the puddling stage rather than during subsequent forging; many of the mixtures described can be associated with different grades advertised by Hingleys at the time.
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Keywords
References
BCLM: material in the library of the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley.
IGMT: material in the library of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Coalbrookdale.
Gale W K V 1951a, Wrot Iron (an album of photographs taken at N Hingley and Sons, Netherton Ironworks, Dudley on 3rd March
1951), BCLM Keith Gale Library, 1994/013/1247.
Gale W K V 1951b, ‘The making of wrought iron by the puddling process’ (unpublished typescript within Gale 1951a), BCLM Keith Gale Library, 1994/013/1247.
Godden R 1987, A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep (London).
Hingley and Son c1910, Netherton Iron: Its History, Manufacture and Properties, (Netherton); booklet, BCLM Keith Gale Library, uncatalogued.
Hingley and Son c 1912, Chain Cables and Anchors (Netherton); catalogue, BCLM 1987/89, 4.344.
Hingley and Son 1916, Sizes and Sections (Netherton); catalogue, BCLM Keith Gale Library 1994/013/0457, 4.412.
Mallin K 1997, Noah Hingley : The World’s Premier Manufacturer of Ship’s Anchors and Cables in the Period 1890–1918, unpublished PhD Thesis (University of Warwick).
Mott R A 1983, Henry Cort: the great finer (London).
Percy J 1861, Metallurgy: Fuel, Fire-clays, Copper, Zinc, Brass etc. (London).
Percy J 1864, Metallurgy: Iron and Steel (London).
Rhead E L 1895, Metallurgy (London) 1935 edition.
Ryland 1887, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Ryland 1890, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Ryland 1893, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Ryland 1896, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Schubert H R 1957, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (London).
Scott W B 1896, Report of HM Inspector of Mines for the South Stafford District (London).
IGMT: material in the library of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, Coalbrookdale.
Gale W K V 1951a, Wrot Iron (an album of photographs taken at N Hingley and Sons, Netherton Ironworks, Dudley on 3rd March
1951), BCLM Keith Gale Library, 1994/013/1247.
Gale W K V 1951b, ‘The making of wrought iron by the puddling process’ (unpublished typescript within Gale 1951a), BCLM Keith Gale Library, 1994/013/1247.
Godden R 1987, A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep (London).
Hingley and Son c1910, Netherton Iron: Its History, Manufacture and Properties, (Netherton); booklet, BCLM Keith Gale Library, uncatalogued.
Hingley and Son c 1912, Chain Cables and Anchors (Netherton); catalogue, BCLM 1987/89, 4.344.
Hingley and Son 1916, Sizes and Sections (Netherton); catalogue, BCLM Keith Gale Library 1994/013/0457, 4.412.
Mallin K 1997, Noah Hingley : The World’s Premier Manufacturer of Ship’s Anchors and Cables in the Period 1890–1918, unpublished PhD Thesis (University of Warwick).
Mott R A 1983, Henry Cort: the great finer (London).
Percy J 1861, Metallurgy: Fuel, Fire-clays, Copper, Zinc, Brass etc. (London).
Percy J 1864, Metallurgy: Iron and Steel (London).
Rhead E L 1895, Metallurgy (London) 1935 edition.
Ryland 1887, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Ryland 1890, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Ryland 1893, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Ryland 1896, Iron, Steel, Tin Plates, Engineering and Allied Trades’ Directory (Birmingham) IGMT collection.
Schubert H R 1957, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry (London).
Scott W B 1896, Report of HM Inspector of Mines for the South Stafford District (London).
How to Cite
Extra Special Best Best: Black Country iron puddling and wrought iron manufacture in the nineteenth century. (2021). Historical Metallurgy, 38(1), 47-59. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/253
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How to Cite
Extra Special Best Best: Black Country iron puddling and wrought iron manufacture in the nineteenth century. (2021). Historical Metallurgy, 38(1), 47-59. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/253