The Ancient Crafts of Rural Cheshire

 

The ancient crafts of Cheshire were no different from those emerging from human activity systems everywhere. Surpluses from the farms meant folk had available time to acquire all manner of skills & 'know how' in the production of goods & services which they could exchange in the markets for their daily bread. Different folk specialised in different 'trades' and 'traded'.

 

Everybody knows about the old activities & crafts of the potters, millers, brewers, bakers, blacksmiths, spinners, weavers, fullers, shepherds, ploughmen, dairy maids, butchers, tailors, barbers, drapers, mercers, ironmongers & carpenters ... but much less is known about ...

the Cordwainers, the Tanners, the Coopers ... & the Cheshire Cheese Makers?

George Hindley of Antrobus called himself a 'Cordwainer'. This was an Anglicization of the French word cordonnier, introduced into our language after the Norman invasion of England in 1066. The word itself was derived from the city of Cordoba, in the south of Spain, a stronghold of the mighty Omayyad Caliphs. After the decline of Rome and the descent of the West into the Dark Ages the ancient Greek sciences were preserved and enhanced in the Muslim world, to be rediscovered in Spain following the fall of Toledo in 1085.

The Moors in Cordoba specialised in two trades, the silversmiths and the production of cordovan leather, called 'cordwain' in England. Originally made from the skin of the Mouflon sheep, found in Corsica and Sardinia, this leather was tawed with alum, tanned with sumac and finished with oils to produce leather of unequalled quality.  The method was supposedly known only to the Moors. English Crusaders brought home much plunder and loot, including the finest leather the English shoemakers had ever seen. Gradually cordovan leather became the material most in demand for the finest footwear in all of Europe. Leather was to Cordova in the same way as glass was to Venice ... specialisation brought excellence ...

The English term Cordwainer, meaning shoemaker, first appeared around 1100. By the late 13th century a distinction grew in England between Cordwainers, who used only alum 'tawed' cordwain, and the other shoemakers who worked with the inferior 'tanned' hides. However since this period the term cordwain has also been applied to the 'vegetable tanned' leather, but popular usage applied the term to only the highest quality leathers and shoes. It was not surprising that the title of Cordwainer was selected by the shoemakers themselves. The first English guild of shoemakers to call themselves Cordwainers was founded at Oxford in 1131. It was also the choice of the London shoemakers, who organized a guild before 1160, and also the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers likewise used this title in 1272. It seems that whenever shoemakers have organized, they have shown a clear preference for the title Cordwainer, conscious of the distinguished history and tradition it conveyed. Cordwainer George of Antrobus was no exception!

Another distinction George Hindley inherited and preserved from the earliest times was that a Cordwainer worked only with new leather, whereas a Cobbler worked with old. Cobblers have always been repairers, frequently prohibited by law from actually making shoes. Some even going as far as collecting worn out footwear, cutting it apart, and remanufacturing cheap shoes entirely form salvaged leather. Cordwainers have proudly distinguished themselves from Cobblers since at least the Middle Ages. In 16th century London the Cordwainers solved their conflicts with the Cobblers by merging them into the powerful authority of the Cordwainers Guild.

Was 18th century Antrobus special for shoes? Maybe not, nearby Nantwich was a larger centre and famous for the 'Nantwich Boot', and Northampton had an established reputation. But the grass plains of Cheshire were a ready source of hides, the manufacture of leather was readily to hand and clustering in Warrington, the surrounding forests provided the oak bark and charcoal necessary for tanning and there was an abundance of water for washing the hides from the Mersey. It seems probable that the availability of local leather led to leather processing in the Warrington suburbs. Cheap labour was around for the unskilled work and it is known that Peter regularly employed vagrants at his Barnton premises later in 1891. 'Shoe Factors' were busily eager to buy and to sell in the burgeoning urban sprawl of industrial Manchester where the shoe market was at Shudehill. In 1759 shoes were selling there for five shillings. Shoemaking was still a cottage industry but there was money to be made from feet.

Around 1800 George would have abandoned 'straights' for many of his customers and offered them right and left foot pairs for snug comfort. But still hand sewn leather of the highest quality, with laces and eyelets not buckles and maybe a little glue or rubber or velvet, possibly some spats and pumps but no plastic, assorted fabrics, flip-flops or stilettos! He would work alone or the with the help of one or two 'stitch men', journeymen or apprentices, for sure Margaret his wife helped out and George junior was involved in rigorous training from an early age. He fashioned his shoes in the tradition of centuries in his home workshop, creating a shoe from the sole upwards, stabbing and stitching with his own hands. The world in which he plied his craft knew no machines. I can see him in my mind's eye, last between his knees, hands busy and a supply of tacks and springs held ready in his mouth, and all about him rich supple leather, strong waxed threads, awls, files and hammers. He would produced six or seven pairs a week, some made to order, some hawked around and some sold on to his contacts in nearby Warrington.

the Tanners ...

George Hindley was a connoisseur of good quality leather and knew all about the extensive and varied treatments the hides required before they could be fashioned into quality footwear.

Cheshire, of course, was famed for its oak forests. These extensive forests provided not only the playground for kings but also building timber second to none and furthermore they were a fine source of fuel for the salt pans ... and then there was the bark ... oak bark was rich in tannins which were essential in the early days for tanning hides ... Cheshire became an important centre for the ancient craft with a particularly thriving cluster of tanneries around Warrington ...

The problem was that without treatment animal hides are susceptible to bacterial action when wet and putrefy. If they are dried hides become stiff and unusable and useless for clothing, tents or fashioning into shoes and many other useful artefacts, wineskins for sure! Tanning is the ancient process which converts skin collagen protein into stable material which is flexible, resists bacterial attack and enhances resistance to water and heat. Undoubtedly one of the oldest crafts know to man as inedible skins from hunting and then from breeding have always been available for exploitation.

George would have also been aware that animal skins are vulnerable to heat and the fibrous structure first becomes 'rubber' like and as the temperature rises becomes amorphous as gelatine. And further heating results in degradation and residues can be used as glue. No doubt intimate family knowledge of such processes help Edward make his fortune at Acton Bridge. There was money to be made from animal waste.

Before tanning it is necessary to remove all unwanted flesh proteins, fatty glycerides and keratin hair proteins to produce a 'rawhide or 'pelt' composed largely of collagen.  -

Flaying - stripping hides from the carcass with knives

Trimming - cutting out the hooves, horns and inedible sinews and offal

Curing - salting for preservation, done quickly to prevent putrefaction of protein from bacterial infection

Soaking - cleaning of slat and dirt

Liming - alkaline pH helps the removal of keratin hair proteins and collagen fibre cross linkages

Scudding - removal of loosened flesh & fat remnants and hair with a blunt knife 

Tawing - alum (potassium aluminium sulphate) soaking in vats for days with a variety of binders and protein sources, such as flour and egg yolk followed by scudding. The process produced a white hide which is not technically tanned because the product will rot in water.

N B - the purpose of producing leather is to permanently alter the protein structure of the pelt so that it can never return to rawhide and degrade, the hide becomes durable, supple, soft and washable

Pickling - weak acid and salt solutions are used to bring the pelt to the weakly acid state required for most tanning processes. Stronger pickling solutions are used to preserve pelts so that they can be stored or transported in a stable form over periods of several months.

Bating - to make leather pliable, the rawhide requires an enzyme treatment called bating, which takes place before tanning. This treatment dissolves and washes out certain protein components. The degree of bating depends on the desired properties of the finished leather. Glove leather, for example, should be very soft and pliable and is subjected to strong bating, whereas leather for the soles of shoes is only lightly bated. An early method of treatment involved  enzyme action using urine and dog dung! Flat, relaxed, clean and ready for pickling and tanning. Tanning was always a smelly business.

Brain Tanning - an unlikely alternative was to use the animals own brain by beating in the natural emulsified oils -'Every animal has just enough brains to tan its own hide dead or alive'!

Vegetable Tanning - tanning converts the protein of the raw hide into a stable material, which will not putrefy and is suitable for a wide variety of purposes. Tanning materials form cross links in the collagen structure and stabilise it against the effects of acids, alkalis, heat, water and the action of micro-organisms. Immersion in increasingly strong tannins stabilise the protein connective tissue collagen and thus protect the leather from degradation. Various plant extracts produce brown coloured leathers which tend to be thick and firm. This type of tanning is used to produce stout sole leather, belting leather and leathers for shoe linings, bags and cases. The bark of Cheshire oak was particularly rich in tannins.

Mineral Tanning - chrome tanning became attractive at towards the end of the 19th century. It is effective on skins which will be used for softer, stretchier leathers, such as those found in purses, bags, briefcases, shoes, gloves, boots, jackets, pants, and sandals. Hides which are tanned with minerals are pickled first in an acid and salt mixture. From there, hides are soaked into a chromium-sulfate solution. This process is much faster than vegetable tanning, and is usually a 1-day project using rotary drums whereas the successive vat processing could take up to six months. Most shoe leather eventually resulted from tanning using salts of chromium

Aldehyde Tanning - tanning with aldehydes, originally from smoke, and oils produce very soft leathers and this system can be used to produce drycleanable and washable fashion leathers and also chamois leather

Splitting - A splitting machine slices thicker leather into two layers. The layer without a grain surface can be turned into suede or have an artificial grain surface applied.

Shaving - A uniform thickness is achieved by shaving the leather on the non-grain side using a machine with a helical blades mounted on a rotating cylinder.

Neutralisation - Neutralising removes residual chemicals and prepares the leather for further processing and finishing.

Fatliquoring - Fatliquoring introduces oils to lubricate the fibres and keep the leather flexible and soft. Without these oils the leather will become hard and inflexible as it dries out.

Samming - This process reduces water content to about 55% and can be achieved by a number of machines, the commonest being like a large mangle with felt covered rollers.

Setting out - The leather is stretched out and the grain side is smoothed. This process also reduces the water content to about 40%.

Final drying - Leather is normally dried to 10-20% water content. This can be achieved in a number of ways and each method has a different effect on the finished leather

Staking and dry drumming - A staking machine makes the leather softer and more flexible by massaging it to separate the fibres. To finish off the leather may be softened by the tumbling action inside a rotating drum.

Buffing and Brushing - The flesh surface is removed by mechanical abrasion to produce a suede effect or to reduce the thickness. In some cases the grain surface is buffed to produce a very fine nap, e.g. nubuck leathers. After buffing the leather is brushed to remove excess dust.

Finishing - The aims of finishing are to level the colour, cover grain defects, control the gloss and provide a protective surface with good resistance to water, chemical attack and abrasion.

Final grading - Leather will be graded before despatch to the customer. This grading may consider the colour intensity and uniformity, the feel of the leather, softness, visual appearance, thickness, design effects and natural defects such as scratches.

Drenching / Rinsing / Theshing  - to remove residues

Staking - mechanical flexing and stretching to soften

Finishing / Smoothing / Feeding - The final step in the tanning process involves finishing the skin. This is done by covering the grain surface with a chemical compound and then brushing it. Light leathers are buffed and sandpapered to cover imperfections. Leathers which are buffed for long periods of time become suede. Waxes, pigments, dyes, glazes, oils, waxes and other solutions are also added to make the leather more appealing to the buyer. High polish produces patent leather. Various dyes for colour, and oils for polish, flexibility and water resistance.

Tanning in Cheshire evolved close to the oak forests and the rivers. Copious amounts of water were needed for the vats and for effluent disposal. Rural riparian locations would be particularly attractive as local residents were a perpetual thorn. Perhaps the site by the Weaver originally hosted a tannery? For certain Warrington on the Mersey had become a centre for tanners when George practised his shoemaking skills in Antrobus. Northampton and London were the rivals. The clustering of trades has always been associated with the location of raw materials, in this case hides, oak tannins and water together with the availability of skilled manpower. The tanning skills in Warrington were undoubtedly passed down from father to son just as the cordwainer skills were passed down the Hindley lineage. These were family businesses.

But things were changing. As Cheshire oak forests were cleared for farming and urban centres exploded there were shortages of tannins and hides which led to increasing importation. The tanneries along the Mersey were ideally placed to receive deliveries from the Port of Liverpool.

But in didn't stop there. From the 1860s tanning with chrom salts cut processing times and with it working capital and rotating drums replaced vats for more efficient mass transfer. Furthermore local authorities were pressurising businesses to improve environmental pollution both river effluents and obnoxious smells by relocate away from city centre populations and investments in effluent treatment plants. The industry was exploiting new technologies which required capital investment and economies of scale. Small family businesses with little capital were under assault. Many Warrington tanneries moved to rural Howley and amalgamations helped to finance the new capital investment. By the 20th century tanning was becoming a factory operation.

the Coopers ...

Edward Hindley encouraged his elder sons to train as coopers, after all everybody would always want containers for their liquids and powder ... everybody uses a bucket!

A cooper makes and repairs wooden buckets and barrels, a skill that takes many years to learn. An apprenticeship would last four to five years, although you would have a hard job becoming a coopers apprentice these days. Apprentices usually started at the age of fourteen and then worked as a cooper for the rest of there lives.
A cooper would work in a cooperage, using many different traditional tools including - dowelling stock, side-axe, bick iron, round shave, topping plane, chive, croze, bung-hole borer, hammer, driver, flagging iron, adze, diagonals, heading knife, jigger, hollowing knife, buzz, swift, downright and a inside shave ...  

The traditional cask capacities were -

Pin - 4.5 gallons
Firkin - 9 gallons
Kilderkin - 18 gallons
Barrel - 36 gallons
Hogshead - 54 gallons
Puncheon - 72 gallons
Butt - 108 gallons        

Many of the tools were short handled to enable accurate one handed use, the other hand is free to support the cask. When the cooper was making a larger cask, like the 108 gallon Butt, it would be difficult to hold the staves together by hand so in these circumstances the cooper would use a windlass. The windlass would have hemp ropes and would be operated by hand.
Both the top and the bottom of a cask is called a head. The heads are made from boards that have been dowelled together, cut out with a bow saw and then shaved smooth.
The staves are created by cleaving from a tree trunk. A cooper cleaves rather than saws the trunk in order too utilize the ribs of strength that run out from the heart of the tree to the bark. In order to make the staves liquid-proof the cooper has to keep the medullary rays unbroken.
Why use wood? Oak casks breath, allowing an exchange between the air outside and the contents. This results in some of the contents being lost but this also allows the contents to mature. In Scotland whisky has to mature for at least three years.

Coopering terms -

Stave - the boards making up the sides of the cask
Bung hole - the hole used to both fill and empty the cask
Bilge - the bulge in the middle of the cask
Chime hoop - hoops at the heads of the cask
Quarter hoop - the hoops between the Chime and Bulge hoops
Bulge hoop - the central hoops after the Quarter hoops
Rivet - used to attack the hoops to the cask
Heads - both the top and the bottom of the cask
Middle - the middle section of the Head
Cant - the section either side of the Middle
Quarter - the sections after the Cant
Chime -the extensions of the staves beyond the head
Croze - the cut where the heads are fitted
Stave joint - the joint between the staves

As well a casks coopers would also make, Piggins, Buckets, Domestic Kegs, Butter Churns, Ale Vessels and Coal Scuttles.

When Peter died in 1961 his tools and wooden staves & cants, still carefully preserved in his home workshop, were museum pieces. They were eagerly seized on and carefully preserved by the local woodwork teacher, Julian Duffield, as examples for his pupils of an ancient craft replaced some time ago by the ubiquitous 40 gallon steel drum, mass produced in remote factories.

the Cheshire Cheese makers ...

Cheese making capitalised on the skills of husbandry accumulated over the generations, and around 1650 the Cheshire farmers like William Gandy slowly started 'factory' production of Cheshire cheese ...

Cheshire Cheese shipments from the farm 'factories' -

1623 the first recorded instance of Cheshire cheese being shipped to London by road 
1650 shipping from Chester & Parkgate
1670 on 10 October 1670 William Gandy shipped 30 tons of his prime Cheshire Cheese in the 'Ann of Brighton' from the new warehouse at Frodsham Bridge to eager customers in London
1689 - 1713 - sea shipping interrupted by war with Louis XIV, shipping on the Trent
1713 from Bank Quay
1718 2,600 tons shipped to London
1729 5,766 tons
1739 to The Royal Navy, perhaps 30,000 tons
1750 more & more diverted to industrial South Lancashire
1777 Trent & Mersey canal to the Potteries, Birmingham & London
1800 the whole of Cheshire was organised for cheese production, largely by tenant farmers renting large acreages and exploiting new technology ...
1823 10,000 tpa
1960 40,000 tpa peak

Cheshire cheese originated in the county but has gone on to be produced in four neighbouring counties, Denbighshire and Flintshire in Wales, and Shropshire and Staffordshire in England.
Cheshire cheese is thought to be one of the oldest if not the oldest cheese in Great Britain. Cheshire is still today one of the most important dairy Regions in England. During the early 18th century the cheese was so popular that the ships of the Royal Navy were stocked with Cheshire. In 1823, 10,000 tones of Cheshire cheese was made. In the late 19th century there were several varieties of Cheshire, the cheese had to be hardened in order to transport it from Cheshire to London for sale. Later, other varieties of the cheese that were younger and more crumbly were produced and sold more locally.
Authentic Cheshire cheese made today in the region is of the harder, more dense variety but is also moist and crumbly in texture and has a mild flavour. Cheshire comes in three varieties: red, white, and blue.
The red Cheshire is produced in the North Wales and is coloured with annatto, a plant extract, until it is deep orange. The annatto does not affect the flavour of the cheese.
The original version of Cheshire is the plain white (or pale yellow) version and is the most widely produced.
Blue Cheshire has blue veins as does Stilton cheese but is not as creamy as Stilton is known to be.
Some claim that Cheshire cheese is a variety of Cheddar, but Cheddar cheese is not aged as long as Cheshire and has a totally different texture.
An interesting side note of the history of Cheshire cheese is that one of the early labels on the cheese sported a grinning cat. Lewis Carol grew up in Cheshire county and it is thought that this was the inspiration for his Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland.

The Cheshire soil produced good, rich grass and this fed a lot of cows which gave the creamy milk which went to produce the world famous  Cheshire Cheese. The rainfall was very even through out the year, with an average of 740mm so farmers could rely on getting a good crop of grass.

The cows and their the milk were carefully selected and nurtured for quality and quantity. The work started with last night's milk standing until morning before being mixed with the early day production. The milk from the herd was pasteurised, or heated and held at temperature for a short period to destroy any harmful bacteria. The milk was then acidified as bacteria from starter cultures were added to the warm milk and a small amount of the milk sugar was turned into lactic acid. The acidified the milk was the ready for the next stage where rennet enzymes (chymosin) were added and churning started which caused coagulation and separation of curds & whey. Rennet occurred naturally in a cow's stomach to help with the digestion of milk and was no doubt discovered way back as the result of some strange accidental coincidence which was noticed by some curious folk ... 

Heat was then applied to start a shrinking process which, with the steady production of lactic acid from the starter cultures, changed the curd into small rice-sized grains. At a carefully chosen point the curd grains were allowed to fall to the bottom of the cheese vat, the left-over liquid, the whey, consisting of water, milk sugar and albumen, was drained off and the curd grains allowed to mat together to form large slabs. The slabs were then cut, milled, and salt is added to provide flavour and help preservation. Finally the cheese was pressed, and subsequently packed in traditional sizes for maturing over many months.

Cheese was nutritious with a high content of fat, protein, calcium, and phosphorus ... the dairies were equipped with pails, tubs, barrels, hair sieves, screw presses, churns and vats ...

The definitive description of traditional Cheshire Cheese making was written in 1896 by James Long and John Benson ...

Charles de Gaulle once asked 'how can you govern a country in which there are 246 kinds of cheese?' ... he missed the point ... diversity is strength ...

The varieties were endless ... the country/region of origin influenced the breed of cow, the fodder and the type of milk, the pressing influenced the texture, the salting, aging time and the natural bugs and moulds determined the flavour which was sometimes adjusted with added spices & smoke ... there was intriguing scope for creativity ... and William Gandy produced excellent cheese ... ask the folk in London ...

 

 

 

The Blacksmith.

Adam Hindley b 1610 of Bedford/Astley was a blacksmith, skills his dad had acquired in the 16th century. Adam established a long line of craftsmen who plied their trade at Hindley's Smithy on the Bedford/Astley border close to Leigh.

If Jefferson Davis Chalfant (1856-1931) had been alive in 1610 he would have depicted Adam, the first Hindley smith we know of, in the Hindley Smithy in the midst of glorious, nostalgic, honest hard work ... The Blacksmith - 1907!

The blacksmith's art had always been highly prized ... the blacksmith produced weapons & tools ... in 1610 blacksmiths were in their heyday ... lead, copper, bronze were easy ... but iron was different -

 iron dissolved carbon readily and mixtures of carbon and iron could form a number of different structures with very different properties; understanding these was essential to making quality metal.  

Wrought iron = contained slag and was malleable. Cast iron = >2.1% carbon and was brittle impossible to re-shape or welded. Steel = iron, with carbon content between 0.02 and 1.7 percent by weight and was strong and could take an edge.

 iron did not immediately go from a solid to a liquid at its melting point. Iron was solid at 427 °C, but over the next 820 °C it became increasingly plastic as its temperature increased. This extreme temperature range of variable solidity was the fundamental material property upon which blacksmithing practice depended.

 the melting point of iron was much higher than that of bronze. In western Europe the technology to make fires hot enough to melt iron was not available until the 16th century, when smelting operations employed large bellows from water power. Such forced draft produced blast furnace temperatures high enough to melt the ores, resulting in cast iron. Cast iron was produced in a foundry, not a blacksmith shop.

 the original fuel for forge fires was charcoal. Coal did not begin to replace charcoal until the forests of Britain were depleted during the 17th century.

hardening and tempering processes were invented to improve the qualities of iron.

iron was abundant, but good quality steel was rare and expensive until the industrial developments of Bessemer process in the 1850s. But the old blacksmiths made tools from small pieces of steel which were forge welded into iron to provide the hardened steel cutting edges of tools - notably in swords, axes, chisel & ploughshares. The re-use of expensive steel was the reason few steel artefacts were found.
Prior to the industrial revolution, a 'village smithy' was a staple of every town.

Bloomery Furnaces.

From the onset of the 'Iron Age' wrought iron was produced in 'bloomery' furnaces with charcoal and iron ore. The ancient trade involved -

'forge' = a hearth for heating the ore or metal 

'forging' = shaping the hot metal, with hammer and anvil

'black metal' = black fire scale forms on the hot metal surface as it oxidises as worked in contrast to the whitesmiths who worked cold white metals, pewter, brass, tin ...

'smiting' = (smith) with hammers.

The tools of the trade were the forge, anvil, hammer, tongs, vice & file.

The bloomery process produced wrought iron directly from ore, by smelting with charcoal and draft air to raise the temperature sufficiently to separate most of the slag from the 'bloom'.

The bloomery consisted of a pit and chimney made of earth, clay, or stone. Near the bottom, clay pipes, tuyères, entered through the side walls to allow air to enter the furnace, either by natural draft, or forced with bellows. Limestone was often used as a 'flux' in a bloomery to aid in the removal of impurities. In operation, the iron ore, limestone and charcoal were introduced through the top, in a roughly one to one ratio. Inside the furnace, carbon monoxide from the incomplete combustion of the charcoal reduced the iron oxides in the ore to metallic iron, without melting the ore; this allowed the furnace to operate at lower temperatures than the melting temperature of the ore.

The bloomery furnace didn’t actually melt the iron, the 'bloom' was a spongy lump of iron & slag produced as bits fell to the bottom of the furnace and became welded together to form the mass of the bloom. The bottom of the furnace also filled with molten slag, often consisting of fayalite, a compound of silicon, oxygen and iron mixed with other impurities from the ore. 

Because the bloom was a highly porous mix of slag, partially reduced ore, unburned fuel and bits of furnace clay, the bloom had to be reheated and worked with a hammer to drive the molten slag out of it. The bloom was consolidated by manual hammering (later by water-powered hammering) and then returned to the heat of a finery hearth.

Once water power was available for bellows temperatures could be raised which were capable of producing cast iron.

Finery & Chafery Forges.

In the finery forge, the blacksmith re-melted cast iron, pig iron, so as to oxidise the carbon impurities and produce the bloom. The fuel in the furnaces was usually charcoal, because impurities in any mineral fuel would adversely affect the quality of the iron. Coal was an inferior fuel for blacksmithing, because of sulphur contamination, which makes iron and steel 'red short', at red heat the material became 'crumbly' instead of 'plastic'.

The finery stage was further work by the hammer man. The repeated reheating and working was required to remove impurities. In doing so the iron was reheated in a chafery hearth. The tasks were to beat the heated bloom with a hammer, to drive the molten slag out of it, and then to draw the bloom out into a bar. The result of this time consuming and laborious process was 'wrought' iron or 'bar iron', a malleable but fairly soft alloy containing some slag but little carbon.

Although they were unaware of the chemical basis, they were aware that the quality of the iron was thus improved by hammering & forging. From a scientific point of view, the reducing atmosphere of the forge was both removing oxygen rust, and soaking more carbon into the iron, developing increasingly higher grades of steel as the process was continued.

Cast iron or pig iron were the starting materials also used in the puddling furnace, but the puddling process used coal as fuel.

Puddling Forge.

Puddling was the processes developed in the second half of the 18th century for producing bar iron from pig iron without the use of charcoal. It gradually replaced the earlier finery forges. It was invented by Henry Cort at Fontley in Hampshire in 1783–84 and patented in 1784. Cort's process consisted of stirring molten pig iron in a reverberatory furnace in an oxidising atmosphere, thus decarburising it. When the iron became a pasty consistency, it was gathered into a puddled ball, shingled, and rolled. This application of the rolling mill was also Cort's invention.

Cort's process only worked for white cast iron, not grey cast iron, which was the usual feedstock for forges of the period. This problem was resolved if the pig iron was melted in an old finery hearth and run out into a trough. The slag separated, and floated on the molten iron, and was easily removed. The effect was to desiliconise the metal, leaving a white brittle metal. This was the ideal material to charge to the puddling furnace. This version of the process was known as 'dry puddling' and continued in use in some places as late as 1890.

The alternative to refining gray iron was known as 'wet puddling', also known as 'pig boiling'. This involved adding scrap iron to the charge. The result was spectacular in that the furnace boiled violently. This was a chemical reaction between the oxidised iron in the scrap scale and the carbon dissolved in the pig iron. The resultant puddle ball produced good iron.

The production of mild steel in the puddling furnace was only achieved in about 1850 and was patented in Great Britain on behalf of Lohage, Bremme and Lehrkind. It worked only with pig iron made from certain kinds of ore. The cast iron had to be melted quickly and the slag to be rich in manganese. When the metal came to nature, it had to be removed quickly and shingled before further carburisation occurred. The process was widely used prior to Henry Bessemer's breakthrough in 18??.

The Village Blacksmith - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
UNDER a spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling,---rejoicing,---sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.

Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.

 

Any additional information gratefully received contact john p birchall

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