Iron and Steel Fred Dibnah's Industrial Age

It was really coal and iron that started the Industrial Revolution -

iron to make the boilers, similar to this one

and coal to burn, to make the steam to drive all the machinery.

This boiler is a fairly modern one,

which I've altered to burn sticks to make the steam to drive the machinery.

I must say it works very well.

Without the iron, the boilers couldn't have been made,

and no steam raised to drive all the steam engines

at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

My early recollections around Bolton

were going in foundries.

There were a lot in Bolton in t'olden days.

They looked unbelievably unhealthy places - always full of smoke.

Watching the molten metal run along troughs on the floor and all that

always fascinated me.

And the end product, when you saw it - magnificent,

really beautiful stuff.

To find out about the early days of iron-making,

this valley on the River Severn is the place to come.

The Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire

could be Britain's most important industrial archaeological site -

so important that it's now a World Heritage site.

All together, there are seven different museums here

which give a good picture of the industrial activity

that once took place in this valley.

This is the world's first iron bridge.

Until it was built in 1779, the valley was known as Coalbrookdale.

Iron was so important round here,

that this place was regarded as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution.

The story of iron-making really starts here in Coalbrookdale,

where in 1709, Abraham Darby first smelted iron.

And this is the original furnace.

In a furnace like this, the great pieces of iron were cast

that they used to build the bridge.

The builder was local iron master John Wilkinson,

who was nicknamed Iron Man

because he believed iron could be used to make anything.

As you can see, there are blowholes in the casting.

They weren't too particular!

But, on the whole, the thing is beautifully done,

with dovetails, cotters and iron wedges - very few nuts and bolts.

The only way they could have cast these is on the foundry floor

and directly tap the furnace into the mould.

Perhaps that accounts for all the slag and rough stuff

which normally they would scrape off the top of the molten metal.

Ironbridge was the first place they used coal for smelting iron.

Before, they had only used charcoal.

Abraham Darby started a dynasty of iron founders in the gorge

who were to change the entire face of industry.

It wasn't just bridges they made.

The first iron wheels and rails were made here,

and even the first steam locomotive by Cornishman Richard Trevithick.

This is a replica of the first locomotive that was ever built.

I thought Mr Trevithick lived in Cornwall. Why's it here, John?

He did live in Cornwall, but to get this engine built,

he went to the place with the best cast iron - which was Coalbrookdale.

-Yeah.

-We did the first cast-iron engine cylinders back in the 1720s.

-Does it actually run?

-It does, yeah.

We can run it out of gear. We've got a clutch in there.

-I'll tick it over for you.

-Yeah.

It's got an interesting valve gear, hasn't it?

It's very simple. A plug valve knocks it one way and then the other.

Everybody says, "I thought Mr Stevenson invented railways".

-No. That's not true.

-It's not true.

Mr Trevithick did it before him.

This is 26 years before Rocket.

-1803 this thing was made.

-Yeah.

-The original.

-The original was.

Once the driver had turned up, we were away.

I wonder what top speed were like?

We'll go about four miles an hour - and you don't want to go any faster!

-Yeah, yeah! It's...

-Put the brake on.

It's rather a ponderous vehicle.

-D'you ever get wheel spin?

-Yes.

'It's not only locomotives they have here.

'They've also got beam engines -

'the first stationary steam engines.'

This beam engine went off to America, didn't it?

Yes. It's well travelled!

It went to Henry Ford's museum at Dearbourne in the '20s.

Coalbrookdale did well because Ford had to electrify their brickworks.

-Coalbrookdale...

-They were actually made here.

And they produced the first cast-iron cylinders.

I've got a good connection with steam engines.

-Coalbrookdale fell back on what it was good at - foundry work.

-Yeah.

In the 19th century, it's more famous for its cast-iron furniture.

There are some beautiful catalogues, with railings and lampposts and all that

in the most beautiful iron in all the world.

This is where it was manufactured, and there's still an ironworks here.

To see what working life used to be like,

Blist's Hill Victorian town re-creates life and industry

as it was here at the end of the 19th century.

In the ironworks, is an ancient rolling mill

that was still used until recently in Bolton.

I actually saw it working there when I was a young man.

This thing here, made out of railway lines and bits and pieces, is the furnace

where they got the iron hot, ready to put through the rollers or underneath the hammer.

It were quite exciting watching how it all went!

When the signal were given, the guy crashed these tongs into the fire,

got a five-hundredweight lump of iron,

shoved it on this trolley.

He'd have to race off, with sparks coming off his clogs this way.

Bang!

The tail end of iron came out here.

He collared it with these things

and slammed it back into the next opening.

If it wouldn't go in, their clogs had sparks again.

This here is actually the rolling mill that used to be in Bolton.

And I well remember seeing the thing work,

cos I was a reasonably young man and it were quite fantastic.

Six of them sat in easy chairs

and six shoved the iron in.

When they were like exhausted,

the six sat down would take over,

and the other six would flop into the easy chairs or go to the pub.

Some of them didn't get paid - they paid their wives

because the men nipped into the pub.

In that strange-looking cage at the far end

there's a loose coupling in between the engine shaft and the rolls.

So if a piece were not quite hot enough - bang! - it flew to pieces.

All the operatives disappeared to wash their hands and went home

because there'd be no more rolling that day till they'd mended it.

The reason for all this industrial activity round here is -

at the bottom of this mine shaft there are four seams of coal,

one seam of iron ore and two seams of fire clay.

And that's why it all happened round here.

And they've still got a steam-driven winding engine

which got men and materials up and down the mine shaft.

-Hello, Dave.

-Hello, Fred.

-A hot-steam winding engine that actually works.

-Oh, yes.

-Are you going to give me a demo?

-Yes.

What we'll do is take the cage down.

Loosen the holding brake.

-Then...

-Turn the steam on.

-That's it.

We'll take the cage now down.

At the moment, it's free-reeling.

-We're very near the bottom now.

-Near the bottom.

Then we'll just ease it down to the line.

Here at Ironbridge,

they've got a wonderful collection of small stationary steam engines.

You know, these things more or less went out of favour

because of gas engines and electric motors.

But in some places, they carried on quite late on.

This thing here is a steam boiler feed pump,

made in Manchester by a man called Frank Purn.

I've actually got one of these in my back garden at home.

What a wonderful place this is!

All this lovely smoke and the strong smell of sulphur!

At home, the council would arrest me.

I'm quite environmentally friendly when you think of the smoke industry used to generate.

There's interesting bits of machinery everywhere you go -

like this thing here. This is a rock crusher.

I've heard they're going to charge up the blast furnace in the foundry.

I'm going to go and watch them.

What's happening now is -

in the bottom of the blast furnace

there were already quite a good fire with coke.

Nigel's putting layers of cast iron, limestone and silicon and then another layer of coke.

After half an hour, it'll begin to melt.

It'll go through a hole at the bottom and be ladled into moulds.

A foundry like this is an exciting place.

At Ironbridge, you can see some of the ancient methods

of casting the iron all those early engines and boilers were made of.

All they actually make here now are iron ornaments sold as souvenirs.

There's 120 pounds of molten cast iron going into the ladle.

That's just about all two men can lift up and pour into the moulds.

Every town had two or three of these places in th'olden days -

till the profile burner put them all out of business.

In bigger foundries, the ladle hung on a crane

and had gearing to take the thing up -

much, you know...too much weight for two men to lift up.

When they finished tapping the blast burners

and all the metal's run out,

there's a residue in the bottom of the furnace,

from the by-products, like the limestone and sand.

If they didn't get it out, it would set like diamonds.

So, as soon as it's over, they've got to let it all out of the bottom,

rake it, and put it out with an hose pipe.

When I were repairing t'chimney that are on foundries, you know,

I used to stop work and watch this performance

of dropping the bottom out of the blast furnace.

It were always very exciting to me.

As you've just witnessed, it is quite exciting.

There's lots more to know

and places to visit, like this one

if you're interested in our industrial past.

At Ironbridge today, the machinery is powered by steam.

But back in Abraham Darby's day, they only had water power.

I wanted to see how water power was used in the iron industry.

Industrial history can be found in some surprising places.

My travels took me to the heart of Devon.

Here, I found a place where they've still got really ancient methods

of making agricultural tools.

Finch Foundry is in the village of Sticklepath,

on the edge of Dartmoor.

It's not really a foundry. It's actually a forge,

where you can see how they used to make sickles, scythes and shovels.

Water power was still used long after steam power in the country,

where there was abundant water.

This machinery was used from about 1814 right up until the 1960s.

My word! This is something else! I've never seen anything as ancient.

-Hello, Fred.

-How old is it?

I'm sorry, but this is second-hand.

-This was put here in 1840.

-Yeah.

-But it dates back to about 1750.

-And it still works.

-Yes.

One of the water wheels is connected to another wheel inside,

providing power for the tilt hammer.

This hammer's seen better days.

It would need to lift a lot higher to affect a big piece of metal.

Everything in here is powered by water -

even the fan here that were made in 1853

to provide the wind for... how many furnaces, Morris?

-Four.

-Yeah.

-At least you don't have electric bills like me!

-No.

This is a very early example of a drop hammer.

And we're going to have a do at making it go... Now then.

You can appreciate why you need the machinery - you can't move that.

Yeah, it's quite heavy.

-Does the vicar know?

-We take them back on Sundays.

-Oh, hang on.

-Belt's off.

Bell's come off!

This is where they say, "Cut", isn't it?

A forge like this one that ran on water power for so long

was a bit of a rarity.

An important factor in the growth of the Industrial Revolution

was the presence in Britain of large coal deposits.

When the steam engine was invented,

it provided the power to drain the coal mines.

They, in turn, supplied the fuel

for the new methods of smelting iron,

which provided the metal for engines.

This turned Britain into a great manufacturing nation

and the places where firms built their factories

were those where there was plenty of fuel -

the coal fields.

One of these areas was here in the West Midlands.

You won't find the "Black Country" on any map.

But the name was given to a region of industrial activity

originally based on coal mining and iron working.

This is centred around Wolverhampton, Walsall and Dudley,

to the west of Birmingham.

It got its name in the mid-19th century,

when thousands of chimneys filled the air with smoke.

The mining of coal, iron ore and limestone

created large expanses of industrial dereliction.

The Black Country Museum in Dudley is a living museum.

Here, craftsmen demonstrate jobs like nail-making and chain-making,

from a time when this was the heart of industrial Britain.

Nails like this were used for building canal barges.

Brian, how many of these d'you have to make in a day?

-With boat spikes, about 1,500.

-Yeah.

-Half a ton.

Blooming 'eck! What time did thee start?

As soon as it were light. And I worked until it were dark.

-The first operation's upsetting the end?

-That's it.

Now we'll upset the head.

It means we're thickening the end out -

making it roughly nail-shaped.

That's now called a rose head.

And we'll just neaten it up for the boat-builder.

As the trade in hand-made nails declined due to mechanisation,

the Black Country turned to chain-making,

soon developing an international reputation.

Big chains were made here,

including the chain and anchor for the Titanic.

It took a lot of horsepower to transport it.

As well as big chains,

smaller hearths made chains with iron about half an inch in diameter.

Chains were still made by hand until the 1970s.

The museum here has two hearths

from one of the last firms in the area to make hand-made chains.

They used to make some really big chains round here,

using bars of wrought iron up to six inches in diameter.

For a big one like for the Titanic,

they'd have a chain maker, a chain smith

and four or five other men working hammers with two handles.

Did they make really big ones round here in t'olden days?

Oh, yeah. They'd make links up to five hundred-weight a link.

-They'd not do many an hour.

-Might do one a day.

In this area, by the 1920s, there were over 6,000 people making chains.

-A third were women.

-Making the smaller stuff?

Making all the small stuff - agricultural chains, military chains.

Yeah, I've seen modern chains -

they've got a beautiful raised lump in the side, haven't they?

-Yeah, from the heat-resistant butt welding.

-Yeah.

-Any chance of having a go?

-Yeah.

I'll not bugger your chain up. I'll just make a link.

It don't take long with that fire.

I'll never get paid.

-You was paid by the weight.

-I'd be a poor man at the end of the day.

-You'd be expected to supply 40 links an hour.

-Yeah.

Another link for the chain for the Titanic.

No wonder it sunk!

Wrought iron was used for chains.

Now I wanted to find out about steel.

So it was time to come back up north again.

The city of Sheffield is the place most closely associated with steel.

"Made in Sheffield" is a mark of quality known all over the world.

The great age of steel-making here began in the 19th century,

when small-scale tool-makers became engineering steel-makers on a grand scale.

Kelham Island Industrial Museum is near the centre of the city.

Here, you can see the steel-making process which made the city famous.

Up until the 1850s,

they only had really cast iron, you know.

They really needed something a bit tougher.

And along came Henry Bessemer in 1855, and he invented this thing,

like a giant egg cup.

Basically, what it does is - molten cast iron is poured into the top.

Then wind pressure at 25 pounds per square inch is blasted through the molten cast iron.

This takes all the impurities out of it.

And when they run it off from here into ingots,

it can be put underneath the steam hammer and forged into big blocks

which rolling mills make into things

like railway lines and wheels for railway wagons.

Steel could be produced cheaply and in bulk.

Sheffield is very famous for all sorts of metal products -

like this Sheffield plate here.

But mainly cutting tools, you know, like things from lathe to holster -

surgeon's equipment for sawing your leg off and things.

If you've bought a pair of Taiwanese scissors

and compared them with a pair made in Sheffield...

I left my Sheffield scissors on a wall for two years.

I found them again, oiled them, and they were just as good.

At Kelham Island, you can see some of the last of the little mesters at work.

These were self-employed craftsmen who specialised in various aspects

of the manufacture of tools and cutlery.

At one time, there were hundreds of them operating all over Sheffield.

But today, there's only a handful of them left.

Not bad for a start.

Will you take me on as an apprentice?

I see you're stamping the name on.

-This one says, "Made in Sheffield, England".

-The important one.

That's the one.

If you're making the best things in the world,

you want to make sure everyone knows where they've come from.

Right. We'll put the all-important name of Sheffield Steel

on this hunting knife.

-Made in Sheffield.

-Right.

-There you go.

-Right.

To roll this fine steel,

is the biggest steam engine I've ever seen to drive the rolling mill.

I'm really looking forward to this.

This must be the world's biggest rolling-mill engine.

It were made about 1905.

And it kept running till the 1970s.

I'm now going to demonstrate how fast you can put it in reverse

from full speed forward into going backwards.

Here we go.

Did you like that?

Subtitles by Annie Phelan BBC - 1999