Cast and wrought iron and their uses in architecture
Introduction
Although iron has now been superseded by steel for most architectural purposes a knowledge of the early history of its application in architecture is nevertheless still useful.
Bridges
Many of the important innovations in the technology of iron and steel occurred in civil engineering, especially bridge building.
Conservatories and exhibition buildings (ferro-vitreous art)
Iron frameworks were ideal for the structural support of conservatories and exhibition buildings and some of the most spectacular iron-frame buildings of the nineteenth century were of this type.
Iron before industrialisation
Like most of the leading sectors in the industrial revolution the iron industry had a long history. By the beginning of the eighteenth century it was already a comparatively advanced industry, with heavy fixed capital equipment in the form of furnaces and forges.
Mills and industrial buildings
The structural use of iron in building construction occurred first in connection with industrial buildings.
The properties of cast and wrought iron
Cast and wrought iron have distinctly different properties that have dictated the ways that they have been used.
The technical revolution in production
The very large increase in the level of the production of cast iron which took place in the eighteenth century was made possible by the development of a method for smelting iron with coke.
