An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks .
8-492: Penydarren Ironworks was the fourth of the great ironworks established at Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales . Built in 1784 by the brothers Samuel Homfray , Jeremiah Homfray , and Thomas Homfray, all sons of Francis Homfray of Stourbridge . Their father, Francis, for a time managed a nail warehouse there for Ambrose Crowley . Most of the family were involved in trade as ironmasters or ironmongers (in this context meaning
16-511: A manufacturer of iron goods). Samuel built Penydarren House on the opposite bank of the River Taf , as a home for the family locally. Because the owners of the Cyfarthfa Ironworks dominated the management of Glamorganshire Canal , the other Merthyr Tydfil ironworks built a tramroad to Abercynon , bypassing the upper sections of the canal. This "Penydarren Tramroad" (more correctly,
24-553: Is derived from the Greek words sideros - iron and ergon or ergos - work. This is an unusual term in English, and it is best regarded as an anglicisation of a term used in French , Spanish , and other Romance languages . Historically, it is common that a community was built around the ironworks where the people living there were dependent on the ironworks to provide jobs and housing. As
32-475: The 19th century usually included one or more blast furnaces and a number of puddling furnaces or a foundry with or without other kinds of ironworks. After the invention of the Bessemer process , converters became widespread, and the appellation steelworks replaced ironworks. The processes carried at ironworks are usually described as ferrous metallurgy, but the term siderurgy is also occasionally used. This
40-542: The Merthyr Tramroad) was used for a trial of the first railway steam locomotive , built by Richard Trevithick . This successfully hauled wagons but was so heavy that it broke many rails. The engine was then used for other purposes as a stationary engine. The business was financed by William Forman of the Tower of London , who provided all the capital, partly on mortgage but taking a share in it himself. Samuel Homfray left
48-619: The business in 1813. In 1819, the partners were William Forman and William Thompson of London. William Forman offered the works for sale in 1859, and the Dowlais Iron Company bought the mineral ground. The works were used intermittently by various others until 1883. Some remains of the works are present. 51°45′11″N 3°22′10″W / 51.753018°N 3.369520°W / 51.753018; -3.369520 Ironworks Ironworks succeeded bloomeries when blast furnaces replaced former methods. An integrated ironworks in
56-414: The following: The mills operating converters of any type are better called steelworks, ironworks referring to former processes, like puddling . After bar iron had been produced in a finery forge or in the forge train of a rolling mill, it might undergo further processes in one of the following: Most of these processes did not produce finished goods. Further processes were often manual, including In
64-425: The ironworks closed down (or was industrialised) these villages quite often went into decline and experienced negative economic growth. Ironworks is used as an omnibus term covering works undertaking one or more iron-producing processes. Such processes or species of ironworks where they were undertaken include the following: From the 1850s, pig iron might be partly decarburised to produce mild steel using one of
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