Abraham Darby, in his lifetime called Abraham Darby the Younger, referred to for convenience as Abraham Darby II (12 May 1711 – 31 March 1763) was the second man of that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the early years of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

Life

Darby was born in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire to

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

and Mary (née Sergeant). He followed in his father's footsteps in the Darby foundry business in Coalbrookdale, producing

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

cooking pots, kettles, and other goods. The Coalbrookdale Company also played an important role in using

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

to replace the more expensive

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

for cylinders for Thomas Newcomen's

steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs Work (physics), mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a Cylinder (locomotive), cyl ...

s. He and his partners were responsible for a very important innovation in introducing the use of coke

pig iron Pig iron, also known as crude iron, is an intermediate good used by the iron industry in the production of steel. It is developed by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with si ...

as the feedstock for finery forges. This formed a significant part of the output of Horsehay and Ketley Furnaces, which they built in the late 1750s. His

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fat ...

's successful use of coke pig iron as foundry feedstock, and his own success in using it as forge feedstock were two of the steps towards the industrial revolution for the iron industry, but the final breakthrough that permitted the great expansion of iron production that constitutes the industrial revolution for it came later. He died aged 51. He had married twice: firstly Margaret Smith (died 1740), with whom he had three children including Hannah who married Richard Reynolds, and secondly the Quaker minister Abiah Maude, with whom he had a further thirteen children although only four including Abraham Darby III survived.Nancy Cox, 'Darby, Abiah (1716–1794)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 27 Sept 2015
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References

External links

The Darby family of inventors

The Darby House

* ttp://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/55521 DNB biography of Abiah Darby 1711 births 1763 deaths People from Coalbrookdale English ironmasters People of the Industrial Revolution English Quakers 18th-century Quakers 18th-century ironmasters 18th-century British artisans {{England-business-bio-stub

Life

See also

References

External links