Technological Change and the British Iron Industry, 1700-1870 / / Charles K. Hyde.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Hyde, Charles K.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2019]; ©1977
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library ; 5485
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (304 p.)

This book describes technological change in an industry that played a central role in the Indsutrial Revolution. While earlier scholars have examined isolated aspects of ironmaking in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, Charles Hyde surveys all aspects of its development. Costs, prices, profits, shrewd leaders, competition, new inventions, and productivity all figure in this story of a key industry during the major period of its evolution.The author's account illuminates not only the nature of innovation in one industry, but the nature of technologial change in general. using new data compiled form the records of the ironmaking concerns, Professor Hyde considers each of the basic economic variables affecting entrepreneurial decisions. He finds that ironmaking advanced through a process of gradual, continuous change rather than through a series of discrete innovations. The rate of diffusion of new techniques corresponded to their profitability when compared to that of existing means of production--a finding that explains that timing of innovation.Charles K. Hyde is Assistant Professor of Social Science at Monteith College, Wayne State University.Originally published in 1977.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Contents -- LIST OF TABLES -- LIST OF FIGURES -- INTRODUCTION -- PART I: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN IRON , 1700-1815 -- ONE : THE CHARCOAL IRON INDUSTRY IN THE EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY -- TWO. THE CHOICE OF FUEL BEFORE 1750 -- THREE. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHARCOAL IRON INDUSTRY, 1700-1750 -- FOUR. THE ADOPTION OF COKE-SMELTING, 1750-1790 -- FIVE: INNOVATION IN THE WROUGHT IRON SECTOR: THE POTTING AND PUDDLING PROCESSES TO 1790 -- SIX: THE IRON INDUSTRY IN WAR, 1790-1815 -- SEVEN: THE NEW TECHNOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES: THE IRON INDUSTRY IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY -- PART II: THE MATURE IRON INDUSTRY, 1815-1870 -- EIGHT: THE IRON INDUSTRY IN PEACE, 1815- 1830: ADJUSTMENT AND INNOVATION -- NINE: THE HOT BLAST AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SMELTING SECTOR, 1828-1870 -- TEN: THE WROUGHT IRON SECTOR, 1830-1870 -- ELEVEN: THE IRON INDUSTRY ON THE EVE OF THE AGE OF STEEL -- TWELVE: TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRITISH IRON INDUSTRY: SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS -- APPENDICES -- APPENDIX A: BRITISH IRON OUTPUT, 1715-1750 -- APPENDIX B: CALCULATING VARIABLE COSTS FROM EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY IRONWORKS ACCOUNTS: A NOTE -- APPENDIX C: PIG IRON OUTPUT ESTIMATES FOR GREAT BRITAIN, 1788-1860 -- Bibliography -- Sources Cited -- Index