n carts. At length we arrive at a period when
coal seems to have come into general use, and when necessity led to its
regular employment both in smelting the ore and in manufacturing the
metal. And this brings us to the establishment of the Coalbrookdale
works, where the smelting of iron by means of coke and coal was first
adopted on a large scale as the regular method of manufacture.

Abraham Darby, the first of a succession of iron manufacturers who bore
the same name, was the son of a farmer residing at Wrensnest, near
Dudley. He served an apprenticeship to a maker of malt-kilns near
Birmingham, after which he married and removed to Bristol in 1700, to
begin business on his own account. Industry is of all politics and
religions: thus Dudley was a Royalist and a Churchman, Yarranton was a
Parliamentarian and a Presbyterian, and Abraham Darby was a Quaker. At
Bristol he was joined by three partners of the same persuasion, who
provided the necessary capital to enable him to set up works at Baptist
Mills, near that city, where he carried on the business of malt-mill
making, to which he afterwards added brass and iron founding.

At that period cast-iron pots were in very general use, forming the
principal cooking utensils of the working class. The art of casting
had, however, made such small progress in England that the pots were
for the most part imported from abroad. Darby resolved, if possible,
to enter upon this lucrative branch of manufacture; and he proceeded to
make a number of experiments in pot-making. Like others who had
preceded him, he made his first moulds of clay; but they cracked and
burst, and one trial failed after another. He then determined to find
out the true method of manufacturing the pots, by travelling into the
country from whence the best were imported, in order to master the
grand secret of the trade. With this object he went over to Holland in
the year 1706, and after diligent inquiry he ascertained that the only
sure method of casting "Hilton ware," as such castings were then
called, was in moulds of fine dry sand. This was the whole secret.

Returning to Bristol, accompanied by some skilled Dutch workmen, Darby
began the new manufacture, and succeeded to his satisfaction. The work
was at first carried on with great secrecy, lest other makers should
copy the art; and the precaution was taken of stopping the keyhole of
the workshop-door while the casting was in progress. To secur