Sheffield steel - Thomas Firth, 1900

[AndyT]

I meant to post this ages ago, but forgot about it. I came across it again today and thought I'd share it.
It's an album of photos, presumably produced to hand out to potential customers, showing the activities of Thomas Firth and Sons, in 1900.

I think it's fascinating in several ways. It illustrates steel making in bulk - just think of the muscle power needed to pile this lot up:

There are some rather posed pictures of the workers

and sometimes the men in smart suits are visible too:

There are lots of pictures of what were presumably technically impressive castings, and grim views of rows of explosive shells.

Some of the photos are beautifully lit and shot, aside from their interesting subject matter, such as this one:

or this, which I think is especially poignant - what a tedious life it must have been for the young lad in the apron, under the beady eye of his supervisors:

So do have a look at the whole thing. Start here and follow the links to read online or download for free in the format of your choice:

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL710...s_limited_Norfolk_works_Sheffield_England_...

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Fascinating stuff!

Should anybody want to further the study, track down a copy of 'Sheffield Steel' by K.C.Barraclough. It photographically documents the process of importing Swedish bar iron, converting it in Cementation furnaces, refining it to Crucible Steel, then some of the applications such as toolmaking, cutlery, heavy forging, rolling and wire-drawing.

It's amazing how primitive the processes were up until WW1.

 

[nathandavies]

very interesting, I wonder if the lad counted how many clips round the ear he no doubt had over the years?

 

[Eric The Viking]

just think of the muscle power needed to pile this lot up:

It's staggering. It wasn't till I looked at the full-size image I realised the "dry stone walls" in the background were actually stacks of pig iron.

Is that wrought iron in the foreground, do you think? Did they supply blacksmiths?

There's also an oil can (foreground, right) and roller trestles. I really wouldn't have wanted to be the guy working the handcart!


E.

 

[AndyT]

Eric, the introduction provides some more info on the processes but as far as I've understood it, they imported Swedish iron in bar form, heated it in cementation furnaces to make blister steel, then melted that in crucibles, to make ingots of cast steel.

There's a good Time Team special on YouTube called Steel City where they attempt to reproduce the process, with limited success.

CC, thanks for the tip. I've ordered a copy of the book you recommended.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Ah, got it - the long thin bits are iron, the 'pigs' are crucible steel -- I had it the wrong way round!

Thanks,

E.