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Abraham Darby I

person · earth · Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England

Quaker ironmaster (1678–1717) who leased an old blast furnace at Coalbrookdale in 1708 and the following year smelted iron with coke. He had come to iron from brass and from malting, and it is likely that the malting trade — where coke was already used to dry barley without tainting it — supplied the idea. His religious community mattered to the outcome as much as his technique: Quakers were barred from the universities and from public office, married within a network that spanned the ironmaking districts, and had a reputation for plain dealing that made credit easier to obtain, so capital, marriage and business partnership ran along the same lines for three generations of Darbys at Coalbrookdale. It was his grandson, Abraham Darby III, who cast and erected the Iron Bridge in 1779.

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    Assembled narrative · 1

    Assembled from 10 blocks · 1 evidence · 3 related

    1. Story
    2. Quaker ironmaster (1678–1717) who leased an old blast furnace at Coalbrookdale in 1708 and the following year smelted iron with coke. He had come to iron from brass and from malting, and it is likely that the malting trade — where coke was already used to dry barley without tainting it — supplied the idea. His religious community mattered to the outcome as much as his technique: Quakers were barred from the universities and from public office, married within a network that spanned the ironmaking districts, and had a reputation for plain dealing that made credit easier to obtain, so capital, marriage and business partnership ran along the same lines for three generations of Darbys at Coalbrookdale. It was his grandson, Abraham Darby III, who cast and erected the Iron Bridge in 1779.
    3. Knowledge
    4. Abraham Darby I
    5. Connections
    6. Coke smelting of iron
    7. Darby smelts iron with coke at Coalbrookdale
    8. The Iron Bridge opens over the Severn
    9. Evidence
    10. Supports the inscription of the gorge, the Darby furnace and the Iron Bridge as a landscape of early industrial ironmaking. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted — whc.unesco.org is blocked from this session. The reference number and criteria are omitted rather than reconstructed.
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    Observed changes · 0

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