The Iron Men: The Workers of the Iron Age in Georgian Britain

Abstract

This is the story of how a change in how iron was made in the 18th century changed the world forever, and of the men and women who made it happen. The production of iron around 700BC was so important that it was called the Iron Age. This was the second Iron Age. Iron made the machines of the industrial revolution; it transformed transport with iron ships and iron trains running on iron rails; iron-framed buildings were the prototypes of the modern skyscraper. But progress was bought at a price: the knife grinders of Sheffield were lucky to survive to reach their thirtieth birthday before dying