jan 1, 1709 - Abraham Darby discovers how to make coke from coal

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In 1709, Abraham Darby discovered an advancement that would revolutionise the smelting and creation of Iron. He created a coke-based blast furnace which was much more efficient than previous designs. Coke was created from heating coal in an oxygen poor environment to maximise the carbon levels, this left you with a fuel that was much like coal, but with less sulphur and other elements, maximising burning efficiency. Abraham’s blast furnaces were designed for the use of coke and therefor were able to be much larger and taller than other blast furnaces. This was a contributing factor to the success of the industrial revolution and made cast iron extremely cheap.

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