| Common Era |
Event |
| 1100 - 1199 |
Forge bellows with wooden boards and leather flap-valves probably invented. (Britain) |
| 1300 - 1400 |
Iron manufacture begins to use blowing furnaces driven by water power. (Britain) |
| 1450 ca. |
Blast furnaces with water-driven bellows (1340?, H2) first used. (Rhine Valley) |
| 1500 |
Blast furnace introduced into Britain. (Britain) |
| 1552 |
Iron rolling machine. (Brulier) |
| 1619 |
Experiments to forge pig iron using coal-fired furnace begin: also many have used coke. (Dud Dudley, Britain) |
| 1700 |
Zinc-smelting at Swansea. (Britain) |
| 1709 - 1750 |
Smelting of iron at Coalbrookdale works begins: 1713 with coke, hotter blast and better iron. (Abraham Darby, Shropshire, Britain) |
| 1720 |
Cornwall furnace, typical of US ironworks, produces pig iron and cast iron products. (Peter Grubb, Cornwall, Pa.) |
| 1728 |
Rolling mill for iron patented. (Payne, Britain) |
| 1738 |
Process invented to smelt zinc with coal: highly laborious process. (Wm Champion, Britain) |
| 1745 |
Rolling mill designed to refine and shape wrought iron bar in single process: used by Cort. (C Polhem, Sweden) |
| 1769 |
Boring mills at Carron designed: improve pump cylinders. (John Smeaton, Britain) |
| 1772 |
Principle of hydraulic ram developed. (Whitehurst) |
| 1776 |
Reverberatory furnace. (Brothers Cranege) |
| 1794 |
First US stamp mill built. (Josiah Hornblower, New Jersey) |
| 1796 |
Self-acting hydraulic ram introduced: in use by 1827. (J M Montgolfier, France) |
| 1796 - 1798 |
Hydraulic press*, using Pascal's hydrostatic principles, built 1795, patented 1796: with Henri Maudsley, first functional hydraulic press. (Joseph Bramah, Britain) |
| 1798 |
Continuous rolling mill patented: developed 1856. (Wm Hazeldine, Britain) 19th Century |
| 1809 |
Carbon arc discovered: later used as illuminant (1860 ca) and for arc welding (1900 ca). (Sir Humphry Davy, London) |
| 1820 - 1829 |
Sintering developed: for melting powdered platinum (undated--W7). (Wm Wollaston, Britain) |
| 1826 |
Malleable wrought iron developed in US: patented 1831. (Seth Boyden, US) |
| 1828 |
Hot blast for iron manufacture introduced. (James B Neilson, Glasgow, Scotland) |
| 1833 |
Iron smelting with anthracite patented. (US) |
| 1836 - 1839 |
Steam hammer* invented by French F Cave and F Bourden (Le Creusot) and is credited to James Nasmyth. (France, Britain) |
| 1840 |
Rotary concentric squeezer patented: for rolling puddled iron into cylindrical bars. (Henry Burden, New York) |
| 1848 |
Roberts' punching machine for iron plates. (Roberts, Britain) |
| 1853 |
Drop hammer patented: credited with modernizing die-forging; Colt Armory built also. (Elisha Root, Hartford, Conn) |
| 1856 |
3-high mill introduced for rolling metal at Motala ironworks. (Sweden) |
| 1857 |
3-high mills developed: advances in rolling plants. (John Fritz, Pittsburgh) |
| 1866 |
Hydraulic forging press erected in Oldham (patented 1847): uses Bessemer steel. (Sir Charles Fox) |
| 1869 |
A MANUAL OF MACHINERY AND MILLWORK published. (Wm J McQuorn Rankine, Scotland) |
| 1886 |
Electrical resistance welding process. (Elihu Thomson, Lynn, Mass) |
| 1887 ca. |
Arc welding developed in Soviet Union (--WRC). (USSR) |
| 1890 ca. |
Arc welding, resistance welding, and oxyacetylene, welding develops.
20th Century |
| 1900 ca. |
Oxyacetylene welding develops and spreads throughout Europe. (France) |
| 1918 |
Molybdenum added to steels: especially for high-strength welded tubes for air-frame construction. |
| 1928 |
Hot-pressing of powders in graphite molds patented and used to manufacture large hardmetal pieces. (O Diener, Germany, Britain) |
| 1930 |
Fusion-welded drum* tested: leads to improved fabrication of boiler drums (replaces riveting). (Combustion Engineering, Chattanooga, Tenn) |
| 1930 - 1939 |
Electric arc welding machines for piping used in US. (US) |
| 1939 |
Lost-wax process developed to cast complete turbine wheels rather than individual blades. (General Electric, US) |
| 1940 |
Welding adopted as manufacturing process following development of testing such as x ray and gammarays. |
| 1943 |
Steel cast continually. (S Junghans, Germany) |
| 1950 ca. |
Cold forming operations improve accuracy: reduce waste in metal finishing, finned tubing. |
| 1950 ca. |
Hydro-blast replaces sand blasting in iron castings: reduces danger. |
| 1954 |
Friction welding of dissimilar metals invented. (USSR) |
| 1955 |
Hot isostatic process* developed: bonds complex alloy and ceramic parts. (Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio) |
| 1957 |
Electronic beam welding performed in a vacuum at French Atomic Energy Commission. (J A Stohr, France) |
| 1970 |
Carbon dioxide lasers cut and weld metals, plastics, wood, paper, and cloth. |
