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An Iron Will
Clive Richardson

During the 19th century, cast iron was commonly used in all
sorts of structures. It was reliable for columns but treacherous
for beams. Structures occasionally collapsed during or after
construction and eventually cast iron was abandoned in favour
of wrought iron and, latterly, mild steel. A few cast iron beams
still fail today, and although we are not aware of every old
building that contains cast iron, the legacy remains and we
ignore it at our peril.

Small quantities of wrought iron were used in medieval

construction, such as stone cramps and tie-bars, but
widespread, high volume use of cast iron, wrought iron, and
mild steel in buildings did not commence until the
manufacturing developments of the Industrial Revolution. Of A hog-backed cast-iron beam, with a pierced web. Here the relative tensile
these three, cast iron was the first, being mass-produced from weakness of cast-iron was compensated for by putting more material at mid-
the 1790s (see timelines chart). Casting sizes were only span.
limited by the practicalities of construction and the degree of
decoration required.

Cast iron was cheap and strong in compression, which made it

popular for columns after the 1770s when slender circular
columns were used in several churches, until the 1900s when
they were superseded by mild steel. Cast iron beams were
less successful than columns. The tensile weakness of cast
iron lead to the development of beams with extra material to
take the tension (see typical sections diagram).

Concerns gradually mounted about the reliability of cast iron in

tension. In 1847, some of the cast iron girders of Robert
Stephenson's railway bridge over the River Dee at Chester
collapsed. Five people were killed and 18 injured. The loss of
life led to a Royal Commission of inquiry and to a greater use
of wrought iron instead.
Cast iron beams are found in large houses such as Hyde Park Gardens as well
as industrial structures.

Isambard
Kingdom
Brunel gave
evidence to
the
Timelines: knowing the age of a building can help in predicting the presence of cast iron beams

Commission. He argued against rigid rules for bridge building and even called the investigating body ‘The Commission for
Stopping Further Improvements in Bridge Building’. He believed that with proper care in eliminating non-homogeneous aspects
and other imperfections, reliable iron-castings could be made ‘of almost any form and of 20 or 30 tons weight’. However, Brunel
and many other engineers did not bargain for the variability of the tensile strength of cast iron and its low strength. Nor could
they cater for the deceit of some unscrupulous foundries, whose employees would disguise poor castings with lead or
Beaumont’s Egg; a mixture of beeswax, fiddler’s rosin, finest iron borings and lamp black.

The collapse of cast iron beams was not reserved for bridges.
Tom Swailes (1) has researched nine particular collapses from
1824 to 1869, ranging from mills, a prison, offices, and a malt
barn to King’s College dining hall and Somerset House
Terrace. But it was probably the Tay Bridge disaster of 1879
when 75 people died that sealed the matter, although there
was no absolute knowledge of why the structure failed (2). In
the early 19th century wrought iron became the second of the
three metals to gain popularity. Being equally strong in tension
and compression, wrought iron was good for beams, trusses,
and tie-bars, while cast iron remained popular for columns as
it was cheaper, as well as being stronger in compression (see
comparative strengths table, below).

Thus a partnership arose between wrought iron beams and

cast iron columns for framing buildings. In 1851, the three-
storey Crystal Palace was erected with a diagonally braced
frame of circular cast iron columns, riveted wrought iron lattice
Typical iron and steel structural components
beams, and cast iron secondary lattice beams. In 1858-60, the
Boat Store in Sheerness was the first multi-storey building with a portal frame (unbraced) in the world, with cast iron I-section
columns and beams and riveted wrought iron plate girders.

Table 1: Comparative strengths of iron and steel

STRENGTHS ACCORDING TO THE LONDON BUILDING ACTS 1909
Working stresses: Ton/in²
Material
TENSION COMPRESSION SHEAR BEARING Table 2: Distinguishing between materials can normally be
achieved by visual inspection.
Cast iron 1.5 8.0 1.5 10.0
Wrought iron 5.0 5.0 4.0 7.0 Mild steel was the last of the three metals to
come into use, in the 1880s. At the turn of the
Mild steel 7.5 7.5 5.5 11.0
century all three metals were in use,
CAST IRON WROUGHT IRON MILD STEEL sometimes in the same building. By the First
World War steel had supplanted cast and
Surface rust Delaminates Rusts away
wrought iron because of its all-round strength,
Brittle Ductile Ductile reliable quality and cheapness.
Sandy surface Hammered/smooth Smooth surface
It is tempting to presume that 19th century cast
Mould lines – – iron beams in buildings which are still standing
Monolithic sections today must be safe as they have stood the test
Riveted sections Riveted sections
(sometimes decorated) of time. This is probably true for those structures
which are not showing signs of distress, whose
Unequal beam flanges Equal flanges Equal flanges
loads have not increased, or whose materials
have not relaxed or decayed. However, hidden weakening can still lead to sudden failure.

The c1836 roof terrace at 2 Hyde Park Gardens, London, a

Grade II listed building, collapsed in 2002 into an unoccupied
ground floor room (see top illustration, right). The cause was
the failure of a 6.6 metre span cast iron beam supporting a
brick jack-arch roof deck. An accretion of successive roof
finishes had increased the load on the beam, and corrosion of
the beam at its interface with the jack arches had reduced
their composite strength. The beam snapped without warning
near mid-span, exposing a casting flaw which had been filled
with lead. Subsequent investigations revealed that several
similar roof terraces of adjacent houses had been
reconstructed many years previously.

So the legacy of cast iron is still with us today. Apart from

where cast iron beams are visible, such as in railway station This cast iron beam snapped at midspan in 2002.
roofs, we can predict from a building's age, style, and floor
spans the likelihood of their presence. There are always
surprises, such as modest country mansions with timber
floors, and the odd iron beam hidden within them.

Distinguishing cast iron from wrought iron and mild steel

beams can generally be achieved by visual examination. Cast
iron beams normally have unequal top and bottom flanges, or
no top flanges at all. Sometimes beams are hog-backed or
fish-bellied, or their flanges taper on plan, as illustrated in the
table. Also bear in mind that cast iron rusts very little, cannot
take rivets or welds, and can be cast with monolithic details
that cannot be achieved by steel rolling mills, such as lugs, Innocent looking cracks at cast iron beam bearings on columns (arrowed)
can lead to catastrophic failure.
web-stiffeners, end-plates, and dovetail slots. Indeed the
design of early joints between cast iron members imitated
timber joints. Latterly, bolts were used.

Common defects include:

fractured beam flanges at their column seats (see middle

photo, above right)
failure of ‘burning-on’ repairs
disguised casting defects
 severed tie rods in jack-arch floors
corrosion of beam/jack-arch interfaces.

The appraisal of cast iron is a specialist and exhaustive task

for structural engineers. It is tempting to avoid appraisal by
believing that a structure that has stood for 100 years or so
without falling down will surely stand for another year yet...
and then another, and so on to infinity. This is the infamous
100-year rule and it is, of course, highly misleading. If we are
to ensure that our legacy of cast iron beams continues to
serve us safely then an iron will is needed to apply a more
rigorous approach: ultimately nothing short of specialist
A jack-arch floor, carried by a circular cast iron column. Note the monolithic
structural appraisal will do. splayed capital of the column, which can only be achieved by casting.

Recommended Reading
C Richardson, The AJ Guide to Structural Surveys,
Architectural Press, London, 1986
M Bussell, Appraisal of Existing Iron and Steel Structures,
Steel Construction Institute, Ascot, Berkshire, 1997

Notes
(1) T Swailes, '19th century "fireproof" buildings, their strength
and robustness', The Structural Engineer, October 2003
(2) J Prebble, The High Girders, Pan Books, London, 1968

This article is reproduced from The Building Conservation

Directory, 2005

Author
CLIVE RICHARDSON is a structural engineer and Technical
Director of Cameron Taylor. He is also Engineer to the Dean
and Chapter of Westminster Abbey, Technical Secretary of the
ICE/ IStructE CARE Panel, and author of many technical
works, including The AJ Guide to Structural Surveys.

Further information Cast iron, wrought iron and mild steel have the same basic ingredients, but
the high residual carbon content of cast iron makes it brittle and unreliable for
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