Englishmen Abraham Darby (1678 to 1717) invented coke smelting in 1709

and, advanced the mass production of brass and iron goods. Coke smelting
replaced charcoal with coal in metal foundries during the process of refining
metals; this was important to Britain's future since charcoal at that time was
becoming scarce and was more expensive.

Sand Casting
Abraham Darby scientifically studied brass production and was able to make
advances in that industry that turned Great Britain into an important brass
goods exporter. Darby founded the world's first metallurgy laboratory at his
Baptist Mills Brass Works factory, where he refined brass making. He
developed the process of sand molding that allowed iron and brass goods to be
mass-produced at a lower cost per unit. Before Abraham Darby, brass and iron
goods had to be individually cast. His process made the production of cast iron
and brass goods a continuous process. Darby received a patent for his sand
casting in 1708.

Greater Detail
Darby combined the existing technologies of casting iron with casting brass
that produced goods of greater intricacy, thinness, smoothness, and detail.
This proved important to the steam engine industry that came later, Darby's
casting methods made the production of the iron and brass steam
engines possible.

The Darby Lineage

Decedents of Abraham Darby also made contributions to the iron industry.
Darby's son Abraham Darby II (1711 to 1763) improved the quality of coke
smelted pig iron for forging into wrought iron. Darby's grandson Abraham
Darby III (1750 to 1791) constructed the world's first iron bridge, over the
Severn River at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire in 1779.
Abraham Darby contributed two significant innovations to the iron- and brass-
working industries: first, he patented a method of sand-casting that replaced
individual production with mass production; and second, he introduced coke—a
residue from coal that has been distilled to remove its gases—as a fuel for firing
foundries. Ironically, Darby’s coke-firing method did not catch on until after his death
when his son, Abraham Darby Jr., expanded the influence of the family iron-smelting
business. His grandson, Abraham Darby III, built the world’s first iron bridge at the
seat of the family’s ironworks dynasty.
Darby was born at Wren’s Nest, near Dudley, in Worcestershire, England, in 1678.
His father was a Quaker farmer, and Darby honored this religion’s belief in social
simplicity throughout his life. He apprenticed to a malt-kiln maker near Birmingham
and trained in engineering, before establishing his own malt-mill-making business at
Baptist Mills in Bristol in 1698. Two years later, he married, but his first son,
Abraham Darby II, was not born until 1711.
In about 1704, Darby visited the low countries of Holland to recruit Catholic brass
founders, skilled in the making of brass battery, harnessing water to power hammers
in shaping cold brass plate into hollowware. Four years later, in 1708, Darby
patented a new technique for sand-casting iron (without loam or clay) for iron pots
and ironware. This innovation introduced mass production into the metalworking
industry, replacing the handmade process of producing one item at a time.

Also in 1708, Darby founded the Bristol Iron Company, and soon thereafter he
established works at Coalbrookdale on the Severn River, a perfect location, as it
provided ample supplies of iron ore as well as low-sulfur coal. This Clod-type coal,
mined deep in the ground, proved to be the key to Darby’s most significant
innovation—the use of coke instead of charcoal to fire the iron. Within a year, Darby
had devised a technique for smelting iron with coke. Three years later, horses
delivered 400 loads of coal a week to Baptist Mills, where the brass and iron works
used 250 tons of coal in 1712.
Abraham Darby the elder died at Madley Court, in Worcestershire on March 8,
1717, before his coke-smelting process caught on. Coke was traditionally used in the
smelting of copper and lead, but ironworkers remained true to charcoal, despite its
softness and increasing scarcity. As well, Darby tended to conduct business
exclusively with other Quakers, thus limiting the influence of his coke-smelting
process in the ironworking industry at large.
Abraham Darby II, proved to be a much more astute business person than his
father. He started working at Coalbrookdale in 1728 and moved into management
within two years. He eventually took over the company, transforming it into a highly
successful enterprise. Perhaps the major factor fueling his success was the advent
of thomas newcomen’s steam engine, which improved the market for iron, in that it
powered six-ton, 10-foot-long mine-pumping machines that required the strong iron
produced by coke-smelting. By 1758, the younger Darby’s reorganized company had
cast more than a hundred cylinders for such mine-pumping machines. Darby also
used Newcomen steam engines to blast his coke-burning furnaces, increasing
efficiency over water-powered blasting.
Abraham Darby Jr. died in 1763, before he could realize plans to build the world’s
first iron bridge. Five years later, his son, Abraham Darby III, took over the family
business at the age of 18 and resurrected his father’s plans to span the Seven at
Coalbrookdale from Medley parish to Broseley parish with an iron bridge. It was not
until 1777, however, that work began on the project. By 1779, after two years of solid
work casting and constructing the bridge, Darby III completed the first iron bridge in
the world. The Society of Arts presented him with its gold medal in honor of this
achievement.
Unfortunately, Darby III did not inherit his father’s business acumen, and he ran the
family company into debt, in part by purchasing Hade-ley May house in 1781.
However, he did contribute other legacies to his family’s name, establishing Coalport
as a shipping facility linking Coalbrookdale to the world before selling it to Richard
Reynolds in 1788, a year before his death in 1789.
Darby III also continued the family lineage by fathering Abraham Darby IV, who
also entered the family business. It was under the fourth generation of Darbys that
the Coalbrookdale works produced the iron used in the first railway locomotive,
designed with a high-pressure boiler by richard trevithick.