Invention Timeline - Dud Dudley, English Manufacturer and Metallurgist; Patented the Practicability of Smelting Iron With Fuel Made from Pit-Coal
b. ? 1599 and d. October 25, 1684
English manufacturer and metallurgist. He became manager of his father’s works and proved the practicability of smelting iron with fuel made from pit-coal. A patent was granted February 22, 1620. When the civil war broke out he joined the royal forces, left his iron-works, and while in the army he turned his practical experience into account by directing the forging of drakes of bar-iron, which were found of great use. He succeeded in obtaining the means to prosecute his original invention after a long series of misfortunes and suffering.
Now as this rayless gloom aside I fling,
Thy realm of action spreading on the view,
Calls to the sooty Blacksmith-be a king!
Thy reign renew;
Grasping thy mace again, rise and DO!
And as the massive hamemr thunders down,
Shaping the stubborn iron to the plan,
Know that each stroke adds lustre to the crown,
And yon wide span
Of gazing planets shout-behold a MAN!
A glorious Man! and thy renown shall be
Borne by the winds and waters through all time
While there’s a keel to carve it on the sea
From clime to clime,
Or God ordains that idleness is crime!
—The Blacksmith’s Night: Ralph Hoyt
