Society
A process for converting scrap metal into high-quality iron, which was crucial to the Industrial Revolution, was devised by Black metallurgists who were enslaved and transported to Jamaica by the British
By Michael Marshall
Coalbrookdale by Night, by Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg, depicts a village in Shropshire, England, that was a centre of iron smelting in 1801
World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
A metallurgical process that was crucial to the Industrial Revolution was invented by Black metallurgists, many of whom were enslaved – and not by British entrepreneur Henry Cort, who took the credit.
“This innovation is the basis of suspension bridges, iron ship building, textile mills,” says historian of science Jenny Bulstrode at University College London. “This innovation was in fact stolen by Henry Cort.”
Despite his importance to the …
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