Metal Staircases & Balustrade

The modern replacement for wrought iron is mild steel and this is now the most common form of steel used today.

Mild or low carbon steel is formed from iron containing a small percentage of carbon (approximately 0.05%-0.25%). It is widely used as it has similar properties to wrought iron – in that it is malleable and ductile and suitable for many applications but unlike wrought iron, it is more cost effective as it can be mass produced.

Steel was produced in bloomery furnaces for thousands of years, but it wasn’t produced on the industrial scale it is today until the 17^th century after more efficient production methods were discovered, including the production of blister and crucible steel.

The invention of the Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, saw a new era of mass- produced steel! It takes its name from Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1856 (it was also said to have been independently discovered by William Kelly, an American inventor in 1851, though there is little evidence to support the claim). The key principle of the process was the removal of impurities from the iron through oxidisation – blowing air through the molten iron. The process was refined over decades, thus improving the quality of the steel produced and with these improvements for the most part, mild steel replaced wrought iron.

Basic Oxygen Steel (BOS) was developed in 1948 by Swiss engineer Robert Durrer and commercialised between 1952-53 by Austrian steel making company VOEST and ÖAMG. It is a refined version of the Bessemer converter, blowing oxygen through the molten iron instead of air. This largely replaced earlier methods by further lowering the cost of production and increasing the quality of the final product.

 Modern furnaces have the ability to take a charge of iron up to 400 tons and convert it into steel in a mere 40mins (approximately) compared with the 10-12 hours it would take in an open hearth furnace! Today, steel is one of the most common manmade materials in the world, with more than 1.6 billion tons produced annually!

Ironwork is commonly supposed to be nearly free of maintenance. Unlike wood work which is religiously subjected to a stern regime of regular painting, ironwork is frequently left to rust undisturbed for long periods, so much so that the only attention that much even important ironwork receives, is periodic major overhaul, at great expense. This could be avoided by frequent small attention. Insistence on frequent inspection would be of benefit, perhaps once a year, with immediate, and usually trivial remedial work to arrest any developing problems.

Much of what we know about the Celts has been learnt through oral tradition. It is thought that the name given to them by the Greeks – Keltoi – means ” hidden people ” due to the reluctance of the Celts to commit any of their vast wealth of knowledge to writing.
What we know of their early history has been largely learnt through archaeological excavations of the settlements and burial sites found across Europe.
The Celts probably descended from Stone Age peoples of Europe, who began to populate the continent about 10,000 BC.
At the start of the first millennium BC the Celts possessed great skill in metal work, especially wrought iron, and by the 6th century BC they had a formidable armament of spears, swords, axes as well as agricultural implements. By 450 BC new centres of Celtic civilisation emerged and increasing mastery of iron work led to specialisation – wagon makers, shipbuilders, wheelwright etc – Amid this increased productivity an artistic style emerged; ” La Tene ,” design was bold and complex, and quickly became dominant throughout Celtic lands. Celtic affluence grew, and around 400 BC Celtic tribes crossed The Alps, sacking Rome in 391 BC and settling in Northern Italy.

A century later they pushed into Greece and Asia Minor and by 250 BC ” La Tene ” culture was at its height. The Celts resumed full scale trading over their old trade routes and by the second century BC new established fortified towns replaced many of the old hill forts, abandoned in the fifth century BC. Serving as centres of commerce and manufacture they were immensely lucrative; however Celtic trade grew increasingly dependent on Roman markets.

In 192 BC Rome established its supremacy and later conquered the area of Southern France we now know as Province. By the mid first century BC the Romans began their assault on Western Europe. With their loyalties still tribal rather than national the Celts were unable to mount a unified resistance.
Gradually the Celts adopted the ways of their victors but Celtic Culture remained dominant in Britain until AD 43 when Rome conquered the Southern half of the island. Ireland then became the bastion of the Celts until it’s fifth century conversion to Christianity. Even after that, tribal memories held on to Celtic languages and legends, which were at last written down by eight-century Irish Christian clerics.