John Wilkinson (industrialist)

John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson (1728 – 1808) was a British industrialist who suggested the use of cast iron for many roles where other materials had previously been used.

His "iron madness" reached a peak in the 1790s, when he had almost everything around him made of iron, even several coffins and a massive obelisk to mark his grave.

John Wilkinson was born in Clifton, Cumberland, the son of Isaac Wilkinson, who was then the potfounder at the blast furnace there, one of the first to use coke. This was one of the earliest to use mineral fuel, being built shortly after the potfounding patent of Abraham Darby had expired. Darby was of course the first person to establish a long-lasting business based on using coke to smelt iron instead of the much more expensive charcoal.

John probably worked with his father in his foundry (which included a blast furnace at Bersham in Denbighshire, but in the late 1750s, he established his own ironworks at Willey in Shropshire and Bradley in Bilston, near Wolverhampton. In 1761, he took over Bersham as well.

Among his products were cannon. These were difficult to cast as the presence of 'honeycombs' (blow holes) was unacceptable to the Board of Ordnance. Traditionally cannon had been cast with a core, but Wilkinson in 1774 proposed casting them solid and boring a barrel. Cannon had long been bored to remove imperfections in the casting, but casting solid made them a much better. Wilksinson also invented and patented in 1775 a new kind of boring machine, where the cannon was turned against a fixed tool (rather than vice versa), which made the bore more accurate. Unfortunately for him, his invention was not novel, and his patent was eventually repealed.

Another important product was steam engine cylinders. Because his cylinders were so accurately bored, he became the main supplier of these for Boulton & Watt, and also licensed steam engines from them to assist in his ironworks. He also encouraged them to provide steam engines to operate forges, and rotary engines for driving mills, the first rotary engine being installed at Bradley in 1783.

Unknown to Boulton & Watt, Wilkinson was also producing complete "pirated" engines. This was leaked to them by Wilkinson's younger brother, William, after he returned from Europe in the late 1780s and the two had had an argument over their partnership in certain works. Boulton & Watt sued him. As their steam engine patent would soon expire, they established their own Soho Foundry at Smethwick so as to sell complete engines, rather than merely designing them and collecting a royalty.

In 1779 Wilkinson was also a major shareholder in the Iron Bridge, encouraging the other shareholders to make the bridge entirely from iron, though it was Abraham Darby III, rather than he, who actually built it. In 1787 he launched the first iron barge. He patented several other inventions.

External links

* The Brymbo Heritage Group

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