Ironmaster
In 1618, at the age of 20, Dud left Balliol College, Oxford, to take charge of his father's furnace and forges on Pensnett Chase. Later he referred to 'wood and charcoal growing then scant and pit-coles ... abounding', so began to use the latter. He turned the coal into coke, a hard, foam-like mass of almost pure carbon made from bituminous coal, and later claimed to have perfected the use of coal instead of charcoal for iron production.
Dudley probably modified his furnace to accommodate the new process, but the quantity of iron initially produced was reduced to about three tons a week from a furnace. Dudd wrote to his father, then in London, informing him of his success, desiring him to immediately seek a patent from King James. Dudley's patent, dated 22 February 1622, was taken out by (and in the name of) his father Edward, Lord Dudley.
Dudley proceeded with the manufacture of iron at Pensnett, and Cradley in Staffordshire, and a year after the patent was granted he was able to send a considerable quantity of the new iron for trial to the Tower of London. Under the King's command, many experiments were made with it: its qualities were fairly tested, and it was pronounced "good merchantable iron".
The Black Country, including Dudley, was already a major centre of iron manufacture in England. With such an obvious abundance of coal, some places being found in seams up to ten feet thick, and ironstone four feet in depth immediately under the coal, and with limestone adjacent to both, the ability to make iron with coal (coke) held out the prospect of great profits, but Dudd Dudley failed to obtain them. As water power was the main means of driving bellows for furnaces, as well as drop hammers, rolling and sharpening mills, iron production and working in Staffordshire and Worcestershire was concentrated along the small rivers: the Worcestershire Stour, its main tributary, the River Smestow, and many smaller streams in their catchment.
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