The English term Oregrounds iron takes its name from the small Swedish city of Öregrund. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Öregrund is a town (pop 1500 in Östhammar Municipality, Uppsala County in eastern Sweden. In the 18th century oregrounds iron was regarded as the best grade available in England. The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system
Oregrounds iron is the equivalent of the Swedish vallonjärn, which literally translates as Walloon iron. Iron (ˈаɪɚn is a Chemical element with the symbol Fe (ferrum and Atomic number 26 The Swedish name derives from the iron being produced by the Walloon version of the finery forge process, as opposed the the German method, which was more common in Sweden. Iron tapped from the Blast furnace is Pig iron, and contains significant amounts of Carbon and Silicon. Actually, the term is more specialised, as all the Swedish Walloon forges made iron from ore ultimately derived from the Dannemora mine. Dannemora is an old mining town (pop 240 in Östhammar Municipality, Uppsala County, Sweden Dannemora mine Dannemora is the location of It was made in about 20 forges mainly in Uppland. Uppland ( is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital
Many of the ironworks were founded by Louis de Geer and other Dutch entrepreneurs who set up ironworks in Sweden in the 1610s and 1620s. Louis De Geer, ( Liège, 17 november 1587, - Amsterdam, 19 june 1652) was a Walloon/Dutch merchant and Most of the early blacksmiths were also Walloon immigrants. blacksmith is a person who creates objects from Iron or Steel by Forging the Metal; i Walloons (Wallons Walons are a Romance people living in Belgium principally in Wallonia.
Quality, uses and marketing
Swedish law required bars of iron to have the forge's mark stamped into it for quality control reasons. In Britain, the iron was known by these 'marks', and the quality of each brand was well-known to the buyers in London, Sheffield, Birmingham and elsewhere. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Sheffield ( is a city and Metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England Birmingham ( ˈbɜːmɪŋəm Ber -ming-um It was divided into two grades:
- 'First oregrounds' came from Österby ('double bullet'), Leufsta (now Lövsta - hoop L), and Åkerby (PL crown). Later Gimo joined them. Östhammar Municipality ( Östhammars kommun) is a municipality in Uppsala County in east central Sweden.
- 'Second oregrounds' came from the other forges, including Forsmark, Harg, Vattholma, and Ullfors. Forsmark is a village with 59 inhabitants on the east coast of Uppland, Sweden.
Its special property was its purity. The manganese content of the Dannemora ore caused impurities, which would otherwise have remained in the iron, to react preferentially with the manganese and to be carried off into the slag. Manganese (ˈmæŋgəniːz is a Chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. Slag is the By-product of Smelting Ore to purify Metals They can be considered to be a mixture of metal Oxides however This level of purity meant that the iron was particularly suitable for conversion to steel by being re-carburized, using the cementation process. Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 Carburization (often referred to as carburizing) is a heat treatment process which iron or steel is heated to "below the melting point in the presence of a solid liquid The cementation process is an obsolete technique for making Steel by Carburization of Iron. This made it particularly suitable for making steel, oregrounds iron was an indispensable raw material for metal manufactures, particularly the Sheffield cutlery industry. Sheffield ( is a city and Metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, England Cutlery refers to any hand Implement used in preparing serving and especially eating Food in the Western world. Substantial quantities were also (until about 1808) bought for use by the British Navy. Year 1808 ( MDCCCVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore known as the Senior Service)
This and other uses absorbed substantially the whole output of the industry. The trade in oregrounds iron was controlled from the 1730s to the 1850s by a cartel of merchants, of whom the longest enduring members were the Sykes family of Hull. Events and trends The Great Awakening - A Protestant religious movement active in the British colonies of North America Events and Trends Industry Production of Steel revolutionized by invention of the Bessemer process Benjamin Silliman The Sykes family of Sledmere own Sledmere House.Their papers are at the University of Hull See also the Sykes Churches Trail. Kingston upon Hull ( almost invariably referred Other participants were resident in (or controlling imports through) London and Bristol. These merchants advanced money to Swedish exporting houses, which in turn advanced it to the ironmasters, thus buying up the output of the forges several years in advance.
References
- K. C. Barrclough, Steelmaking before Bessemer: I Blister Steel (Metals Society, London, 1985).
- K. C. Barrclough, 'Swedish iron and Sheffield steel' History of Technology 12 (1990), 1-39 - originally published in Swedish in A Attman et al. , Forsmark och vallonjärnet [Forsmark and Walloon iron] (Sweden 1987)
- P. W. King, 'The Cartel in Oregrounds Iron' Journal of Industrial History 6(1) (2003), 25-48.
- K-G. Hildebrand, Swedish iron in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: export industry before industrialization (Stockholm 1992).
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