Ironworks

For artifacts or architectural features made of iron, see ironwork.

Ironworks at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England

An ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and/or steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the plural of ironworks is ironworks.

Ironworks is used as an omnibus term covering works undertaking one or more iron producing processes. These include bloomeries, blast furnaces, finery forges, and puddling furnaces, slitting mills and rolling mills. The term is also used, perhaps less correctly, for various works that used iron, including iron foundries, and shipbuilders.

Ironworks of various sorts have existed for centuries – the first ironworks in America were established on the James River as early as 1619 – but they became a central part of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century when advances in smelting technology permitted the smelting of iron (using coke) on a truly industrial scale.

Notable ironworks include:

Bath Iron Works in Maine USA
The Coalbrookdale Ironworks
Cyfarthfa Ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, south Wales
Dowlais Ironworks also at Merthyr Tydfil
Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Co. Ltd, a shipbuilding firm on the banks of the River Thames
Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond, Virginia
East Jordan Iron Works in East Jordan, Michigan

In the computer game Civilization IV, the ironworks is a national wonder that greatly increases the production of the city it's built in which has access to coal and iron

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