John Wilkinson

Wilkinson was an English industrialist who pioneered the use of cast iron, an essential new material of the Industrial Revolution and was named “Ironmad Wilkinson”.

Born and raised in Clifton, Cumberland in a family of ironworker, John bought his first blast furnace in Broadley, near Wolver Hampton in 1748. Few years later, in 1762, he founded the Bersham Ironworks and quickly emerged as one of the major providers of iron in England. Wilkinson successfully expanded his production facilities to various industrial cities.

Wilkinson invented the boring machine patented in 1774, an invention that made a significant contribution to the field of weapon design. Namely, thanks to Wilkinson’ machine the produced cannons were much safer and accurate than that built by traditional method which implied casting a one-piece cannon with a core. Thus, he started to manufacture cannons for the British government. Moreover, production of swivels, howitzers, mortars and shells made him a very wealthy man. He was also supplier of arms to the American, and illicitly, to the French.

Wilkinson is responsible for erecting the first cast-iron bridge in the world, caked “Iron Bridge” which spanned the River Severn southeast of Shrewsbury. Wilkinson died in 1808 and was buried in an iron coffin.