John Wilkinson (industrialist)
| John Wilkinson | |
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John Wilkinson by Lemuel Francis Abbott
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| Born | 1728 Little Clifton, Cumberland, England |
| Died | 14 July 1808 (aged 79–80) Bradley, Staffordshire, England |
| Cause of death | Diabetes |
| Resting place | Lindale Church, Lindale-in-Cartmel, England |
| Residence | The Lawns, Broseley, Shropshire (and elsewhere) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Ironmaster, Entrepreneur, builder of first iron boat, partner in world's first iron bridge |
| Website | broseley |
John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson (1728 – 14 July 1808) was an English industrialist who pioneered the manufacture of cast iron and the use of cast-iron goods during the Industrial Revolution. He was the inventor of a precision boring machine that could bore cast iron cylinders, such as those used in steam engines of James Watt. His boring machine has been called the first machine tool. He also developed a blowing device for blast furnaces that allowed higher temperatures, increasing their efficiency.
John Wilkinson was born in Little Clifton, Bridgefoot, Cumberland (now part of Cumbria), the eldest son of Isaac Wilkinson and Mary Johnson. Isaac was then the potfounder at the blast furnace there, one of the first to use coke instead of charcoal, which was pioneered by Abraham Darby.
John and his half-brother William, who was 17 years younger, were raised in a non-conformist Presbyterian family and he was educated at a dissenting academy at Kendal, run by Dr Caleb Rotherham. His sister Mary married another non-conformist, Joseph Priestley in 1762. Priestley also played a role in educating John's younger brother, William.
In 1745, when John was 17, he was apprenticed to a Liverpool merchant for five years and then entered into partnership with his father.
When his father moved to Bersham furnace near Wrexham in 1753 John remained at Kirkby Lonsdale in Westmorland where he married Ann Maudesley on 12 June 1755.
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Wikipedia