Thomas Botfield (geologist)

Thomas Botfield FRS (14 February 1762 – 17 January 1843) was an English metallurgist, geologist, magistrate and deputy-lieutenant of Shropshire, and inventor of a method of smelting and making iron using the principle of "gas flame or heated air in the blast of furnaces". Botfield's 1828 patent seems to have anticipated most of the elements of the blast furnace as it was used in the 1830s and 1840s.

His father was Thomas Botfield (1738–1801) who acquired a fortune from collieries and iron manufacture. Thomas Botfield, the younger, was educated at the endowed school of Cleobury Mortimer. He worked as a colliery manager and married in 1800. He was elected F.R.S. on 18 April 1833.

He was one of the original members of the Geological Society, and early a fellow of the Society of Arts. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society, and of the Horticultural Society, a member of the Royal Institution, and of the Royal Geographical and Agricultural Societies. He was a frequent attendant at the meetings of the British Association, and in his visits to the metropolis rarely missed a meeting of any society to which he belonged.

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