Thomas Botfield (14 February 1762 – 17 January 1843) was an English metallurgist, geologist, magistrate and deputy-lieutenant of
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, 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
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...
as it was used in the 1830s and 1840s.
His father was Thomas Botfield (1738–1801) who acquired a fortune from
collieries
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...
and iron manufacture, his mother Margaret, only daughter of William Baker of Bromley,
Worfield
Worfield is a village and civil parish in Shropshire in the West Midlands, England. It is northwest of London and west of Wolverhampton. It is north of Bridgnorth and southeast of Telford. The parish, which includes the hamlet of Chesterton, i ...
, Shropshire. Thomas Botfield, the younger, born at
Dawley, Shropshire, in 1762, was educated at the endowed school of
Cleobury Mortimer
Cleobury Mortimer (, ) is a market town and civil parish in southeast Shropshire, England, which had a population of 3,036 at the 2011 census. It was granted a market charter by Henry III in 1226.''Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum in Turri Londinensi ...
. He worked as a colliery manager and married in 1800. Seated at Hopton Court in
Hopton Wafers
Hopton Wafers is a small village and civil parish in south Shropshire, England. The population of the public parish at the 2011 census was 753. It is located on the A4117 road to the west of the market town of Cleobury Mortimer.
Its unusual-sou ...
, whose manor he purchased in 1812, he funded the rebuilding of Hopton's parish church in 1825.
[Cleobury Benefice]
Hopton Wafers He served as
High Sheriff of Shropshire
This is a list of sheriffs and high sheriffs of Shropshire
The sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the high sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibili ...
in 1818
[
He was elected F.R.S. on 18 April 1833.
In 1842, the year before his death, he was appointed treasurer of the Salop Infirmary in ]Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...
.[ He died in January 1843 aged 80.
]
See also
* Hot blast
References
External links
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/4f930d90-53c2-4d02-bcfc-6616c13fdd46
{{DEFAULTSORT:Botfield, Thomas
1762 births
1843 deaths
English geologists
English metallurgists
Fellows of the Royal Society