Bedson
Bedson, George
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DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Manchester?
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH: ?
ASSESSMENT: His discovery had a major impact (through barbed wire) on the development on the settlement of the American West..
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In 1860 George Bedson invented a machine for continuously annealing and galvanizing iron and steel wire. The wire was passed as a continuous strand through an annealing furnace, then through acid pickle, and so to the bath of molten zinc, being finally wound on a reel.
Galvanizing was soon being used for steel wires intended for ropeways, guy-wires for suspension bridges. Ichabod Washburn of the American firm Washburn & Co* became friendly with Bedson, and collaborated on new rolling processes.
In 1862, Bedson constructed and patented a continuous iron- and steel-rolling mill, installed at Johnson & Bros., Manchester and used to make quarter-inch rods from wrought iron bars.
In 1871, a continuous mill of the Bedson type was built in England and exported to the US where it was set up at Worcester, MA
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Singer, Charles et al, Eds., A History of Technology, Vol. 5, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1958
McCallum, Frances T and Henry D, The Wire that Fenced the West, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 1966.