This Mr. Dudley was an early victim of the patent laws, which, to this day,
have proved to be for the benefit of lawyers and officials, and the
tantalization of true inventors and discoverers. The following extracts
contain his story, and enable us to compare the present with the then state
of iron manufacture:--
"Having former knowledge and delight in ironworks of my father's when I was
but a youth, afterwards, at twenty years old, was I fetched from Oxford, then
of Baliol College, anno 1619, to look after and manage three ironworks of my
father's, one furnace and two forges in the chace of Pensnel, in
Worcestershire; but wood and charcoal growing very scanty, and pit-coals in
great quantities abounding near the furnace, did induce me to alter my
furnace and to attempt by my new invention, the making of iron with pit-coal,
and found at my trial or blast, facere est addere inventioni. After I had
proved by a second blast and trial, the feasibility of making iron with pit-
coal and sea-coal, I found by my new invention the quality good and
profitable, but the quantity did not exceed above three tons a week."
After this, the inventor obtained a patent from King James I.
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