Iron founder
An iron founder (also iron-founder or ironfounder) in its more general sense is a worker in molten ferrous metal, generally working within an iron foundry.[1] However, the term 'iron founder' is usually reserved for the owner or manager of an iron foundry, a person also known in Victorian England as a 'master'. Workers in a foundry are generically described as 'foundrymen'; however, the various craftsmen working in foundries, such as moulders and pattern makers, are often referred to by their specific trades.[2][3]
Historically the appellation "founder" was given to the supervisor of a blast furnace, and persons who made castings in iron or other heavy metal.[4] The term is also often applied to the company or works in which an iron foundry operates.
References
- "The iron founder" supplement. A complete illustrated exposition of the art of casting in iron. Also, the founding of statues; the art of taking casts, pattern modelling; useful formulas and tables (1893)
- Dobraszczyk, P. (2014) Iron, Ornament and Architecture in Victorian Britain: Myth and Modernity ..., Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., pp. 29-32
- Holtzapffel, C. (1843) Turning and Mechanical Manipulation:..., Holtzapffel & Co., London, p. 327
- Edward Hazen, Reuben S. Gilbert, Abraham John Mason, John Ludlow Morton, Stephen H. Gimber, Raphael Hoyle, Charles Burton Uriah Hunt, 1837