page_title: Yorkshire and the Humber
section_title: Industrial history
hierarchical_section_title: Yorkshire and the Humber / History / Industrial history
caption_attribution_description: English: What was Coal House Once the centre of the Coal Board.
context_page_description: Yorkshire and the Humber is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics for statistical purposes. It comprises most of Yorkshire, as well as North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. It does not include Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland or other areas of the historic county of Yorkshire, are not included in the aforementioned administrative areas. The largest settlements are Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Hull, and York. The population in 2011 was 5,284,000.
  The committees for the regions, including the one for Yorkshire and the Humber, ceased to exist upon the dissolution of Parliament on 12 April 2010; they were not re-established by the newly elected House. Regional ministers were not reappointed by the incoming Coalition Government, and the Government Offices were abolished in 2011.
context_section_description: Stainless steel was invented in 1913 by Harry Brearley of Sheffield, working for Firth Brown Steels (now called Sheffield Forgemasters). SAE 304 stainless steel is the most common stainless steel today, invented by Dr William Herbert Hatfield FRS in 1924 at Firth-Vickers known as Staybrite 18/8, a chromium-nickel steel. Many Swiss watches were mostly made out of Staybrite.
  Crucible steel had been invented in the 1740s by Benjamin Huntsman of Epworth in Lincolnshire (part of the region); previously steel was made by the cementation process; the 1856 Bessemer process allowed much more steel to be made. Sheffield early steel used Swedish bar iron as it had less phosphorus. The fast acting tilting converter was a huge improvement in 1860 for Sheffield steel; the process meant high-phosphorus iron ore from local mines could be used. At one point, Sheffield was producing 10,000 tons of steel a week. The metallurgist Eric Colbeck, when working at Hadfields Limited in Sheffield, invented boron steel for control rods for nuclear reactors. Metallurgists at Firth-Vickers developed the heat-resistant stainless steel (Rex 78) for the turbine blades of Frank Whittle's first engines, and Britain's first jet aircraft. John Marshall of Yorkshire developed the first-ever iron-framed buildings (industrial mills). Sir Robert Hadfield FRS invented manganese steel in 1882, and silicon steel, which allowed the development of electromagnets and consequently electricity; the Hadfields site is now Meadowhall Centre.
  Matthew Murray of Leeds built the first commercially successful steam locomotive (Salamanca) in 1812. The Doncaster Works at Hexthorpe built Britain's most famous steam trains, for the GNR, then LNER (from 1923). The Manchester–Sheffield–Wath electric railway was the UK's longest electrified railway in 1953 when opened. What is now West Yorkshire in the nineteenth century was the heart of Britain's woollen weaving wills, often using Alpaca fiber and by connections to the important Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Joseph Bramah of Barnsley was important in the development of hydraulics, and also developed the hydraulic press in 1795 and in 1778 the flush toilet.
  Joseph Aspdin from Leeds invented Portland cement in 1824; when mixed with aggregates and sand, this produced concrete. John Smeaton was a famous civil engineer from Leeds, and notable for building the first modern-day lighthouse (Eddystone Lighthouse) and for developing hydraulic lime (it is able to set under water), which would lead to cement. Sir Donald Bailey (civil engineer), of Rotherham, invented the Bailey bridge which was important in the later stages of the Second World War for crossing rivers; the design took place in 1940 at the Experimental Bridging Establishment in Christchurch, Dorset (Hampshire before 1974).
  The Clarence Flour Mill was built in 1891 in Hull and produced Britain's first white bread; it became part of Rank Hovis McDougall (RHM) in 1962. Smith & Nephew launched Elastoplast in 1928; since 1992 this has been owned by the German Beiersdorf company. James Henry Atkinson of Leeds invented the mousetrap in 1898. ICI Fibres was headquartered in the Crimple Valley south of Harrogate; the site is now known as Hornbeam Park. The National Coal Board (NCB) was based at Coal House, Doncaster on the A18. Thomas Spencer, founder of M&S, was born in Skipton in 1851. Topshop was founded in 1964 in Sheffield, part of a Peter Robinson shop, itself owned by Burton; Topshop became an independent chain in 1973.
  From 1945 to 2002 all the tennis balls for Wimbledon were made by Slazenger off the A61 in the south of Barnsley. Since 2006, tracks for the UK's railways have been made at Scunthorpe, and much is made for Europe's railways (mainly France, although rolled at Hayange). Terry's Chocolate Orange, first made in 1932, are now made since 2005 by Kraft Foods Polska at Fabryka w Jankowicach in Jankowice, having been bought by Kraft in 1993; Smarties, first made in York in 1937, since 2006 are made at Chocoladen-Werk Hamburg, with the brand being owned by Nestlé since 1988; the
caption: Former Coal House in Doncaster; the peak production of coal in the UK was in 1913, when 9% of the country's male labour force worked down the pit; in the 1970s Britain consumed 2m tonnes of coal a week, which was strategically reduced by reliance on North Sea gas
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