bar iron

method, process, technology

Wrought or rolled iron in the form of a bar.

Johann Conrad Fischer distinguished between conventional wrought or bar iron and smelted, pure bar iron (‘Fischer’s bar iron’), which was more difficult to produce. He was proud of his ability to smelt in his furnaces and crucibles “pure bar iron without any admixture […] while preserving its ductility and its property of not toughening as a result of annealing and quenching in water.” (Journal 1825–1827, p. 43). The transfer of this knowledge seems to have been the purpose of the partnership with John Martineau. His son Johann Conrad Fischer the Younger is thought to have produced pure bar iron for Martineau in the 1820s.

It is sometimes, though rarely, referred to as profile iron.

Traveljournal 1814

Traveljournal 1825

Traveljournal 1825–1827

Traveljournal 1845

Traveljournal 1846

Traveljournal 1851

  • Fischer, Johann Conrad: Tagebücher. Bearbeitet von Karl Schib. Schaffhausen 1951.

Cite as: bar iron. In: Travel Reports of a Pioneer: Digital Edition of the Travel Journals of Johann Conrad Fischer 1794–1851. Published by Franziska Eggimann. Edited by Franziska Eggimann, Nicolau Lutz, Valerija Rukavina und Christopher Zoller-Blundell. Schlatt 2023, Version 1.2, https://johannconradfischer.com/en/keywords/gfa-keywords-8509, viewed on 7 June 2025.