Wrought Iron

Wrought iron is a low-carbon iron alloy, worked by hand or machine hammering and rolling rather than cast, that is more ductile, tougher and better able to resist tension and repeated stress than brittle cast iron. Blacksmiths and later industrial rolling mills used it for structural members, chains, gates, railings and decorative grillework from antiquity through the nineteenth century, and its fibrous, hammer-refined internal structure gave it corrosion resistance still visible in surviving historic ironwork today. It was gradually displaced through the late nineteenth century by mild steel, which could be produced far more cheaply in bulk while offering comparable or superior strength.