Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 May 2012
Three hundred years after the first production of coke, the history of this importantbreakthrough, an energy transition that, together with the invention of the steam engine,opened way to the industrial revolution, is still thought provoking on subjects such asthe rate of change and the factors that are favoring or slowing down the rate of change,the role of infrastructure and technology in the development of industry, the role ofprotectionism or free-trade on technological changes and last, but not the least, thedevelopment of science and technology as tools for the improvement of the processes andproducts. From the first information of G. Jars and his metallurgical trips and the smallscale tests of the first pioneers of the Enlightment, to the development of large sizeplants incorporating new technologies, this history is that of the important social switchfrom a small scale peasant seasonal activity with many workshops, to the large scaleintegrated industry concentrated in a few places and connected with the suppliers and themarket by the new transportation infrastructure (canals, railways) developed incontinental Europe throughout the XIXth century. Scientists (such as Ebelmen, Lecocq,Boudouard, Berthellot) and technologists (such as the innovation brought by Belgianfurnaces) have played an important role in this mutation.