| STAGE 1: LOOKING AT THE EVIDENCE
For the purposes of a VR model, different types
of historical source material are required, with a particular
emphasis on those which contain dimensional or scale information.
In this case, a variety of archival sources were consulted, the
most valuable of which included contemporary field surveys made
for local landowners (and predating the earliest Ordnance Survey
plans), Poor Law rate books which give details of taxable property,
and the journals and drawings of foreign visitors to Sheffield
who were interested in documenting Huntsman's new steelmaking
process.
As Huntsman chose a village location for his steelworks, local
Poor Law rate books do not exist for the early phase of development.
Fortunately, contemporary survey evidence proved more fruitful,
as the furnaces were built on ground leased from two major landowners,
both of whom employed the Fairbank family of surveyors to produce
plans. However, these surveys were primarily concerned with the
accuracy of land boundaries and general building arrangements,
so a degree of interpretation was required. Furthermore, due to
the drawings only surviving in the form of field notes, the raw
measurements had to be redrawn from first principles to arrive
at a scaled plan.
Using a combination of these sources and plotting the development
of the site over time, it was possible to reconstruct an accurate
plan of the steelworks and to identify the various buildings that
made up the complex.
Having established a chronology of forms and their respective
functions, the notes and drawings made by visitors to Sheffield
during the study period -- many of them for industrial espionage
purposes -- were examined for potential matches. The ground plan
of a crucible furnace observed by the Swedish engineer Erik Geisler
presented a particularly close proportional match to Huntsman's,
although the issue of scale remained unresolved.
Geisler had dimensioned his drawing of a crucible furnace with
a scale of "alnar", a unit of measurement that varied
across Northern Europe. It was found that by using the length
of a Low Country "ell", a closely related unit which
was approximately the distance between a man's elbows with his
hands placed together (a practical way of taking measurements
in situ), Geisler's drawing was a very good match for Huntsman's
plan.
This discovery enabled the building to be elevated into three
dimensions and for its relationship with the site and other outbuildings
(which Geisler did not document) to be tested. Other elements
of the furnace could now be added to this hypothetical three-dimensional
framework, due to the basic dimensions and arrangement of the
crucible furnace and its equipment remaining fairly constant throughout
its lifespan.
The survival of an early crucible steel furnace at Abbeydale Works
near Sheffield also greatly assisted the process of reconstruction.
Built about thirty years after Huntsman's first furnace at Attercliffe,
the Abbeydale furnace may be taken as representative of the materials
and construction techniques employed at the time, particularly
in suburban locales.
Other parts of Huntsman's complex were reconstructed from similar
agricultural building types, such as the horse-powered grinding
mill in which clay for crucibles and glass for flux was broken
up. A row of terraced houses built by Huntsman to accommodate
his workers was also very similar in scale and layout to the workers'
cottages at Abbeydale.
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