Tinplate and Pontypool
Before the end of the 17th century, iron makers had found it very difficult to make thin iron sheets. It could only be made by laboriously hammering out the metal by hand which produced sheets that were often uneven and thick.
At his ironworks in Pontypool, John Hanbury developed a heavy rolling mill through which heated iron bars were rolled a number of times to produce a sheet that was smooth and thin. The sheets could then be made into a range of kitchenware including pots, kettles and saucepans. Hanbury also developed a cheap way of coating the iron sheets with a very thin layer of rust resistant tin. It was these two developments that led to a method of japanning metal which was both hard wearing and beautiful.