Light Chain

The images show us Elizabeth Jennings working at her anvil, a job she began when she was thirteen.

The workshop would have contained a small breeze (coke) fired hearth, hand bellows and hand tools consisting of a small anvil, a "swedge" for bending the iron rod, a "hardy" for cutting the rod to length, a "twister", tongs, two hammers and a water "bosh" for cooling the ironwork.

The end of a 10 ft (3m) length of rod was placed in the fire to bring it up to red heat. A child was often used to operate the bellows, or as it was known, the blast. The end of the rod was then nearly cut through to the length needed for the link. The short piece of rod, still connected to the main length by a thin piece of metal, was then bent around to form the rough link.

The rough link, in the form of a letter “U”, was broken off the rod by a twist of the hand, and threaded through the previous link. The ends were then "scarfed", or flattened, and laid over each other. The end of the link was then raised to welding heat in the fire and welded on the anvil using a hammer.

If the chain was to lay flat, like for an animal harness so that it was comfortable for the animal, the end of the hot link was placed in the bender and twisted.

If the chain needed to be smooth the hammer marks were smoothed out using a dolly. This is a tool which is shaped like the rod and placed over the welded link while still hot. The dolly is then hammered, which smooths out all trace of the hammer marks.

Many types of chain were made in this way, the manufacturer Samual Lewis & Co. listing over 140 types in its catalogue.

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Reference:	671
Keywords:
Archive Ref:	K. Gale Lib 1994/013/1250
Updated:	Wed 21 Mar 2007 - 1
Interpretation written by	Louis Howe
Author's organisation	Curatorial
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