Henry Robinson Palmer (1795 1844, the founder of the Institute of Civil Engineers) is credited with inventing corrugating iron which renders the sheets much stronger (London, 1828). The process of galvanising protects the sheets from oxidising, it involves dipping in zinc which alloys to the steel surface preferentially sacrificing itself to weathering offering protection from rust for possibly 50 years in clean, unsalt-laden air.
Popularity increased for ‘the galvanise’ (Dorset term of endearment) during the nineteenth and at least half of the twentieth century. It was used for farming and industrial buildings, for substitute roofing especially for thatch and for the creation of small buildings of all kinds based upon its cheapness and its ease of use. Perhaps for these same reasons it has not been highly valued, but it has its admirers.
Peter Beacham (English Heritage) writes on corrugated iron alongside James Ravilious‘ photographs for “Down the Deep Lanes”
Lizzie Induni and the Dorset Buildings Group are campaigning for the corrugated iron buildings in Dorset and the South West.
Here is a glimpse of their archive
BACK to IRON HOME or
ON to CORRUGATED IRON in
the WEST COUNTRY and AROUND THE WORLD