††††The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the second half of the 18th century, led to a renewed use of iron and great advances in iron working techniques. Today most iron is converted straight into steel, which is used to manufacture cars, machinery, tools, girders and pipes. Iron itself is strongly magnetic and is used in all permanent magnets and electromagnets and in transformers and magnetic amplifiers. In the human body iron is an essential component of haemoglobin, the pigment in red blood cells that transports oxygen to all parts of the body.
