High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Abraham Darby I (14 April 1678 – 8 March 1717) was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that name in an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution. He developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal. This was a major step forward in the production of iron as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution.