David Mushet (1772–1847) was a self-taught Scottish metallurgist, who experimented with the making of iron and steel while working as an accountant for a foundry, and soon became an acknowledged authority on the subject. In 1800 he patented a method to make cast steel from wrought iron. His discovery that the previously ignored black-band ironstone could be used without additional coal to economically manufacture iron transformed the Scottish iron industry. Moving to England he was connected with several foundries where he continued his research, patenting a method of making refined iron in the blast furnace. He became a managing director of the British Iron Company, and was involved in collieries, railway and canal companies. Mushet was a pioneer in technical writing, publishing many papers in the Philosophical Magazine. This two-volume collection was published in 1840, and includes analytical data on many coals and their coking properties.