Editing GKN (section)

===1759 to 1900===
{{main|Dowlais Ironworks}}
[[Image:George Childs Dowlais Ironworks 1840.jpg|thumbnail|250px|''Dowlais Ironworks'' by George Childs (1840)]]
The origins of GKN lie in the founding of the Dowlais Ironworks in the village of [[Dowlais]], [[Merthyr Tydfil]], [[Wales]], by [[Thomas Lewis (industrialist)|Thomas Lewis]] and [[Isaac Wilkinson]]. John Guest was appointed manager of the works in 1767, having moved from [[Broseley]].<ref>Owen 1977, Page 13.</ref> In 1786, Guest was succeeded by his son, Thomas Guest, who formed the Dowlais Iron Company with his son-in-law William Taitt. Guest introduced many innovations and the works prospered.<ref>Owen 1977, Pages 15–16.</ref>

Under Guest's leadership, alongside his manager John Evans, and after his death in 1852 that of his wife [[Lady Charlotte Guest]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=History, section "Lady Charlotte Guest: a pioneering woman" |url=https://www.gknaerospace.com/en/about-gkn-aerospace/history/#timeline-3 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180529204138/http://www.gkngroup.com/aboutus/ourheritage/Pages/Lady-Charlotte-Guest-a-pioneering-woman.aspx |archive-date=29 May 2018 |website=GKN Aerospace}}</ref> the Dowlais Ironworks gained the reputation of being "one of the World's great industrial concerns".<ref name="James 2004">James 2004, {{page needed|date=February 2020}}.</ref> 
Though the [[Bessemer process]] was [[license]]d in 1856, nine years of detailed planning and project management were needed before the first steel was produced. The company thrived with its new cost-effective production methods, forming alliances with the [[Consett Iron Company]] and [[Krupp]].<ref name="James 2004" /> By 1857, [[G.T. Clark]] and William Menelaus, his manager, had constructed the "Goat Mill", the world's most powerful [[rolling mill]].<ref>Owen 1977, Pages 57–58.</ref>

By the mid-1860s, Clark's reforms had borne fruit in renewed [[Profit (accounting)|profitability]]. Clark delegated day-to-day management to Menelaus, his trusteeship terminating in 1864 when ownership passed to [[Ivor Bertie Guest, 1st Baron Wimborne|Sir Ivor Guest]]. Clark continued to direct policy, building a new plant at the docks at [[Cardiff]] and vetoing a [[joint-stock company]]. He formally retired in 1897.<ref name="James 2004" />