The period from roughly 1600 to 1750 was one which saw considerable growth and improvements in all areas of metallurgy -- mining, smelting, alloying, analyzing, and shaping materials. At least as important as these metallurgical advances was the increasing pressure on the whole of metal technology from the spheres of economic, political, and social life during these same years. The rapid depleting of forests forced the use of mineral coal as a major fuel; it was used in the form of coke, which was also better adapted to use in larger furnaces. The increasing scale of warfare put a continuing strain on the founder to produce more, and more reliable, cannon. And, finally, the quickening of the Scientific Revolution, which itself had important roots in the arts and mysteries of the craftsmen, began to have increasing relevance to the improvements of those same processes. Between the practical triumphs of the great metallurgical commentators -- Agricola, Biringuccio, and Ercker, whose books are still ornaments of the 16th century -- and the leaders of the chemical and industrial revolutions of the late 18th century, lie the years that witnessed the beginnings of modern metallurgical thought, but they are mainly noted for the practical adaptation of the older processes to production on an ever larger scale.