William Mills (inventor) William Mills (inventor) Sir William Mills (24 April 1856 - 1932) of Sunderland was an English engineer, who invented the Mills bomb which was developed and manufactured at his factory in Birmingham, England. The Mills bomb was the hand grenade most widely used by British and Imperial forces during the First World War. He was knighted in 1922. William Mills was born on 26 April 1856 in Wear Street, Southwick, Sunderland. He was the son of David Mills, a shipbuilder, and his wife Sarah Ann Kirkaldy. The Sunderland historian James Watson Corder recorded that David Mills had an interest in
Iron mining in the United States produced 3.66 billion tons of ore, about 70 percent of which came from the Mesabi Range. Totals through 1965 were: The largest production of US iron ore outside the Great Lakes districts was the Birmingham, Alabama district. Sedimentary iron ore in the Red Mountain formation of Silurian age was first used to make iron in 1864. Production was small until 1881, when major steelmaking began in Birmingham. The last iron mine shut down in 1975, after the district had produced 376 million long tons of ore. Iron mining in the United States Iron mining in the United States produced 42.5