Iron Library Foundation

The Iron Library - a foundation of Georg Fischer AG Schaffhausen - is a world-renowned special library and international meeting place for research into the history of technology. This special collection houses some of the world's oldest and rarest books on the history of iron metallurgy, science, and technology. It is housed in the beautiful old Paradise Monastery, whose grounds are located directly on the Upper Rhine. The collection comprises over 47,000 printed works from 750 years, many from the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. Visitors can find monographs on iron extraction and processing, alchemy, archaeology, history of technology and transport, architecture, art history and artistic metalwork, economic and social history, mechanical and bridge engineering, militaria, civil engineering, shipbuilding, geosciences, mathematics, physics, chemistry, mining and mining law, natural history, mineralogy and metallurgy, materials science and material testing. These include medieval manuscripts with writings by Aristotle, a copy of Isaac Newton's Principia (1687), and blueprints for the Eiffel Tower.