Europe. In 1862, the "Bielfeld Action Society for Mechanical Weaving" () was established. The success of textile enterprises was subsequently a basis for the establishment of iron and metalworking industries in the region. However, the new mechanised industry could not employ the available workforce like the old cottage industry. In the linen-producing areas of Westphalia, poverty and overseas emigration from rural areas rose sharply in the 1830s and 1840s. In the ironworking and metalworking areas in southwestern Westphalia, industrial competition from overseas initially had only negative consequences. Some pre-industrial enterprises, like sheet metal production in and around Olpe, disappeared. More devastating for the old village smithies and cottage metalworking enterprises was the establishment of a modern metalworking industry in Westphalia itself, based on coal from the Ruhr. Decisive for the development of the was the invention of longwall mining, which allowed the removal of the ore without stripping off the surface layer. This was employed for the first time in 1837 in the Ruhr region near Essen. In Westphalia, the first shaft mine was in Bochum, opened in 1841. In 1818, Friedrich Harkort and established , a mechanised ironworks, in Wetter and in 1826 in the same place they established the first puddling furnace in Westphalia. Later, the works were relocated to Dortmund where they developed into Rothe Erde. Further ironworks were established in Hüsten (), Warstein, Lünen (Westfalia Hütte), Hörde (), Haspe (), Bochum (), and other places. These new coal-powered ironworks were far more productive than their charcoal-based pre-industrial equivalents. A precondition for industrial development was the expansion of transport infrastructure. From the end of the 18th century, rural highways () began to be constructed, rivers in the lower part of the Ruhr were made navigable for ship traffic, and canals were built. Most of all, railways were the motor of industrial development. In 1847, the Cologne-Minden Railway Company completed a west-east branch line from the Rhine to the Weser. The Bergisch-Markisch Railway Company's Elberfeld–Dortmund railway followed in 1849 and the Royal Westphalian Railway Company was established in the same year. Regions like Sauerland, which were only connected to the railway network in the 1860s or 1870s, remained economically marginal even in this age of economic growth. Some parts of these regions experienced a marked process of deindustrialisation. Instead, in many places, forestry took over, from that point on practiced in a sustainable manner. Only a few places,