,; 
 
REESE LIBRARY 
 
 1.1 K THK 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Accessions ~\'o. 
 
 (7 
 
 Shelf No 
 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 AT a period when the iron trade has 
 arrived at an extent and importance 
 hitherto unknown, some account of the 
 various processes of the manufacture of 
 iron in the district of South Wales may 
 not, perhaps, be uninteresting. 
 
 That district, from the establishment 
 of several new works in the course of 
 the last five years, as well as the in- 
 crease of many of those before existing, 
 has had its relative importance most 
 materially increased, and is at present 
 producing between two and -three hun- 
 dred thousand tons of iron annually. The 
 iron- works of South Wales and Mon- 
 mouthshire are comprised in a range of 
 country of about 25 miles from one ex- 
 tremity to the other, stretching in the 
 direction of north-west and south-east. 
 The works at Hirwain, in Brecknock- 
 shire, and Aberdare, in Glamorganshire, 
 form the extreme points to the west- 
 ward. Then comes Merthyr Tidvil, 
 with its thickly-peopled neighbourhood 
 and important works, the focus, as it 
 were, of the manufacture; and from 
 Merthyr there is a continued line of 
 furnaces formed by the works at Dow- 
 lais, Romney, Tredegar, Sir Howey, 
 Beaufort, Nant y Glo, Blaenafon, the 
 Varteg, Abersychan, and Ponty Pool, 
 which finishes the mineral range in that 
 direction. 
 
 It is not proposed to give any account 
 here of the method of working the coal 
 and iron-stone, as that forms a distinct 
 subject of itself. Suffice it to say that, 
 from the nature of the country, the 
 draining of the underground workings 
 by steam-engines, as well as the sinking 
 of shafts or pits, is in a great measure 
 avoided. The minerals are obtained by 
 excavating a tunnel, or driving a head- 
 ing, as it is technically termed, into the 
 side of a hill. This tunnel is available 
 as a road along which to bring out the 
 coal and iron-stone, and at the same 
 time as a drain for the whole of the 
 work with which it communicates. 
 
 7 
 
 The manufacture of iron may be di- 
 vided into two great heads : first, the 
 production of pig-iron from the ore by 
 smelting ; and secondly, the conversion 
 of pig-iron into a malleable state, and 
 the rolling it into bars. 
 
 The first process, the production of 
 the pig-iron, is effected by means of 
 blast furnaces. These differ materially 
 in their form and structure. The leading 
 peculiarity of those in Wales is, that 
 they are much larger than those in use 
 elsewhere, and produce, of course, a 
 much greater quantity of iron. The 
 general external form of a Welsh fur- 
 nace is a square mass of masonry, with 
 a base of from 30 to 50 feet ; these di- 
 mensions gradually diminishing to about 
 25 feet at the .height of 45 feet from the 
 ground. A cylinder of brickwork is 
 then carried on to the height of 10 or 15 
 feet more, making a total height of 55 
 to 60 feet, somewhat resembling the ac- 
 companying sketch. There is a large 
 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 roof extending trom one or more sides 
 of the furnace, to shelter the workmen, 
 and keep the cast-house dry, which is 
 not exhibited in this figure, that the 
 J3 
 
O 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 shape of the furnace may be more dis- 
 tinctly seen ; and there is also a covered 
 communication between the top of the 
 square masonry and the high ground at 
 the back, for the purpose of supplying 
 the materials, which is left out for the 
 same reason. The cylinder at the top, 
 called the tunnel head, is furnished 
 with from one to four doors or openings 
 generally two opposite each other, 
 through which are introduced the mate- 
 rials for the supply of the furnace : it is 
 made of fire-bricks, hooped together 
 with iron, and is about eight feet in dia- 
 meter. The masonry of the whole fur- 
 nace is also strongly bound together 
 with iron stays. There are arches in 
 the centres of the four sides, forming- 
 recesses in the solid masonry. That in 
 front is to enable the workmen to work 
 the furnace and run out the iron ; those 
 at the sides are for the more convenient 
 introduction of the blast. 
 
 Fig. 2 is a ground-plan of a furnace, 
 in which the square in the centre is the 
 hearth for the reception of the melted 
 iron as it is formed. The recesses are 
 also seen here, and the pipes for the in- 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 troduction of the blast. The hearth is 
 a cube of about 3 feet each way. 
 
 The section of a blast furnace is seen 
 in Jig. 3, in which the broadest part of 
 the interior (a) is called the boshes, and 
 is from 14 to 17 feet in diameter. Above 
 the boshes fire-bricks are used as alining 
 to the masonry, and the diameter is gra- 
 dually decreased to 7, 8, or 9 feet at the 
 tunnel head. 
 
 The hearth and boshes are generally 
 made of large pieces of a coarse grit, or 
 plum-pudding stone, carefully jointed 
 with fire-clay, so as to resist as much as 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 possible the action of the intense heat to 
 which they are to be subjected. Re- 
 cently, however, some hearths have 
 been constructed of fire-bricks, which is 
 a great saving in expense ; and the plan 
 has been found to answer in durability 
 better than was expected. 
 
 As a proof of the importance that 
 was formerly attached to the quality of 
 the hearth stones, or of the prejudice 
 and ,want of enterprise of our forefa- 
 thers, there is a legend that, on the 
 establishment, many years ago, of a 
 work in Monmouthshire, by a Stafford- 
 shire person, it was thought necessary 
 to take the stones for the furnace hearths 
 from Staffordshire, and that a stone of 
 some tons weight was actually removed 
 to within a few miles of its destination, 
 when it was discovered that the grit 
 stones to be found in abundance on the 
 spot would answer the purpose as well ! 
 Whether this tradition be true or not, it 
 is a fact that a large stone is now to be 
 seen on the London and Milford road, 
 which is pointed out as the identical one 
 alluded to in the above tale. 
 
 Much has been said about the best 
 form and dimensions of the hearth 
 more, probably, than the question de- 
 serves, as it is found that, in a very short 
 time, the sides and bottom are so worn 
 away by the constant action of the 
 melted iron, as to become of a sort of 
 rude hemispherical shape. 
 
 The inclination of the sides of the in- 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 terior of the furnace, from the boshes to 
 the hearth, is a matter of more import- 
 ance. If they are too steep, the mate- 
 rials press with too great a weight upon 
 the melted and melting mass ; if, on the 
 contrary, they are not steep enough, the 
 action of the furnace is injured and im- 
 peded by the adhesion of the half- melted 
 masses to the sides, sometimes leaving 
 a hollow space underneath, and at others 
 suddenly dropping down in large quan- 
 tities. These lumps adhering to the 
 sides are called scaffolds, and when a 
 furnace is in this state, it is said to be 
 scaffolding. 
 
 There is another and more simple 
 form of constructing furnaces, which 
 has been resorted to in Wales, and 
 which is called a cupola. It is in the 
 form of a large chimney (fig. 4), and 
 from the boshes upwards is simply the 
 length of a single brick in thickness. It 
 is held together by an iron hoop at every 
 joint. The bricks are laid in fire-clay 
 instead of mortar, and are from 15 to 17 
 inches long at the boshes, and gra- 
 
 dually diminished upwards to the tunnel 
 head. 
 
 The lower part of the furnace is of 
 masonry, carefully and very strongly 
 connected with cast iron rings and up"- 
 rights. The hoops in the upper part 
 are of wrought iron, about 3 inches wide 
 by half an inch thick at the boshes, and 
 proportionably smaller towards the top. 
 This form of furnace is rather cheaper 
 and more simple than the other ; but it 
 has been thought that the thinness of 
 the sides occasions a greater escape of 
 heat, and thereby causes a greater con- 
 sumption of fuel in proportion to the 
 
 weight of iron produced. If this should 
 be proved to be the case, it is certainly 
 no economy to make use of them, for 
 the saving in the first cost of a furnace 
 is a drop in the ocean, compared with 
 the amount of what may be lost or saved 
 by even a very slight constant difference 
 in its working. This will be seen by and 
 by, when the amounts of the materials 
 consumed will be stated. 
 
 One very important particular of a 
 furnace remains to be described. This 
 is the application of the blast. The three 
 recesses, with the blast pipes, are seen 
 in/-. 2. The holes through which the 
 blast is admitted to the furnace are called 
 twyeres (pronounced tweers). The ge- 
 neral practice in Wales is to blow with 
 three twyeres, as seen skfig- 2, although 
 very frequently but two are used, and 
 occasionally only one. It is evident that 
 the same quantity of air, or blast, may 
 be introduced into the furnace through 
 one twyere as through three by merely 
 increasing the size of the pipe. 
 
 The management of the twyeres re- 
 quires very considerable practice and 
 skill ; and the profitable working of a 
 furnace depends very much upon the 
 way in which this part of the business is 
 conducted. 
 
 It has been stated that the twyere is 
 the orifice through which the blast is 
 admitted to the furnace ; this orifice, 
 however, does not always assume the 
 same aspect; the constant rushing in 
 of the stream of cold air chills the mass 
 of melting matter to which it is opposed 
 on its entrance to the furnace, and pro- 
 duces a sort of artificial pipe or channel, 
 extending more or less into the interior. 
 It is a rude perforated cone, adhering 
 by its base to the side of the interior of 
 the furnace, and stretching its apex 
 horizontally towards the centre. The 
 different appearances which it exhibits 
 indicate the manner in which the fur- 
 nace is working, and are the signals to 
 the workman who has the charge of it, 
 (the keeper, as he is called,) to make 
 the necessary changes in the proportions 
 of the materials or the application of 
 the blast. Sometimes the twyeres will 
 become so strong, and project so far, as 
 to meet together in the middle of the 
 furnace. When this is the case, the 
 progress of the blast is, of course, much 
 obstructed. At other times, the twyere 
 will drop off close to the side, which is 
 as prejudicial as the opposite extreme. 
 All these variations are met or prevented 
 by the careful keeper, who will watch 
 B 2 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 every indication of change, and take his 
 measures according to the emergency of 
 the case. Sometimes he will stop one 
 twyere entirely, and provide for the 
 admission of the same blast to the fur- 
 nace by increasing the size of the re- 
 maining blast pipes ; at other times he 
 will increase or diminish the total quan- 
 tity of blast, or he will alter the propor- 
 tions of the materials at the tunnel head. 
 With all these precautions, he is unable 
 always to keep the furnace in the most 
 advantageous state of working, and, 
 what is more extraordinary, he is unable 
 to account for the changes that fre- 
 quently occur. 
 
 The iron trade can, perhaps, hardly 
 be said to be still in its infancy ; but we 
 have certainly much, very much, to 
 learn, before we can boast of anything 
 like a complete knowledge of its different 
 processes. We observe many facts in 
 this, as well as in other branches of the 
 manufactory, of which the most that we 
 can say is, that they are connected with 
 or caused by certain other accompany- 
 ing facts, though we are ignorant how 
 this connexion exists ; often, indeed, our 
 knowledge does not extend so far. 
 
 We come now to the method of gene- 
 rating the requisite blast, and the mode 
 of equalizing and applying it. It is pro- 
 duced by powerful steam-engines, with 
 one or two exceptions, where a great 
 local facility of water power obviates the 
 necessity of steam. Water, however, 
 can only be used where it can be de- 
 pended upon in a constant and ample 
 stream even through a dry summer, as 
 it is of the first importance that the blast 
 of a furnace should not be withheld even 
 for a few hours. Instances have been 
 known of the whole contents of a fur- 
 nace becoming one solid mass from 
 having been cooled by the accidental 
 stoppage of the blast. 
 
 The blast- engine is supplied with a 
 large cylinder at the opposite end of the 
 beam to the steam cylinder, and of 
 double its diameter ; i. e. four times its 
 area. The blowing piston, therefore, 
 will produce a volume of air at each 
 stroke of the engine equal to four times 
 the contents of the steam cylinder, but 
 at a pressure of only one-fourth of that 
 on the steam piston by the joint action 
 of the vacuum and the steam, friction 
 deducted. Thus, suppose that an en- 
 gine with a steam cylinder 54 inches 
 diameter, and a pressure of 5 pounds per 
 inch of steam, is supplied with a blow- 
 ing cylinder of 108 inches diameter, it 
 
 will be capable of keeping up a blast at 
 a pressure of 2^ pounds per square inch; 
 for it is calculated that the pressure in 
 the steam cylinder of such an engine, 
 deducting the friction, is about 1 pounds 
 per square inch. This pressure may be 
 reduced at pleasure, by working the en- 
 gine more slowly, or with a lower pres- 
 sure of steam in the boilers. 
 
 If the volume of air thus generated 
 were to be passed immediately through 
 small pipes to the twyeres, it would pro- 
 duce an intermitting, irregular blast, 
 almost dying away at the end of every 
 stroke of the engine, and exerting its 
 utmost force between the pauses. This 
 would be very injurious to the furnace, 
 for which great regularity in the blast is 
 a desideratum. To obviate this incon- 
 venience, the air is passed from the 
 engine into a large iron reservoir, called 
 a regulator, from its effect in equalizing 
 the current to the twyeres. The regu- 
 lator is sometimes in the shape of a 
 sphere, entirely closed up, with the ex- 
 ception of the passages for the ingress 
 and egress of the air, and produces the 
 required effect simply by the elasticity 
 of the large volume of condensed air 
 which it contains : it is then called a dry 
 regulator. Sometimes it is in the shape 
 of a cube or cylinder, open at the bottom, 
 and fixed in a larger vessel or cistern of 
 water. In this case it is called a water 
 regulator, and the column of water at 
 the sides keeps up the requisite pressure 
 within ; but there is an inconvenience 
 attending this construction, that is likely 
 gradually to bring it out of use. The 
 introduction of moisture into a furnace 
 with the blast has a bad effect both on 
 the working of the furnace and the qua- 
 lity of the iron produced ; and it is 
 found that the condensed air in the wa- 
 ter regulator, exposed as it is to a large 
 and constantly agitated surface of water, 
 has the property of taking up a very 
 considerable quantity of moisture in so- 
 lution. This is particularly the case in 
 summer, as the higher the temperature 
 of the air, the more moisture it is capable 
 of dissolving. This circumstance ac- 
 counts in part for the fact, that furnaces 
 never work so advantageously in sum- 
 mer as in cool weather ; so sensitive are 
 they in this respect, that, after working 
 extremely well for some time with a dry 
 north or east wind, they will frequently 
 change all at once when the wind veers 
 to the west or south, with moisture or 
 rain. It was long thought that the dis- 
 advantage experienced in the summer 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 months was to be attributed (by some 
 unknown connexion) simply to the heat 
 of the weather ; and it was, therefore, 
 supposed that a cool blast was most 
 favourable to the smelting of iron. So 
 mistaken does this notion now appear, 
 that a patent has been recently obtained 
 for heating the blast artificially before 
 it is passed to the furnace. Care is, of 
 course, taken that it has no opportunity 
 of absorbing moisture with its increase 
 of temperature ; otherwise the effect 
 would be injurious, instead of advanta- 
 geous. The invention has not yet been 
 brought into general use, and therefore 
 no certain decision can be pronounced 
 as to its efficacy : there seems, however, 
 to be a strong probability of its ultimate 
 general adoption and success. 
 
 It is ascertained that air cannot sup- 
 port combustion until heated to 1000 
 degrees of Fahrenheit; and, therefore, 
 until it acquires that temperature from 
 being in contact with the heated medium, 
 it must produce an inverse effect ; and 
 the nearer it can be brought to that 
 point before entering the furnace, the 
 better. The natural effect to be anti- 
 cipated from the change is economy of 
 materials from their more speedy and 
 complete conversion under the action of 
 the hot blast. The degree of heat pro- 
 duced in the blast by the new system is 
 from 300 to 320 degrees of Fahrenheit. 
 
 The diameter of the blast pipes at the 
 twyeres is various, according to circum- 
 stances. With a strong pressure of 
 blast and three twyeres, a diameter of 
 3 5 inches may be considered a maxi- 
 mum. The greater the quantity of blast 
 that is introduced, the greater generally 
 will be the quantity of iron produced, 
 though the quality will be deteriorated. 
 Thus, if foundry or melting iron is 
 wanted that is, the best quality to 
 be used for melting and running into 
 articles of cast iron, the blast used is 
 not so great as when an inferior quality 
 is made, to be subsequently refined and 
 manufactured into bar iron. In these 
 cases, the quantity of the iron produced 
 is generally increased in proportion as 
 the quality is deteriorated. 
 
 But to proceed to the materials used 
 in the production of pig-ironto the 
 food required to satisfy the voracious 
 appetite of the furnace. The iron stone, 
 or mine, as it is technically termed, 
 stands foremost in importance. To this 
 is added a proper supply of coke to keep 
 up the necessary combustion, and a por- 
 tion of limestone to act as a flux, as 
 
 will be afterwards explained. The mine 
 in South Wales is the argillaceous or 
 clay iron ore, occurring sometimes in 
 strata, sometimes in detached lumps or 
 balls. We cannot here enter into detail 
 with regard to the method of working 
 the minerals, as that would be too great 
 a departure from the immediate subject 
 before us. The mine contains different 
 proportions of iron in different parts of 
 the South Wales district, and also in 
 different strata at the same work. What 
 is generally used may be stated to con- 
 tain from 18 to 55 per cent, after having 
 remained some time in the air, and be- 
 fore it has been calcined or roasted. 
 From 30 to 35 per cent, may be consi- 
 dered not a bad average of mine through- 
 out a work. 
 
 Carbonic acid and clay enter largely 
 into the composition of the ore ; and 
 water, sulphur, silex, and perhaps a little 
 arsenic, complete the list of ingredients. 
 It is an important point to get rid of the 
 impurities as completely as possible be- 
 fore the mine is used in the furnace, 
 and for this purpose it is roasted or 
 calcined in kilns, which are kept sup- 
 plied at the top, as the mine is with- 
 drawn fit for use at the bottom. Care 
 must be taken in this process to give 
 the necessary degree of heat to the kiln, 
 and no more. If there be too much 
 heat, the pieces of mine partially melt 
 and adhere together ; if too little, they 
 still contain a portion of water or sul- 
 phur, and are obliged to be thrown aside 
 by the filler, or workman at the tunnel 
 head, as raw or green mine. In the ope- 
 ration of roasting there is a loss of weight 
 in the mine of from 20 to 30 per cent. 
 
 The coke is also of great importance 
 in the smelting of iron. There is a great 
 difference in the quality of the coal in 
 this district. At one extremity, where 
 the works of the British Company, the 
 Varteg and Blaenafon, are situated, the 
 coal is of a bituminous nature, swelling 
 and caking together in the coking, and 
 binding like the Newcastle coal, but in 
 a less degree, in common fires. At 
 Merthyr Tidvil, on the contrary, it does 
 not possess these qualities. There, it 
 is capable of being coked in a much 
 shorter time, nor does it bind together 
 in the manner just described. In the 
 former case, the ton of coal will produce 
 about 13 cwt. of coke ; in the latter, the 
 proportion of coke to coal is greater, 
 though the coke produced will not go so 
 far in the manufacture of iron. ., 
 
 The method of coking in Wales is not 
 
6 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 remarkable for that economy to which 
 it may and will probably be brought 
 when coal is of more value than it is at 
 present. The general system is to place 
 the coal in long open heaps, containing 
 30 or 40 tons, laying the pieces of coal 
 as loose and open as possible, to allow 
 of their swelling, and covering the whole 
 with smaller pieces so as to give the ex- 
 ternal surface a tolerably level appear- 
 ance. The heap is then set on fire in 
 different places, and suffered to burn 
 till the whole surface is completely ig- 
 nited. When this is the case, the coker 
 covers it entirely over with the dust and 
 ashes of former fires, to exclude the air 
 and prevent waste, and it is left to burn 
 put, or rather to cool gradually, till it is 
 in a proper state to be uncovered and 
 carried to the tunnel head of the fur- 
 nace. The cooling is generally, how- 
 ever, expedited by pouring water upon 
 the cokes before they are uncovered. 
 This is sometimes done to a great ex- 
 tent, and is found to improve the quality 
 of the coke, by making it harder, and 
 expelling more of the sulphur of the coal 
 than would be got rid of without the 
 application of water. 
 
 By the system of open fires much of 
 the coal must be reduced to ashes be- 
 fore the air is excluded. This is more 
 particularly the case when the wind is 
 high, as it not unfrequently is in those 
 mountainous and exposed situations. 
 On a stormy night, the unremitting 
 exertions of a double set of cokers are 
 perhaps required on the coke hearth to 
 keep the fires tolerably covered ; and in 
 an extensive work, probably sixty or a 
 hundred tons of coal may be wasted in 
 one night in spite of all their labour. 
 
 The coke-hearth of an iron work in 
 full operation presents a grand and im- 
 posing spectacle in a dark night. The 
 long rows of flame produced by the 
 burning of many hundred tons of coal, 
 extended over a vast space of ground, 
 and flickering in the wind, the black, 
 grotesque figures of the cokers bran- 
 dishing their long rakes, and partially 
 visible through the thick lurid smoke, 
 with the roaring of the blast and the 
 noise of machinery, seem to realize the 
 descriptions of the infernal regions by 
 Virgil or Dante, rather than anything 
 familiar to our experience in this habit- 
 able world. 
 
 The bituminous coal of Monmouth- 
 shire requires from five to nine days to 
 become thoroughly coked, whilst that 
 about Merthyr takes only about half, 
 
 or less than half of that time. The coal 
 when coked, has parted with all its 
 moisture, tar, and hydrogen gas, and a 
 great part of its sulphur ; and according 
 to its properties, is either of a dull jet 
 black, with the appearance of charcoal, 
 or exhibits a bright metallic or vitreous 
 lustre, with a porous texture. The more 
 carbonaceous matter it contains, the 
 better ; and those beds of coal are there- 
 fore the most esteemed which present in 
 the fracture the dull, soft appearance of 
 carbonized vegetable matter. Small 
 pieces of coke may be occasionally se- 
 lected from such a quality that can 
 hardly be discriminated from charcoal, 
 having that fibrous texture and peculia- 
 rity of lustre by which it is characterised. 
 Coke, indeed, may be considered only 
 as a substitute for charcoal in the smelt- 
 ing of iron, and was formerly unknown 
 as applicable to this purpose. Charcoal 
 is at present in general use in Russia 
 and Sweden, and indeed is now used at 
 a few works in this country. The iron 
 produced from it is particularly calcu- 
 lated for conversion into steel ; but its 
 high price and insufficient quantity 
 would totally preclude its general use, 
 even were it a much greater desidera- 
 tum than it is. The impurities of the 
 coke of South Wales, or, in other words, 
 the ashes that are left after combus- 
 tion, are a very important subject for 
 the investigation of the iron-master. 
 They are of many different kinds, some 
 of which are much more prejudicial to 
 the working of the furnace than others ; 
 and the strata of coal in which these 
 prevail the most should therefore be 
 avoided altogether, or used with caution, 
 mixed with other qualities of coal. If 
 the coke, after combustion, leaves a 
 red ash or residuum, sulphuret of iron 
 is indicated, the sulphur of which pro- 
 duces a positively bad effect on the qua- 
 lity of the iron smelted in the furnace. 
 If the ashes are white, they probably 
 contain magnesia, silex, or alumine, 
 either singly or combined. The two 
 latter of these earths are only detrimen- 
 tal as so much extraneous matter; in- 
 deed, they may each singly be of service 
 as a flux, according to the nature of the 
 iron-stone with which they come in con- 
 tact ; but magnesia is injurious, as it 
 produces an opposite effect in rendering 
 the flux less fusible by combining with 
 it. 
 
 To understand the mode of working 
 the Welsh furnaces, it should be stated, 
 that they are invariably situated on some 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 natural steep declivity, so that, by a little 
 artificial excavation, the ground is made 
 level with the tunnel head at the back 
 of the furnace, and with the bottom of 
 the hearth in front. Thus a perpendi- 
 cular cliff is formed of about forty feet 
 high immediately in the rear of the fur- 
 nace, supported, if necessary, by a wall 
 of masonry. The mine kilns are on the 
 upper level, immediately behind the fur- 
 nace ; and thus the calcined mine when 
 drawn from them is at hand ready for 
 the filler at the tunnel head. On the 
 same level, and as near the furnace as 
 possible, is the coke hearth, a large 
 level space, capable of containing some 
 hundreds or thousands of tons, accord- 
 ing to the number of furnaces. Again, 
 in front of the furnace, on the lower 
 level, is the cast-house, in which the 
 pigs and castings are run from the fur- 
 nace ; and also a proper space for the 
 convenience of weighing, stocking, or 
 sending them off. 
 
 The limestone, the remaining ingre- 
 dient in the manufacture of iron, is ge- 
 nerally procured at some distance, and 
 brought to the tunnel head, where it is 
 broken into small pieces, that it may 
 mix more intimately in the furnace with 
 the mine and coke. It is used as a 
 flux, combining with the clay of the 
 ore, and forming with it a fusible com- 
 pound, which runs off below in a slag 
 or cinder. Although limestone is the 
 universal flux in South Wales, its use 
 in other districts would not answer this 
 purpose. In South Wales, as has been 
 stated, the iron-stone is argillaceous, 
 but in other places, in the forest of 
 Dean, for instance, in Gloucestershire, 
 it is found in combination with lime or 
 calcareous spar. Now as lime, silex, 
 and alumine are not of themselves rea- 
 dily fusible, they are combined in the 
 blast furnace ; and in the selection of the 
 flux, the object of the iron-master is to 
 separate the impurities from the iron in 
 the most complete manner possible. It 
 would obviously be absurd to attempt 
 to use limestone as a flux with the cal- 
 careous iron-stone of the forest of Dean, 
 as that would be only adding to what 
 existed in excess before it would be 
 worse than useless, as it would be filling 
 up the furnace with additional impuri- 
 ties, without facilitating its working. In 
 that district, therefore, clay is the flux 
 and lime the substance which it is to 
 separate from the iron-stone just the 
 contrary of what takes place in South 
 Wales. If these two kinds of ore (the 
 
 argillaceous and the calcareous) could 
 be found so near to each other as to be 
 used in the same furnace, no flux would 
 be necessary, as the extraneous matter 
 of each, if used in the proper propor- 
 tions, would combine together, melt, 
 and detach themselves in the state of 
 cinder without any addition. 
 
 In the selection of limestone, all those 
 beds which contain magnesia should be 
 sedulously avoided. The necessity of 
 this will be evident from what has been 
 said above of the injury produced by the 
 magnesia found in coke. The same in- 
 jury, of course, would arise, in whatever 
 way magnesia is introduced into the fur- 
 nace. The magnesian limestones of 
 Wales are generally of a coarser texture 
 than those that are aluminous or sili- 
 ceous, and of a reddish colour; but 
 practice and analysis only will enable 
 the iron-master to determine the quality 
 of stone best calculated for his purpose. 
 The materials are introduced into the 
 furnace at the tunnel head by the filler, 
 whose business it is to see that the 
 coke is brought to him from the coke- 
 hearth properly burned ; that the mine 
 is sufficiently calcined and unmixed 
 with clay or rubbish; that the lime- 
 stone is broken small enough ; that 
 the proportion of each material, as di- 
 rected by the keeper or manager, is 
 maintained ; and also to take an ac- 
 count of the number of charges that he 
 puts into the furnace during his ' turn' 
 of twelve hours. A charge is one bar- 
 row of coke, with its proportion of mine 
 and limestone ; and the furnace is said 
 to drive fast or slow, according to the 
 number of charges required to keep it 
 full during the twelve hours. The bar- 
 row of coke contains about twenty cubic 
 feet, and weighs about six cwt. It is, 
 therefore, the product of about nine cwt. 
 of coal, according to the calculation 
 stated above. The proportion of burnt 
 mine used to the charge varies consider- 
 ably, according to the working of the 
 furnace, and the quality of the iron 
 wanted to be produced. If foundry 
 iron is wanted, the ' burden ' of mine to 
 the charge must not be so heavy as 
 when forge pigs are to be made. The 
 greater the quantity of mine used to the 
 charge, the warmer, and the more dis- 
 posed to burn, as it is called, the furnace 
 becomes. If there be an excess of mine, 
 a great additional heat is created, the 
 twyeres will perhaps come short off the 
 sides of the furnace, and all the portions 
 adhering to its interior will melt away. 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 Even parts of the brick work about the 
 twyeres will be injured by the intense- 
 ness of the heat, requiring to be repaired 
 from the outside. Under these circum- 
 stances the iron will become thick in the 
 hearth, the quality of it will be very 
 bad, and the quantity small. To re- 
 medy all these evils a portion of the 
 burden must be immediately taken off; 
 that is, a less weight of mine must be 
 used to the charge. After a short time, 
 the effect of this change begins to ma- 
 nifest itself. New twyeres begin to 
 form, and to run in towards the centre ; 
 the sides of the furnace become cooler, 
 and the quality of the iron improves. 
 Sometimes, when a scaffold has formed 
 on the side, occasioning that irregularity 
 in the working of the furnace which has 
 been before described, it becomes neces- 
 sary to scour the furnace out, as it is 
 called; that is, to remedy one evil by 
 another to increase the burden, and 
 produce all this heat and burning, by 
 which the offending mass is melted and 
 got rid of. The burden is then again 
 reduced, and the furnace works regu- 
 larly as before. 
 
 Let us now inquire into the quantities 
 of raw mine (iron stone), coal, and lime- 
 stone required to make a ton of pig iron. 
 The iron is run from the furnace every 
 twelve hours, and we will assume six 
 tons as the quantity produced in that 
 time, although perhaps five would be 
 nearer the mark as an average. We 
 will assume also, that the furnace is 
 driving 50 charges a turn, with a bur- 
 den of 6 cwt. of mine ; the quantity of 
 burnt mine, therefore, required to make 
 6 tons of iron will be 50 times G cwt., or 
 15 tons, equal to about 18 tons of raw 
 mine. Thus, according to this calcula- 
 tion, 3 tons of raw mine are used for 
 the production of one of pig iron. The 
 coke for the turn, reckoning 9 cwt. of 
 coal to the barrow (or 6 cwt. of coke), 
 will, in the same way, amount to 50 
 times 9, or 450 cwt. = 22^ tons, or 3 tons 
 15 cwt. to the ton of iron. This is the 
 actual consumption of coal for the sup- 
 ply of the furnace : a further quantity is 
 used at the mine-kilns and engine-fires, 
 which should properly be included in the 
 account, and which will amount to about 
 another ton, making a total of 4 tons 
 15 cwt. of coal to the ton of iron. These 
 are called the yields of coal and mine, 
 or, more indefinitely, the furnace yields, 
 and are the objects of great attention 
 with the iron master. 
 
 The facilities or local advantages of 
 
 an iron work depend very much upon 
 the capability of the materials to work 
 to a good yield. The importance of this 
 point must be obvious when it is recol- 
 lected that, by the above calculation, 
 the daily consumption of a single fur- 
 nace amounts to 57 tons of coal and 36 
 of mine. 
 
 The limestone is a matter of less im- 
 portance, being generally obtained at a 
 small expense, and used in smaller 
 quantity, only about a ton being re- 
 quired to the ton of iron. 
 
 It has been stated, that the iron is 
 cast, or the furnace tapped, every twelve 
 hours. This operation is managed by 
 the keeper at the bottom. He will occa- 
 sionally be obliged to cast more fre- 
 quently, as it is possible, from the hearth 
 being partially choked up, or from the 
 furnace making an unusually large 
 quantity of iron, that it will not hold all 
 that is produced in that time. 
 
 The hole through which the iron is 
 let out is, of course, on a level with the 
 bottom of the hearth, and in front of the 
 furnace. It is stopped with a mixture 
 of sand and clay, to prevent the escape 
 of the iron between the times of casting. 
 
 There is also an aperture level with 
 the top of the hearth, by which the liquid 
 scoria or cinder is constantly running 
 off, except immediately after casting. 
 The iron, being much heavier than the 
 cinder, sinks to the bottom of the hearth 
 as it is melted ; whilst the cinder, form- 
 ing much more rapidly, soon fills the 
 hearth and escapes, not, however, ob- 
 structing the constant passage of the 
 iron, which falls through it to the bottom. 
 The appearance of the cinder is con- 
 stantly watched by the keeper, as an 
 indication of the working of the furnace, 
 and he can generally tell with tolerable 
 certainty the quality of the iron he is 
 about to cast, by this criterion alone. 
 If it is of a whitish-grey colour, with a 
 fracture somewhat resembling limestone 
 and running freely from the furnace to a 
 considerable distance, he augurs well of 
 the furnace ; the materials are then doing 
 their duty, combining properly with each 
 other, and leaving the whole of the iron 
 in the hearth without loss ; the furnace 
 is making good iron and to a good yield. 
 
 At other times the cinder will assume 
 a glassy appearance, being very tena- 
 cious and tough whilst hot, and running 
 down sluggishly. The colour is, per- 
 haps, of a light blue, or dirty yellow, or 
 sea-green. This shows the furnace to be 
 working cold, driving slow, and probably 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 not producing iron to so good a yield as 
 in the former case. 
 
 But the most unfavourable aspect 
 observable in the cinder is a jet-black 
 colour, both on the surface and in the 
 fracture ; the surface being rough and 
 uneven ; and the stream broad, hot, and 
 shallow. These symptoms are always 
 accompanied by an unfavourable yield, 
 as a portion of the iron combines with 
 the clay and limestone in the furnace, 
 and comes away in the state of a black 
 oxide with the cinder, causing its dark 
 colour. Theory would teach us that the 
 most favourable aspect of the cinder 
 would be that of a perfect glass, indica- 
 ting neither the presence of iron by the 
 black colour, nor the excess of the flux 
 by the stony opaque appearance of the 
 fracture. But in practice, this precise 
 point is found so difficult of attainment, 
 that the appearance of the cinder is 
 always considered the most favourable 
 when it is " strong of the stone," as the 
 workmen say. 
 
 The keeper has a personal interest in 
 the well working of his furnace, and, if 
 he is a good and steady workman, will 
 watch all these points with constant 
 care. He is paid on the ton of iron 
 produced, and, indeed, the fillers, co- 
 kers, limestone breakers, mine burners, 
 and all others connected with the fur- 
 nace, are generally paid in the same way; 
 for if any one of these various operations 
 is neglected, the furnace is sure to suffer, 
 and by uniting the men in one common 
 interest, the best security is obtained for 
 the well regulation of the whole. The 
 wages of labour constitute so very great 
 a proportion of the cost of iron, that it 
 is a matter of first-rate importance to 
 economise them as much as possible ; 
 and it has been said, with too much 
 truth, that the business of the iron mas- 
 ter is a constant struggle with his work- 
 men, the endeavour on his part being to 
 keep down or to reduce their wages ; 
 and, on theirs, to get as much for their 
 labour as possible. 
 
 This contest, unpleasant as it maybe, 
 is to a certain extent unavoidable and 
 natural, and neither masters nor men 
 are to be blamed for making the best 
 bargain for themselves that they can. 
 It may be said, that there is a natural 
 and imperious standard of wages in the 
 state of the trade, beyond the control of 
 the master or the workman ; that, when 
 iron is low and the demand dull, it is as 
 impossible for the former to give high 
 wages as it is for him to keep them 
 
 down in an opposite state of things. 
 This is true ; but it is sometimes difficult 
 to convince the workmen of its truth, 
 when the consequence to him will be a 
 diminution of his gains ; and, from the 
 same cause, the master will sometimes 
 be unwilling to acknowledge the neces- 
 sity of an advance of wages so soon as 
 his men desire. His object should be to 
 induce, as much as possible, a mutual 
 confidence between his men and him- 
 self; to anticipate their demand for an 
 advance, if he feels that, from the state 
 of the trade, it is unavoidable, and to 
 act with decision and firmness when he 
 is under the necessity of opposing their 
 wishes. 
 
 But to return to the furnaces. It may 
 be supposed that the quantity of cinder 
 produced by a furnace is very great, when 
 it is recollected that the weight of the ma- 
 terials put in is 36 tons in the twelve 
 hours, whilst the iron produced in the 
 same time weighs only 6 tons. The 
 weight of the cinder will not, however, 
 by any means balance the account, it 
 having been found that there is a loss of 
 weight, in the process of smelting, 
 greater in amount than the quantity of 
 coke used; that is, from 36 tons of 
 materials put in at the tunnel head, the 
 total process at the bottom in cinder, 
 iron, and ashes, will not exceed 20 tons. 
 The deficiency is occasioned in the pro- 
 cess of combustion by the escape of 
 oxygen, carbon, &c., from the mine and 
 limestone, as well as from the coke. 
 
 Still the quantity of cinder continually 
 accumulating is so great, as sometimes 
 to occasion considerable expense in its 
 disposal. The situations in Wales are 
 generally very favourable for this object, 
 being upon elevated ground. The cin- 
 ders being carried in the direction of the 
 declivity, and formed into a horizontal 
 terrace, soon acquire, from the nature 
 of the ground, a very great thickness, 
 the road remaining level. Large ridges 
 or hillocks of cinder are thus produced, 
 called cinder tips; and often, from their 
 great extent and elevated position, form 
 a remarkable, though dreary, feature in 
 the aspect of the country. "Where the 
 works are situated on a flat ground, 
 without any great fall in the immediate 
 neighbourhood, this facility in the re- 
 moval of the cinders is not afforded, and 
 a serious item of expense is consequently 
 incurred. In one or two instances, they 
 are obliged to be taken about two miles 
 from the furnaces before they can be 
 disposed of. 
 
10 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 The pig iron produced in the operation 
 of smelting is of very various qualities, 
 according to the purpose for which it is 
 wanted, and the circumstances under 
 which it is manufactured. It may be 
 divided, first, into foundry iron and forge 
 iron ; the former being used in the state 
 of pigs, for casting ; the latter being only 
 applicable to the manufacture of bar 
 iron. The reason of this is, that, from 
 its nature, it is too thick, when melted, 
 to adapt itself to the shape of the mould, 
 and, when cold, is too weak and brittle 
 to be serviceable as cast iron, even if 
 the other objection did not exist. 
 
 But the foundry iron comes first to be 
 described. There are three qualities of 
 it, first, second, and third. 
 
 No. 1 foundry iron differs in its che- 
 mical composition from the other sorts, 
 by containing more carbon. It is, in- 
 deed, combined with as much carbon as 
 it is capable of holding ; and to effect 
 this combination in its full extent, the 
 coke containing the fibrous appearance 
 of charcoal, or the purest carbon, is 
 selected. The tendency of this combi- 
 nation is to render the iron soft, and to 
 make it very fluid when melted, so that 
 it will run into the finest and most deli- 
 cate mouldings. It is used for small 
 and ornamental castings, and anything 
 that requires a minute and perfect 
 adaptation to the shape of the mould. 
 It is distinguished in its appearance by 
 great smoothness on the face or surface 
 of the pig; and in the fracture it ex- 
 hibits a large, dark, bright, open grain, 
 intermixed with dead spots of a lighter 
 colour and closer texture. When broken, 
 the pig does not ring, but sounds rather 
 like lead, falling dull and dead upon the 
 block over which it is broken. It is also 
 so soft as to yield readily to the chisel. 
 In running from the furnace, the sur- 
 face of the melted metal is smooth and 
 dull, breaking occasionally into streaks 
 and cracks of a darker and brighter red. 
 When it is highly carbonized, the pigs 
 and the cinder are frequently covered 
 with small bright black laminae of a 
 substance called kish. It is a pure car- 
 buret of iron, or black lead, and evinces 
 an excess of carbon in the pig. 
 
 No. 2 foundry iron is less carbonized 
 than No. 1 ; not so soft, closer grained 
 and more regular in the fracture, not 
 so fluid when melted, nor so smooth on 
 the face of the pig ; it is, however, harder 
 and stronger, and is preferred for all the 
 less delicate parts of machinery, where 
 strength and durability are required. 
 
 These two sorts are all that are re- 
 cognized in some places as foundry iron. 
 Their being combined with so lar^e a 
 dose of carbon and oxygen renders them 
 unfit for remanufacture into bars ; but 
 iron of the next quality, or No. 3, having 
 less foreign admixture in its composi- 
 tion, is destined indifferently for the 
 forge or the foundry. It is used exten- 
 sively for castings where great strength 
 is required, or in situations where it is 
 to be exposed to constant wear and tear, 
 such as tram plates, heavy shafts, and 
 wheels, cylinders for steam-engines and 
 many descriptions of heavy work. It is 
 selected for these purposes from being still 
 harder than No. 2, and possessing so 
 great a degree of toughness as well as 
 hardness as to make very strong and 
 durable castings. In appearance it 
 differs from No. 2, in the same way as 
 that does from No. 1, being closer 
 grained and more regular, and darker 
 when broken. From its appearance, it 
 is often called dark grey iron ; by which 
 term it is, indeed, as well known as by 
 that of No. 3. 
 
 The next quality, bright iron, is never 
 called foundry iron, although used ex- 
 tensively for large castings. It possesses 
 great strength and hardness, but not 
 fluidity enough to adapt itself to intricate 
 or minute mouldings. It derives its 
 name from its appearance, which is of a 
 lighter colour and brighter lustre than 
 that which has hitherto been described. 
 
 Mottled iron is used exclusively for 
 the purposes of the forge, as it is too 
 thick and brittle for the foundry. It is 
 smooth in the fracture, hardly exhibiting 
 any grain, and appears to be com- 
 pounded of two qualities imperfectly 
 combined, being spotted or mottled with 
 grey and white. 
 
 White iron is supposed to contain a 
 very small portion of carbon less than 
 any other sort of pig iron. It is totally 
 unfit for casting, and is sometimes so 
 thick as hardly to run into the pig moulds, 
 although they are purposely made very 
 large ; and so brittle, that the largest 
 and most unwieldy pigs may be readily 
 broken by a blow with a sledge-hammer. 
 It is too hard to yield in any degree to 
 the chisel. The colour of the fracture 
 is a silvery white ; shining and smooth 
 in its texture, with a foliated or crys- 
 tallized structure. 
 
 Thus we have six distinct gradations 
 of pig iron, produced under different 
 circumstances in the blast furnace: 
 No. 1 and No. 2 foundry, No. 3 foundry 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 11 
 
 or dark grey ; bright, mottled, and white. 
 The difference in the properties and ap- 
 pearance of these sorts has been at- 
 tempted to be described; but any de- 
 scription must be imperfect, unless 
 illustrated by reference to specimens. 
 Accuracy in determining the precise 
 quality of any particular specimen is 
 only to be attained by experience ; for 
 when one sort is approaching to the 
 next either below it or above it, the 
 shades of difference are so minute as to 
 make it difficult to determine its proper 
 rank. For instance, we often hear iron 
 spoken of as good bright or indifferent 
 dark, or perhaps as second foundry, but 
 so good that it may do as first. Expe- 
 rience also is necessary as to the local 
 differences in the appearance of the pig; 
 for foundry iron, especially, is found to 
 vary materially in appearance at different 
 works, the quality being the same. 
 
 All these six descriptions of pig iron 
 contain oxygen and carbon. The car- 
 bon exists in the greatest proportion in 
 the No. 1 foundry iron ; and in the least 
 in the white iron last described ; its pro- 
 portion being gradually diminished in 
 the intermediate stages. Its tendency 
 seems to be, to give a softness and tough- 
 ness to the pig, so that, as far as carbon 
 is concerned, the purer the iron is when 
 run from the furnace, the less fit it is for 
 foundry purposes. 
 
 In describing the management of a 
 furnace, and the selection of the mate- 
 rials, there has been no reference to a 
 discovery made some time ago, and re- 
 cently brought into very general appli- 
 cation. Messrs. Hill and Co., of the 
 Plymouth works, near Merthyr, ob- 
 tained a patent many years ago for the 
 use of forge and refinery cinder, as a 
 substitute for mine, in the furnace. 
 These materials are the scoria or dross 
 produced in the different operations of 
 the forge and the refinery hereafter to 
 be described. It is an oxide of iron, 
 with but little foreign matter, and there- 
 fore containing a great proportion of 
 iron, frequently 60 or 70 per cent. It 
 had not been generally used before for 
 any purpose ; for although it was known 
 to contain a large proportion of iron, all 
 attempts to smelt it effectively and eco- 
 nomically had failed. It was thought 
 to be so prejudicial to the working of a 
 furnace, and the quality of the iron pro- 
 duced, as to render its extensive appli- 
 cation impracticable. The effect it pro- 
 duced was to make the furnace burn, 
 although a light burden was used. The 
 
 twyeres could not be kept strong ; the 
 cinder became black, and the iron of a 
 very inferior quality, being entirely white 
 and very thick in running out of the 
 furnace. Under all these discouraging 
 circumstances, it was thought that no 
 substitution of forge or refinery cinder 
 for mine could be advantageously made, 
 and the cinder was consequently laid 
 aside as entirely worthless. 
 
 The contrivance of Messrs. Hill and 
 Co. consisted in mixing the cinder with 
 argillaceous matter, so as to form a more 
 complete imitation of the ore in its na- 
 tural state. A portion of the shale or 
 clunch adhering to the natural ore when 
 first raised, was to be put into the fur- 
 nace with every charge of cinder. This 
 combination was to make the material 
 less rich, or leaner, as it is termed, and 
 thereby to prevent the injurious effect 
 before described of the burning of the 
 furnace. The experiment succeeded, 
 and a patent was obtained, which pro- 
 mised to be very lucrative. It was, 
 however, soon invaded. An action was 
 brought for the infringement of the pa- 
 tent, which was successfully defended, a 
 prior use of the system in question hav- 
 ing been proved. Thus, then, every iron 
 master had it in his power to avail him- 
 self of his large stores of cinder, the ac- 
 cumulation perhaps of many years, in 
 any quantity or proportion that he 
 might find expedient. Many were the 
 experiments made, and numberless the 
 tons of bad iron produced in consequence. 
 It was thought that the substitution, 
 even in small proportions, of a cheap 
 for an expensive material, must more 
 than counterbalance all the disadvan- 
 tages that would arise in quality, &c. ; 
 but time and experience sobered down 
 these anticipations, and counteracted 
 these erroneous impressions. The ge- 
 neral opinion of the application of cinder 
 in Wales now is, that it can be advan- 
 tageously used only to a certain extent, 
 and with great care. Indeed, it is 
 thought to be very fair work if the con- 
 stant production of the cinder at the 
 forge and refineries can be used at the 
 furnaces as it is made, so that the large 
 stores before collected may, still be in 
 part at least, preserved, to be made 
 available at some future time when the 
 manufacture of iron has undergone fur- 
 ther improvement. 
 
 The use of cinder certainly deteriorates 
 the quality of the iron. It rarely pro- 
 duces foundry iron, even when mixed in 
 small proportions with mine ; and when 
 
12 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 the proportion is increased, or when 
 it is used entirely by itself, the pig pro- 
 duced is not of a clear bright white colour, 
 or compact solid texture, but of a dirty 
 dull colour, very rough and uneven on 
 the surface, and somewhat porous in its 
 internal structure. In the subsequent 
 processes of conversion into bar iron, 
 there is a greater loss of weight in pig 
 produced from cinder than from mine, 
 with also a certain deterioration of qua- 
 lity in the finished bar. All these cir- 
 cumstances show that the greatest care 
 must be taken to ensure the advantage- 
 ous application of cinder. It should be 
 remembered that these remarks are only 
 applicable to Wales ; the cinder in Staf- 
 fordshire having been more extensively 
 and profitably applied. 
 
 There is little doubt that the time will 
 come when this material will be found 
 much more valuable than it can now 
 be considered ; that when chemical 
 science has made further advances, a 
 more effectual method will be disco- 
 vered of separating the metal, which is 
 known to exist in a very large propor- 
 tion, and combined with so few impuri- 
 ties. We must be content, however, to 
 proceed gradually. When we look back 
 to the process of manufacturing iron 
 twenty years ago, we have every reason 
 to be satisfied with the progress which 
 has been made in the knowledge and 
 improvement of the subject; and we 
 may confidently anticipate that the next 
 twenty years may be equally marked by 
 advancement. It is true that many 
 schemes projected by scientific and ex- 
 perienced men have failed ; that many 
 favourite speculations, which have ap- 
 peared most plausible in the closet or 
 laboratory, have been incapable of being 
 followed up in practice on a large scale. 
 But this want of success should by no 
 means dishearten us. The very failures 
 themselves lead us on to more accurate 
 knowledge and correct results, and thus 
 pave the way, slowly it is true, but 
 surely also, to ultimate success and cer- 
 tainty. 
 
 Our present want of knowledge is re- 
 markably displayed in the different ope- 
 rations of converting pig iron into mal- 
 leable, or wrought iron. Pig iron is 
 commonly supposed to be a combination 
 of the pure metal with carbon and oxy- 
 gen ; bar iron is the same metal freed 
 from these impurities. It is not ascer- 
 tained in what proportions oxygen exists 
 in the pig ; but we know that the carbon 
 is more abundant in proportion as the iron 
 
 is soft and tough. Thus then we are 
 struck with this apparent contradiction, 
 that the purer the iron is in the state of 
 pig, as far at least as carbon is con- 
 cerned, and in that respect the more it 
 resembles malleable iron in its chemical 
 properties, the more removed it becomes 
 from it in its appearance and mechanical 
 properties ; the white iron of the furnace 
 being, as we have seen, the hardest 
 and most brittle that can be produced. 
 It is, however, so difficult to follow up 
 chemical analysis and obtain results 
 with minute accuracy, in a process re- 
 quiring intense heat, that hitherto the 
 phenomena attendant upon the refining 
 of pig iron, and its conversion into bars, 
 may be said rather to be guessed at than 
 perfectly explained. 
 
 The operation of refining the pig iron 
 is performed in small, low furnaces, 
 called refineries. They are about three 
 feet square at the base in the inside. 
 The bottom of the hearth is of fire brick, 
 and the front, back, and sides, of cast 
 iron. The castings used for the sides 
 are made hollow, and so contrived as to 
 allow the passage of a constant stream 
 of water through them. This contriv- 
 ance is necessary as a precaution against 
 the intense heat of the fire, which would 
 otherwise soon burn away, and destroy 
 the sides of the refinery. Near the top 
 of this square are three holes in the side, 
 for the introduction of the blast pipes. 
 Refineries are of two kinds, according 
 as the blast is applied on both sides or 
 only on one. In the former case, they 
 are called double fires ; and in the latter, 
 single. The double fire being larger 
 than the single, and having a more am- 
 ple supply of blast, will make a much 
 greater quantity of refined metal. It 
 would have been therefore universally 
 preferred, if it had not been thought to 
 carry on the process of refining at a 
 greater expense of iron and coke than 
 the single fire ; that is, in .the technical 
 language of the trade, ' to work to a 
 worse yield.' This may be the case un- 
 der peculiar circumstances of materials ; 
 but generally it will be found, that, all 
 other things being equal,~ the greater 
 the quantity produced in one fire, in- 
 stead of distributing the production be- 
 tween two, the greater will be the eco- 
 nomy of fuel ; for a portion of heat will 
 always be lost at the surface and sides 
 of the fire ; and therefore the smaller 
 the fire, the greater will be the propor- 
 tion of surface and consequent loss of 
 heat. _ But the yield of iron in the re- 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 13 
 
 finery is of more consequence than the 
 yield of coke, inasmuch as the former 
 material is much more costly than the 
 latter. If, therefore, the yield of iron is 
 w.orse in the double fire than in the 
 single one, Ihe latter ought to be pre- 
 ferred, in spite of the greater loss of 
 coke. This, however, is not generally 
 the case ; and the double refineries are 
 consequently the most commonly in use. 
 They are furnished with three small 
 twyeres on each side, the pipes being 
 about an inch in diameter, and the pres- 
 sure of the blast the same as for the fur- 
 nace, viz. from 1 fib. to 2 ^Ibs. or even 3lbs. 
 on the square inch. The twyeres are pro- 
 tected by a conical case of wrought iron, 
 projecting a little into the fire, and made 
 hollow, or double, so as to allow of the 
 constant circulation of a stream of cold 
 water. These are called water twyeres, 
 and are found necessary to keep the 
 sides of the refinery cool, and the twyere 
 pipes from being burned. Water twyeres 
 are also occasionally used at the smelting 
 furnace, when it is working hot and 
 there is a propensity to burn, and they 
 are then of much advantage in checking 
 the heat of the furnace and preserving 
 the masonry of the sides. 
 
 The refinery is furnished with iron 
 doors at the back, but is open in front ; 
 and when the doors behind are closed, 
 it looks not unlike an old-fashioned 
 kitchen fire-place, though by no means 
 so approachable, for the heat thrown out 
 is too great for any one but the work- 
 men who are accustomed to it, to come 
 near. The- whole is surmounted by a 
 low, wide, square chimney of brick- 
 work, the entire edifice not being more 
 than 18 to 20 feet high. In front, the 
 workman is protected from the weather 
 by a shed coming forward from the fire. 
 There is a hole at the bottom of the 
 hearth in front, for running out the me- 
 tal, similar to that in the furnace. It 
 communicates by a short channel with 
 an oblong flat mould of cast iron, about 
 20 feet long by 2 broad. This is placed 
 over a cistern of water, with the surface 
 of which it is in contact, and is thus 
 kept cool, and chills the metal as it runs 
 into it. It is necessary to cast the 
 mould very thick, to provide against the 
 frequent cracking to which it is liable, 
 from the unequal contraction and ex- 
 pansion of the iron. 
 
 The process of refining consists in 
 separating a portion of the carbon from 
 the pig, and thus reducing the iron to a 
 greater degree of purity preparatory to 
 
 the subsequent operations which it has 
 to undergo. This is effected by keeping 
 the pigs in the state of fusion for some 
 time, exposed to a very great heat and 
 a strong blast. How the change is pro- 
 duced, what is the quantity of carbon 
 separated, and combined in what pro- 
 portion with oxygen, are rather subjects 
 of speculation than demonstrated facts. 
 It would appear that there is a certain 
 combination of carbon and oxygen in 
 the pig more favourable than any other 
 for the process of refining, for dark grey 
 pigs will produce a much better quality 
 of refined metal than mottled or white, 
 though it might be supposed, from the 
 latter being combined with less carbon 
 than the former, that they would t the 
 more readily part with what they do 
 contain. The white pig, in its chemical 
 properties, as far as we know them, ap- 
 proaches very nearly to the refined me- 
 tal. In its appearance, also, and me- 
 chanical properties it is very similar to 
 it. The plate of metal run into the re- 
 finery mould is very brittle, and easily 
 broken into convenient pieces for use at 
 the forge. In its fracture, it presents 
 the same bright silvery whiteness that 
 has been described in the white pig. 
 With all this apparent similarity, white 
 iron is disliked by the refiner, as occa- 
 sioning more trouble in working, and 
 producing refined metal of a worse 
 quality than dark grey, bright, or mot- 
 tled pigs ; and it will be seen afterwards 
 that the white pig cannot be wholly sub- 
 stituted for refined metal at the forge. 
 There is then an essential difference in 
 the composition of the iron in these two 
 states, though what this difference is 
 has not hitherto been accurately ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 The refiner selects his materials ac- 
 cording to the quality of the iron wanted. 
 The best quality is made from the dark 
 grey pig, or No. 3, and the inferior sorts 
 from bright, mottled, and white, in their 
 order. The very worst white iron can- 
 not be used by itself in the refinery, 
 being too thick to be readily run out, 
 and consequently clogging up and set- 
 ting in the hearth. It is got rid of by 
 being mixed with pigs of a better qua- 
 lity, by which means little inconvenience 
 is occasioned to the refiner. 
 
 From the time the pigs are put into 
 the refinery, it requires^about two hours 
 before they are in a proper state to run 
 out. Thus, the refiner will run out his 
 mould of metal six times in his turn of 
 twelve hours ; and as there is always a 
 
14 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 double set of men, to avoid the loss of 
 time and fuel consequent upon allowing 1 
 the fires to go out, the refineries will 
 continue at this rate from the Monday 
 morning to the Saturday night. The 
 weight of each plate of metal is about a 
 ton. The quantity then produced in a 
 double fire in the week will be from 
 sixty to seventy tons. Let us now see 
 at what expense of material it is pro- 
 duced, or, in technical language, what 
 are the refinery yields. 
 
 The yield of iron to the ton of refined 
 metal, like every thing else in the trade, 
 varies according to good or bad manage- 
 ment, to the quality of the purs, and also 
 to the quality of the coke. Dark grey 
 pigs, with well carbonized coke, will 
 sometimes work to a yield of 2 cwt., 
 i.e. 22 cwt. of pigs will only be required 
 to produce the ton of refined metal. 
 More will be required with the inferior 
 qualities of pig ; and 23 cwt. will not 
 probably be too much to state as the 
 average quantity of pig to the ton of re- 
 fined metal in Wales. This deficiency 
 of weight is more than balanced by the 
 quantity of cinder produced, showing 
 the combination of a portion of the iron 
 with oxygen and other impurities. At 
 each running out of the refined metal, 
 a quantity of the cinder comes with it, 
 and being lighter than the metal, it floats 
 on the top, and detaches itself as it 
 cools. It is an oxide of iron, and, as has 
 been seen, is now duly appreciated as a 
 valuable substitute for mine at the fur- 
 naces. From an actual trial, carefully 
 made during one week at two refineries, 
 the following results were obtained : 
 
 Tons. Cwt. 
 
 Pigs used - - - - 151 7 
 Refined metal produced 135 
 
 Showing a loss of - 16 7 
 from which it appears that the yield was 
 2 cwt. 1 qr. 22 Ibs., or that 1 ton 2 cwt. 
 1 qr. 22 Ibs. of pig iron was used to 
 make the ton of metal. During the 
 above period, the refinery cinder pro- 
 duced was 3 1 tons 4 cwt. which, it will be 
 observed, more than balances the waste 
 of the pig iron by 1 4 tons 17 cwt., show- 
 ing a combination of iron with extra- 
 neous matter to that extent. The cin- 
 der, therefore, in this instance, would 
 contain rather more than 50 per cent, 
 of iron. 
 
 The quantity of coal used to the ton 
 of metal is not great, ten or twelve cwt. 
 being sufficient. It is used in the state 
 of coke at the refinery ; but the most 
 
 satisfactory way of stating the yield is to 
 give it in the coal, as some qualities will 
 produce a greater quantity of coke than 
 others. The running out a mould of 
 refined iron, or metal as it is called for 
 shortness, is a brilliant and beautiful 
 spectacle. The impetuosity of the stream 
 as it issues from the hearth when first 
 opened, the hissing of the liquid metal, 
 the beautiful sparks of ignited iron fan- 
 tastically dancing in all directions, and 
 afterwards the sluggish progress of the 
 cinder bubbling up, and frequently ris- 
 ing into grotesque forms, cannot fail to 
 be striking and interesting to the ob- 
 server, however unacquainted he may 
 be with the chemical and scientific solu- 
 tion of the phenomena he is witnessing. 
 
 The refiners, like the furnace men, 
 are paid on the quantity of metal pro- 
 duced. It requires considerable expe- 
 rience and skill to be a good refiner. 
 Their occupation also is one of great 
 exertion, and occasional exposure to an 
 intense heat. Their business consists 
 in putting the charge of pigs on the fire, 
 which they do by opening the iron doors 
 at the back ; in attending to the pro- 
 gress of the melting, supplying the fire 
 with coke from time to time, and fre- 
 quently stirring it up to equalize the 
 heat in all parts of the hearth ; in at- 
 tending to the twyeres, and taking care 
 that the circulation of the water conti- 
 nues uninterrupted ; in running out the 
 metal when it is ready ; and finally, in 
 raising the plate from the mould, when 
 it has a little cooled, by means of a lever, 
 and wheeling it forwards beyond his 
 shed, removing the cinder, and prepar- 
 ing the mould for the reception of the 
 next supply of metal. The metal is 
 weighed by a person appointed for the 
 purpose, who keeps a separate account 
 of the work of each refiner, to be car- 
 ried to his credit in the pay book. 
 
 Having now got through the business 
 of the furnace and the refinery, the va- 
 rious operations of the forge come next 
 under our notice. The forge and mill 
 are perhaps the most interesting depart- 
 ment of an iron work. In what has 
 been hitherto before us, there has been 
 no succession of active business brought 
 palpably to the view of the spectator. 
 It is true that things are constantly 
 progressing, but the proceeds are only 
 occasionally brought to light. ' A sow 
 of pigs ' is cast at the furnace every 
 twelve hours, and then all is compara- 
 tively quiet again. A plate of metal is 
 run out at the refinery only at intervals. 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 The continued action is carried on in 
 secret as it were, out of our sight, and 
 beyond our observation. We see the 
 rough materials put into the furnace at 
 the tunnel head, and are told that such 
 and such combinations and results are 
 to follow ; but, unfortunately, we can- 
 not ourselves observe these operations, 
 and we must therefore content ourselves 
 with a partial and imperfect contempla- 
 tion of the progress of the manufacture 
 so far. 
 
 In the forge and mill, on the contrary, 
 all is bustle and activity ; nothing is 
 left to itself ; all is under the constant 
 observation of the workman ; and we 
 can watch the progress of converting 
 the refined metal into bars, through all 
 its different states and stages. 
 
 Steam power here, as with the fur- 
 naces, is in most general use; conve- 
 nient situations affording an ample sup- 
 ply of water being extremely rare. But 
 as* it is not so important to have an un- 
 interrupted power for the forge as it is 
 for the furnace, water power might be 
 applicable to the former, though it 
 would be rejected for the latter purpose. 
 Stoppage at the forge is not attended 
 with the fatal consequences that would 
 result at the furnace. It is an incon- 
 venience rather than a positive injury ; 
 merely a loss of production, a hinderance 
 to the progress of the work. 
 
 Supposing then that steam power is 
 the primum mobile at the forge, and 
 that one engine is used, let us inquire 
 what it has to do. The forge consists, 
 we will say, of a hammer and two pair 
 of rollers, (or rolls, as they are termed, 
 the workman being called the roller,) 
 with a pair or two of strong shears to 
 cut the bars. We will not stop to de- 
 scribe these now, as they will come 
 again under our observation. We will 
 assume also, that the mill contains two 
 pair of rolls of fourteen inches diameter, 
 for making large sizes of bolts and bars ; 
 two pair of ten inches, as an interme- 
 diate size ; and two or three pair only 
 seven inches in diameter, for rolling the 
 smallest sizes of iron. The mill also, 
 as well as the forge, should be provided 
 with strong shears, for cutting the bars. 
 If nail rods are required to be made, 
 there must be the proper machinery for 
 them also viz. a pair of rolls and a 
 pair of slitters, as they are called. To 
 conclude, a heavy and powerful lathe 
 is necessary, for the purpose of turning 
 the iron rolls. The engine then will 
 be required to put in motion nine pair 
 
 of rolls, the hammer, shears, and lathe. 
 To effect these objects, an engine with 
 a steam cylinder of forty-five inches will 
 be required. The work to be done by 
 this engine is of a peculiar kind ; the 
 strain, or the force and friction to be 
 overcome, being at one time very great, 
 and at another comparatively nothing. 
 If it has only the machinery to keep in 
 motion, which is occasionally the case 
 during short intervals, it has of course 
 little resistance to overcome. If, on 
 the other hand, there is a bar passing 
 through every pair of rolls at the same 
 time, the resistance becomes so great, 
 that if it were continued instead of being 
 temporary, the engine would be stag- 
 gered and finally stopped. This great 
 variation ought to be avoided as much 
 as possible by the workmen, who should 
 so contrive as to keep the work of the 
 engine tolerably regular, neither allow- 
 ing the rolls to remain long idle, nor 
 supplying them all with bars at the 
 same time and in quick succession. 
 This equalization of power is also pro- 
 vided for necessarily by other means. 
 It is well known that all engines that 
 communicate power by means of a 
 crank must be furnished with a fly 
 wheel, to carry the crank over the 
 centres. This they do by their momen- 
 tum ; and if it were not for the fly wheel, 
 the engine would be liable to stop at the 
 end of every stroke ; that is, whenever 
 the piston and the crank get to their 
 lowest point of depression or their highest 
 point of elevation. At these points the 
 power of the engine is nothing, as it has 
 no leverage upon which to act in the 
 crank. At the intermediate parts of 
 the ascending and descending stroke 
 the power varies, being the greatest at 
 the half stroke, when the crank presents 
 the longest lever to the connecting rod, 
 and proportion ably smaller as it ap- 
 proaches the top or bottom. 
 
 This irregularity of power is common 
 to all engines working with a crank, 
 and they are all therefore provided with 
 a fly wheel. But when, in addition to 
 this unavoidable variation in the action 
 of an engine, it has to perform work of 
 an intermitting kind to resist great 
 and sudden strains, that come at inter- 
 vals, and last for only a short time, the 
 fly wheel becomes eminently useful. In 
 engines of this description, therefore, it 
 is made unusually large and heavy, 
 weighing perhaps 8, 10 or 12 tons, and 
 of the diameter of 16 feet, the weight 
 being disposed as much at the circum- 
 
16 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 ference as is consistent with the strength 
 of the wheel. The speed at which it is 
 propelled is also very much greater than 
 in ordinary cases, being 70, 80, and even 
 100 revolutions in the minute so fast, 
 that the spokes or radii of the wheel are 
 sometimes not discernible. The mo- 
 mentum of such a mass of iron moving 
 at so great a velocity, may readily be 
 conceived to be tremendous, and to be 
 a most effectual coadjutor to the engine 
 in carrying it through sudden strains. 
 Indeed, hardly any force that could be 
 opposed to it would be sufficient to stop 
 it all at once. So irresistible is its 
 power, that in case of any sudden impe- 
 diment, too great for the machinery to 
 surmount, some part of it must give 
 way, and as these cases will sometimes 
 occur, it is contrived to make a subor- 
 dinate part of the machinery weaker 
 than the rest, so that, by breaking, it 
 saves the more valuable parts from in- 
 jury, and is itself easily replaced. 
 
 As may be supposed, all the ma- 
 chinery of a forge is obliged to be par- 
 ticularly firm and strong. Very heavy 
 cast iron plates are imbedded in ma- 
 sonry underground, to form a firm 
 foundation. These beds are furnished 
 with grooves and other conveniences, 
 by which the uprights or sides of the 
 rolls are immoveably secured. The 
 different sets of rolls require to be 
 turned at different speeds, and a num- 
 ber of wheels and shafts are therefore 
 necessary, which are carried chiefly un- 
 der ground for the greater accommoda- 
 tion of the work. Thus there is almost 
 as much weight of machinery under 
 ground as above ; and the spectator will 
 at first be at a loss to trace the con- 
 nexion from the engine to the more dis- 
 tant parts of the machinery. 
 
 The rolls are cast solid ; and to pro- 
 vide for the great and constant wear 
 they have to sustain from the pressure 
 of the bar, as it passes through them, 
 they are made of bright iron, as being 
 the hardest quality that is consistent 
 with a proper degree of strength. Now 
 it is found that in very heavy castings 
 the body of the iron is not uniformly 
 firm and solid throughout. The outside 
 may not, and probably will not, betray 
 this defect, as it cools and hardens be- 
 fore the rest ; but the shrinking of the 
 iron within, as it cools, occasions small 
 holes and a partial honeycomb texture, 
 which of course is prejudicial in all cases. 
 It is particularly so in rolls, which have 
 the outside taken off in turning, and 
 
 which ought, when finished, to present 
 an uniformly smooth and firm surface. 
 The founder, however, has a means of 
 obviating this unsoundness of texture. 
 The mould of the roll is sunk in the cast 
 house in a perpendicular direction be- 
 low the surface, and above it is a second 
 mould or head, as it is called, which, 
 when that of the roll is filled, receives 
 an additional quantity of the melted 
 metal. The founder introduces a bar 
 through this head into the body of the 
 roll, with which he gently stirs the iron 
 as long as it is sufficiently fluid to admit 
 of his doing so. The deficiency occa- 
 sioned by the shrinking of the iron in 
 the body of the roll is thus supplied 
 from above, and the whole casting is 
 sound and solid throughout. 
 
 In turning so large a body, and one 
 composed of so hard a material, a very 
 slow motion is necessary, otherwise the 
 steel tools would soon become so hot as 
 to lose their edge. This is accordingly 
 provided for by a succession of large 
 and small wheels, which reduce the 
 speed at the lathe to about a revolution 
 and a half in a minute. 
 
 From what has been stated of the 
 number of shafts and wheels in the ma- 
 chinery of a forge and mill, each of 
 which must have its axles or bearings, 
 it may be supposed that the friction to 
 be overcome is of itself enormous. It 
 is increased from the necessity of all 
 these axles and bearings being large and 
 strong ; and the only means there are of 
 keeping it at all within bounds are there- 
 fore anxiously resorted to. The first of 
 these is to have all the machinery con- 
 structed and put together with great 
 accuracy ; the wheels correctly centred, 
 perfectly true, and in line with each 
 other ; the shafts carefully levelled, and 
 in line also ; and the rolls exactly pa- 
 rallel. The next is to have brass bear- 
 ings for all the necks of the rolls, the 
 axles of the wheels, and the ends of the 
 shafts, the friction occasioned by the 
 rubbing of two different metals being 
 well known to be much less than that 
 of two pieces of the same metal. The 
 third of these means is, to keep all the 
 points of friction well oiled and perfectly 
 cool. If the axle of a wheel or neck 
 of a roll be suffered to become hot, the 
 friction is prodigiously increased at 
 once, and the parts in question begin 
 rapidly to rub and wear against each 
 other ; thus producing a double evil, 
 the immediate one of increasing the 
 work of the engine, and the more re- 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 17 
 
 mote, though not less important one, of 
 bringing the machinery out of line or 
 level hy the unequal wearing of its parts. 
 
 In describing the manufacture of bars, 
 we shall have to encounter many tech- 
 nical terms, all of which will be noticed 
 and explained as they occur ; not that it 
 is necessary to introduce them all for 
 the purposes of clear definition to the 
 general reader, but it is surely desirable 
 that those who interest themselves in 
 any subject should be made acquainted 
 with the terms in which they would hear 
 that subject explained by those imme- 
 diately engaged in it. 
 
 The first grand process at the forge 
 is the puddling, an operation by which 
 the oxygen and carbon are still further 
 and more completely separated from the 
 iron than could be accomplished in the 
 refinery. It is performed in a reverbe- 
 ratory furnace, called a puddling fur- 
 nace, of which a section is annexed, in 
 fig. 5, to give an idea of its structure. 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 a more intense heat than at others. The 
 draft and heat of these furnaces are so 
 great, that the flame is carried com- 
 pletely through to the top of the stack, 
 where it comes in contact with the 
 damper, which is frequently nearly 
 red hot. The bottom of the furnace (c) 
 was formerly always composed of sand, 
 and occasionally is so still ; but the 
 most general plan is to construct it of a 
 thick cast iron plate, which is preserved 
 from fusion by a coat of the oxide of 
 iron or cinder, which is formed in pud- 
 dling. An artificial bottom is thus 
 created, and found to answer better than 
 one constructed upon sand. 
 Fig, 6 is an outline of the exterior of 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 In this figure, a is the grate, supplied 
 with coal through an aperture in the 
 side, called the stoke-hole, and furnished 
 with bars at the bottom for the proper 
 supply of air and escape of the ashes. 
 b is the body of the furnace, where the 
 refined metal is placed and exposed to 
 the heat of the flames, which are drawn 
 from the fire by the current of air over 
 the little brick-work division between a 
 and b, and are turned downwards again 
 by the inclination of the roof, so as to 
 curl and play upon the surface of the 
 melted iron at b ; they are then carried 
 through the narrow part, or neck of the 
 furnace, to the stack or chimney c. The 
 chimney is carried up to the height of 
 about 30 feet, and bound together at 
 different points with iron, to keep it 
 firmly together. There is a damper at 
 the top of it, by which the puddler regu- 
 lates the degree of draft (and conse- 
 quently heat) to his furnace ; for, during 
 some parts of his operations, he wants 
 
 a puddling furnace, in which the whole 
 side is of one or more plates of cast iron 
 lined with brick, the two sides being 
 connected by bars at the top, over the 
 brickwork of the roof, a is the stoke- 
 hole, so contrived as to be stopped with 
 a piece of coal, which is used to equalize 
 the heat, by preventing the ingress of 
 air to the furnace, except through the 
 bars at the bottom, b is the door^, raised 
 when necessary by the lever and chain d. 
 c is the stack, where a portion of the 
 chain is shown by which the damper is 
 raised or lowered. The furnace, when 
 first lighted, requires three or four hours 
 before it is ready to be charged, or to 
 receive a heat of metal, as it is called ; 
 that is, the proper quantity of refined 
 iron. 
 
 The first department at the forge is 
 the weighing out of these charges, and 
 delivering them at the puddling furnaces. 
 The general weight of the charge is 
 about 3^ cwt., or from that to 4 cwt. ; 
 it cannot be stated with precision, as 
 the practice varies at different works. 
 Indeed, all the statements of quantity, 
 and weight, and yield, that have hitherto 
 been made, as well as those which will 
 C 
 
18 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 come under our discussion before we 
 conclude, must necessarily be somewhat 
 vague and imperfect. Certainly, no two 
 works in Wales correspond exactly in 
 the quality of their materials, the results 
 of the different branches of their ma- 
 nufacture, and their mode of working. 
 The attempt here is to establish a kind 
 of average. If we were to ground our 
 calculations, and confine our description 
 to any one particular work, we should, 
 in all probability, give a very unsatis- 
 factory account of the general practice 
 and the general results in Wales. As 
 it is, errors may have been made as to 
 the correct averages, for these are not 
 always easy to obtain ; but however 
 inaccurate the statements here made 
 may be, considered as averages, they 
 are, nevertheless, points that have been 
 selected between two extremes." 
 
 But, to return. The puddler being 
 supplied with his charge of 4 cwt. of 
 metal, which is broken into small and 
 convenient pieces, puts it into his fur- 
 nace through the door. The instrument 
 he uses for this purpose is something 
 like a baker's wooden shovel. In all 
 his operations he is assisted by his 
 underhand, an inferior workman, not 
 recognized by the master, but paid by 
 the puddler out of his price for puddling. 
 The metal being all put into the furnace, 
 the door is shut down and carefully 
 closed, to prevent the admission of air ; 
 as any air admitted, except through the 
 body of the fire, tends to lessen the heat 
 and derange the regular circulation of 
 the current. In about half an hour the 
 pieces of metal begin to melt, and then 
 begin also the labours of the puddler. 
 At the bottom of the door isla small 
 hole, shaped like a scollop (shown in 
 fig. 6), and only large enough for the 
 puddler to introduce his tools and see 
 the progress of his work. His first busi- 
 ness is so to dispose the pieces of melt- 
 ing metal that those which are the least 
 exposed to the action of the flame may 
 be drawn more immediately under its 
 influence, and that the whole quantity 
 may be brought to the same state, and 
 melted as nearly as possible together. 
 If it is not so managed, that which is 
 first melted begins to burn and waste 
 before the other is ready ; and the yield 
 is, therefore, worse than when all goes 
 on well together. When the whole is 
 melted, the puddler, sometimes with a 
 tool turned at the end like a hoe, and 
 sometimes with a flat one, stirs it about 
 diligently in all directions; exposing every 
 
 part of it in turn to the action of the 
 flame. In doing this he is obliged con- 
 stantly to change his tools, which soon 
 become red-hot, and are plunged, as they 
 are withdrawn, into a vessel of water to 
 cool them. The liquid mass heaves and 
 boils whilst it is being stirred, showing 
 the escape of an elastic fluid. After a 
 time it becomes more and more thick, 
 having a sort of curdy appearance as it 
 is turned over, the points and corners of 
 the small crumbs being of a bright glow- 
 ing white heat, whilst the body of the 
 mass looks cooler. When the iron is in 
 this state, the workman says it is coming 
 round to nature. The puddler still per- 
 severes in stirring, or rather moving it 
 about, till it is so thick and tenacious as 
 to stick together and form into lumps. 
 He then begins to ' ball it up ;' that is, 
 to divide it into a certain number of por- 
 tions, generally five or six, which he 
 brings into a round form with his tools, 
 making them as firm and compact as 
 he can. In this state they are called 
 puddler's balls or blooms, and the pud- 
 dler has now finished his heat, as it is 
 termed. 
 
 The number of heats that a puddler 
 will work in the twelve hours, with the 
 common puddling furnace, is from six 
 to nine. In the course of the heat he 
 occasionally throws in a little water, 
 which, in his own language, brings the 
 iron round to nature faster. He also 
 uses a small quantity of the black oxide 
 of iron, formed in the subsequent pro- 
 cesses of the forge. This enables him 
 to improve his yield, as it affords a por- 
 tion of iron, and increases the weight of 
 the produce of the furnace, on which 
 weight he is paid. He has sometimes 
 a premium for good yield, receiving 
 an extra price when the proceeds of 
 his furnace exceed a certain weight, 
 the quantity of metal used being in all 
 cases the same. This is not, however, 
 a very satisfactory mode of payment, as 
 it holds out an inducement for the im- 
 moderate use of cinder, which injures the 
 quality of the iron : it is also a tempta- 
 tion to the puddler to supply himself 
 with metal by stealing it from the yard 
 or from his neighbours' stock, and thus 
 using more than the regular and au- 
 thorized charge. These petty thefts are 
 not difficult of execution, particularly at 
 night ; and the temptation to commit 
 them should always be withheld when it 
 is possible to do so. 
 
 Iron masters, in the late depressed 
 times, have been put very much on the 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 19 
 
 qui vive for all 'possible projects of re- 
 trenchment and economy. Indeed, eco- 
 nomy may be considered as the very 
 essence and soul of their manufacture. 
 One change to which they have recently 
 turned their attention more than for- 
 merly, is the substitution of white pig 
 iron for refined metal in the puddling 
 furnace. As far as chemical analysis 
 goes, the quality of the one differs very 
 slightly, as we have seen, from that of 
 the other. If, therefore, the white pig 
 were found to answer at the forge as 
 well as metal, the saving would be very 
 great. In the first place, the 3 cwt. loss 
 per ton in the refinery yield would be 
 saved ; this, supposing pig iron to be 
 worth 31., is of itself nine shillings. To 
 this is to be added, the wages of the 
 refiner, the cost of the coke, and the 
 charge for weighing and loading the 
 metal; so that, altogether, we may put 
 down the refined metal at 31. 15s. per 
 ton, supposing the pig as above to be 31. 
 The saving, therefore, being so great as 
 fifteen shillings on the puddler' s mate- 
 rial, there is a great inducement for the 
 substitution, provided it can be made 
 without any correspondent disadvantage. 
 This is the consideration ; and the diffi- 
 culties and disadvantages are by no 
 means trifling. To put a case in its 
 strongest colours it is best to make it an 
 extreme one. Let us suppose, then, 
 that white pig iron is exclusively used 
 in the puddling furnace, without any 
 admixture of refined metal. In the first 
 place, the charge of pig works hot and 
 fluid in the puddling furnace. It takes a 
 long time to ' come round to nature,' and 
 is, therefore, more laborious for the pud- 
 dler, who requires a higher price for his 
 work per ton. It will admit of little or 
 no cinder being used, as its own deposit 
 of cinder in the operation is great. By its 
 great heat and fluidity in working, it 
 burns through the artificial coating of 
 cinder on the bottom of the furnace, and 
 wears out the iron bottom very fast, 
 occasioning much care and trouble to 
 the puddler. As it deposits a greater 
 quantity of cinder than metal does, it, 
 of course, loses weight in proportion, 
 and works to a bad yield. Probably, in 
 this way, there is nearly 1 cwt. difference 
 between pig and metal in the yield. All 
 these are drawbacks, though not very 
 material ones; but the chief disadvan- 
 tage is the deterioration in the quality 
 of the bar iron produced in this way. 
 This mode of manufacture has uniformly 
 a tendency to impair its strength and 
 
 body. This is an argument which ad- 
 mits of no reply. The very same cir- 
 cumstances of flat demand and low 
 prices, that force the cheap manufacture 
 of iron, require also that the greatest 
 attention be paid to its quality. If a 
 work acquires a reputation for quality, 
 it will at least have a preference in the 
 market over others, if not an advantage 
 in price ; and in times of extraordinary 
 depression, such as we have recently 
 witnessed, it is essential to preserve this 
 advantage, to maintain this preference ; 
 otherwise very much more is lost by the 
 iron master being obliged to accumulate 
 a stock of iron, or to force it into the 
 market, than can be saved by the undue 
 substitution of pig for metal. No doubt 
 a portion of it may be advantageously 
 used for common iron, although it is far 
 from being the important saving that it 
 would at first appear to be. 
 
 When the puddler has completed all 
 his balls, his underhand proceeds to 
 deliver them over to the shingler, or the 
 roller ; for, in some works, the process 
 of shingling is omitted, the puddled ball 
 being rolled at once into the rough bar. 
 The shingling consists in giving the 
 puddled balls a few blows with a very 
 heavy hammer, which makes them more 
 solid, and reduces them to an oblong 
 shape, better calculated for going be- 
 tween the rolls. It also squeezes out 
 a portion of the liquid cinder or oxide, 
 which is separated from the pure iron in 
 the puddling. The hammer, generally 
 weighing about four tons, is represented 
 in fig. 7, in which it appears as at rest, 
 
 - Fig. 7. 
 
 being supported by the upright bar a. 
 When this bar is removed, the six little 
 projections or arms in the solid wheel b 
 raise the point of the hammer c, and let 
 it fall again in the course of their revo- 
 lution. From ten to twenty blows are 
 generally sufficient to give the bloom its 
 due form. Whilst under the action of 
 the hammer, the sparks and pieces of 
 cinder fly with great force in all direc- 
 tions, and the shingler or hammer-man 
 is obliged to protect himself by very 
 thick leather leggings and apron. The 
 C 2 
 
20 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 bloom itself hisses, and bubbles, and 
 flames under the operation, showing that 
 the escape of an elastic fluid is still go- 
 ing on. If properly puddled, it is brought 
 to a firm and tolerably tenacious mass. 
 Sometimes, when not well puddled, it 
 does not adhere equally together, a por- 
 tion appearing harder than the rest, and 
 not amalgamating well with it. It is 
 then turned back to the puddler, under 
 
 the quaint denomination of a shadrach. 
 This term has, no doubt, a scriptural 
 derivation ; the thing to which it is ap- 
 plied having come out of the fiery fur- 
 nace unchanged, or, at least, not suffi- 
 ciently changed from its previous nature. 
 For every shadrach the puddler has a 
 fine set down to him, which is deducted 
 from his wages on the day of reckoning. 
 The roller takes the bloom from the 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 shingler, and, whilst it is still hot, passes 
 it through the puddle-rolls, which are 
 shown in Jig. 8. It is first put through 
 the largest hole in the rolls at a, and 
 then goes through the smaller ones in 
 succession. It is received by a boy on 
 the opposite side, called the catcher, 
 and handed back by him, with a pair of 
 tongs, over the rolls, to the roller, who, 
 when he has reduced the size of the bar 
 in the first pair of rolls, passes it through 
 different grooves of the second. There 
 it is reduced to a more accurate form, 
 and to the required width and thickness. 
 The pressure of the rolls upon the bar 
 as it passes between them expels a fur- 
 ther portion of cinder, some of which 
 flies violently off, but the greater part 
 falls into a hollow beneath the rolls, 
 where it is afterwards gathered up and 
 laid aside. 
 
 The iron is now in the state of a rough 
 bar, having undergone a most signal 
 change. The metal that was put into 
 the puddling furnace was easily fusible, 
 very hard, and very brittle ; it has now 
 become a long, slender bar of malleable 
 iron, soft, tough, and hardly fusible ; and 
 this great change, it is supposed, is 
 effected merely by the separation of a 
 little oxygen and a minute portion of 
 carbon from the pure iron. It must 
 not, however, be supposed that the bar 
 in this state is finished, or fit for sale ; 
 it is scaly and uneven on its surface, 
 rough and imperfect on the edges, and 
 
 unsound in the body, and therefore not 
 yet calculated for the smith's use. It 
 has still to undergo a further purifica- 
 tion at the mill, the operations at the 
 forge being now concluded. 
 
 At some works there is no forge- 
 hammer, and the blooms are there com- 
 pressed into an oblong form, or * nobbled,' 
 by the puddlers with a heavy iron bar, 
 before they are taken out of the fur- 
 nace. But as they are in this way very 
 imperfectly formed, the first groove of 
 the rolls is necessarily much larger than 
 where a hammer is used. The puddler 
 is paid on the weight of rough bars pro- 
 duced ; and the weight of each furnace 
 is, therefore, kept separate, an account 
 being taken of each man's performance. 
 The yield of the puddling furnace de- 
 pends very much on the quality of the 
 refined metal used, and the degree of 
 licence that the workman has in the use 
 of cinder. If he is allowed to use as 
 much as he pleases, and is working upon 
 good metal, the weight of the rough bars 
 will sometimes be as great as that of the 
 metal put into the furnace ; but this is 
 not to be desired, as it indicates an ex- 
 cessive use of cinder, and what is gained 
 here is lost afterwards in the mill, as the 
 rough bar is unsound, and contains still 
 so great a portion of cinder as to lose 
 weight considerably when again heated 
 in the mill. 22 cwt. is about the usual 
 quantity of metal required to make a ton 
 of rough bars, supposing the puddler is 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 21 
 
 allowed to use little or no cinder; and 
 about 17 cwt. of coal is consumed to 
 the ton of rough bars. 
 
 There is a species of puddling furnace, 
 of which no mention has hitherto been 
 made, but which may with propriety be 
 noticed before we quit this part of the 
 subject. In the process of puddling, as 
 above described, there is an obvious loss 
 of time from the point when the metal 
 is first put in, to that when it is suffi- 
 ciently heated for the puddler to begin 
 his operations, a period of from twenty 
 minutes to half an hour. Now the time 
 required to complete the heat is under 
 an hour and three-quarters, the puddler 
 usually finishing seven heats in his turn. 
 The produce of these seven heats will 
 be about 25 cwt.; so that, reckoning 
 eleven turns in the week, the make of 
 one furnace in a week is between thir- 
 teen and fourteen tons. But if half an 
 hour in each heat could be saved, and 
 the workman be kept regularly on with- 
 out interruption, many more heats could 
 be completed in the same time, and 
 there would be a considerable saving in 
 coal. 
 
 To this end there have been several 
 contrivances for warming the fresh 
 charge of metal whilst the preceding 
 heat is in progress. One plan is, to 
 make the flue rather wider, so as to 
 form a sort of recess for the reception 
 of the fresh charge, which is placed 
 there by the puddler' s underhand through 
 a small door for the purpose, without 
 any interruption to him, and, when his 
 heat is finished, is drawn forward, and 
 is ready for him to go on with, without 
 any delay. The simplest method, how- 
 ever, yet used, is to make the body of 
 the furnace longer than according to the 
 old plan, and to have a second door, 
 between that where the puddler works 
 and the stack. This affords sufficient 
 convenience and room for the succeed- 
 ing charge of metal, which at the same 
 time is so near the workman that, when 
 he has completed the heat and sent the 
 balls to the shingler, it can be instantly 
 drawn to the scene of action, and, if put 
 in at the right time, is just in the proper 
 state. With these furnaces, nine heats 
 can readily be worked by one man in 
 twelve hours ; and if, as is sometimes 
 the case, the furnace is provided with 
 three sets of men instead of two, (each 
 set working eight hours out of the twenty- 
 four, instead of twelve,) ten or even twelve 
 heats may be finished in the twelve 
 hours. The additional number of turns 
 
 being, of course, attended with a propor- 
 tionate increase in the weight of the pro- 
 duce, it follows that there must be a 
 considerable economy of coal; for the 
 quantity used at the furnace is only the 
 same, or nearly the same, whether it be 
 constructed on the old or on the new 
 syslem. 
 
 The rough bars, when they come from 
 the puddle rolls, are cut into lengths by 
 a strong pair of shears, worked from the 
 engine. In some works, they are cut 
 hot, immediately after being rolled, and 
 weighed afterwards ; in others, they are 
 laid aside in the first instance to cool, 
 the work of each puddler being kept 
 separate, and then weighed and sheared 
 when cold. The first of these plans is, 
 perhaps, rather more econoimcal in 
 labour, but the saving is not great ; the 
 other method affords the greatest facility 
 of seeing and comparing the work of 
 each puddler. The rough bars are of 
 such sizes and cut into such lengths as 
 are best adapted to the size of the fi- 
 nished bar wanted. They are generally 
 2, 3, or 4 inches wide, by or J- of an 
 inch thick. These, when cut into the 
 proper lengths, according to the sizes 
 wanted, are wheeled to the balling or 
 heating furnaces, and delivered to the 
 pilers. 
 
 The construction and shape of the 
 balling furnace is very similar to the 
 puddling furnace. It is a reverberatory 
 furnace, heated by a coal fire at the end, 
 the flame of which is drawn on by the 
 current of air, and turned downwards in 
 its course to the flue by the inclination 
 of the interior of the roof. Instead, 
 however, of its having the iron bottom, 
 with the protecting coat of cinder, as in 
 the puddling furnace, it is of loose sand, 
 renewed from time to time as it becomes 
 uneven or wears away. The stack of 
 the balling furnace is of the same height 
 and proportions as that of the puddling 
 furnace, and, like it, is furnished with a 
 damper at the top to regulate the heat. 
 A similarly constructed door at the side 
 completes the resemblance. 
 
 The term balling furnace is not, in the 
 present day, by any means an applicable 
 one, as its use is simply to give a welding 
 heat to an oblong pile of the rough bars, 
 which are then to be reduced by the rolls 
 to the shape of finished bars. The pro- 
 cess is called indifferently ' balling ' and 
 ' heating,' the latter term correctly de- 
 fining the operation ; but, in Wales, the 
 furnace is always designated as a balling 
 furnace, and the workmen as bailers; 
 
22 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 and we must therefore adhere to the com- 
 monly received nomenclature, however 
 false may be the impression it conveys. 
 The business of the pilers, generally 
 boys or women, is to pile up or place 
 together the lengths of the rough bars, 
 which are delivered to them from the 
 shears. The pile generally consists of 
 five or six of these pieces laid evenly 
 one upon another, all being of the same 
 length, so that one does not project be- 
 yond the rest. It is important that the bars 
 should be flat and the pile laid smoothly, 
 for wherever there is a projection or in- 
 terstice, the iron will be more or less 
 wasted in the balling furnace. This is 
 shown by the appearance of the pile 
 when drawn out of the furnace after 
 being heated. All the corners and sharp 
 edges are rounded, and if there are any 
 pieces projecting beyond the rest, and 
 not protected by the main body of the 
 pile, they appear very much wasted by 
 the action of the fire. Small bodies are, 
 of course, much sooner heated than 
 large ones ; and when the proper degree 
 of heat is attained in the balling furnace, 
 the action of the fire afterwards is merely 
 to waste and injure the iron. If, there- 
 fore, the pile, instead of being a compact 
 body, is ragged at the sides and uneven 
 at the ends, all the projections will be 
 sufficiently heated long before the pile 
 itself, and whilst it is acquiring the pro- 
 per heat, they will be burning and wast- 
 ing away. The post of the bailer is not 
 one of great labour, but it requires con- 
 siderable experience, attention, and care. 
 The point of time when the piles in his 
 furnace are just ready for the roller, is 
 a most critical one. If he takes them 
 out too soon, they are not completely 
 welded together, and do not make a 
 smooth and compact bar ; and, on the 
 other hand, every minute that they are 
 allowed to remain beyond the proper 
 time is productive of injury and loss. 
 The injury arises from the iron being 
 burnt, as it is called, or over-heated, 
 which causes it to be weak and brittle 
 in the bar, sometimes to such a degree 
 as rather to resemble cast than malleable 
 iron. As a proof that the injury may be 
 done in a very short time, it sometimes 
 happens that the first two or three piles 
 that are taken out of the balling furnace 
 (the heat consisting, perhaps, of ten or 
 twelve piles) are perfectly tough and 
 good in the bar ; whilst the same number 
 taken out at the end of the heat, at an 
 interval of a very few minutes, as fast as 
 they can be successively passed through 
 
 the rolls, will, perhaps, have suffered so 
 much from being overheated as to break 
 quite brittle, and be unfit for sale. A 
 circumstance of this kind is not, by any 
 means, of frequent occurrence ; but as 
 was] done before, an extreme case is 
 cited to show the effects in their strong- 
 est colours. This instance is quite suffi- 
 cient to prove that much mischief may 
 be done without great care on the part 
 of the bailer. It is his business not to 
 take out the piles indiscriminately from 
 the furnace as they present themselves, 
 but to select those first which are the 
 hottest and most likely to burn, either 
 from having been put first into the fur- 
 nace, or from being placed in a hotter 
 part of it than the rest. He should also 
 so put in his piles as to have them ready 
 in their proper turn with the other ball- 
 ing furnaces, so that the succession may 
 be kept up without any waiting either 
 on the part of the bailer or roller. He 
 is restricted in the number of piles he 
 puts into the furnace, a regular scale 
 being provided for him according to the 
 weight of each pile ; if they are small, 
 he puts in perhaps twelve or sixteen, as 
 a small bar is so soon rolled that no 
 injury is found to arise from the last of 
 the piles waiting in the furnace. The 
 number is diminished as they become 
 heavier ; and when very large, only four 
 or five are put in. 
 
 The waste in the balling furnace is 
 considerable, and, unlike the puddling 
 furnace, the greater part of the cinder 
 runs off the pile in the furnace, and thus 
 separates itself from the iron without 
 mechanical force. As the pile is attain- 
 ing its greatest heat, the cinder first 
 forms a sort of glaze over its surface, 
 and then flows down the bottom of the 
 furnace, which is purposely made in- 
 clined, to a small outlet at the end oppo- 
 site to the grate. It is beneficial to the 
 iron, by protecting the pile from being 
 burnt, filling up the interstices between 
 the rough bars, and preventing the flame 
 from acting upon the interior. Its be- 
 nefit in this way is proved by the cir- 
 cumstance, that a bar is frequently 
 burnt at one end, and quite uninjured at 
 the other; and, upon investigation, it 
 will be found that, in this case, the burnt 
 end has been upon a higher elevation in 
 the balling furnace than the other. The 
 cinder has run from the upper end of 
 the pile, and left it to the action of the 
 flame; whilst the lower end, having 
 been amply supplied with its due cover- 
 ing, has been protected. 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 23 
 
 The balling being the last branch of 
 the manufacture of bars in which there 
 is a waste of the material, the yield is of 
 more importance here than in any pre- 
 vious operation, the material being more 
 valuable. The yield is generally tried 
 separately on the iron rolled at the large 
 rolls and that produced at the small 
 ones. With the large sizes the yield is 
 better : that is, the waste is less than 
 with small iron.; for, as has been seen 
 before, the loss in the furnace is pro- 
 portionably greater as the size of the 
 pile is smaller. With the ordinary sizes 
 of bars, as they occur in the large rolls, 
 the yield may be about If cvvt., the ton 
 of finished bars being produced from 
 21f cwt. of rough bars. With the 
 smaller sizes the yield rises considerably 
 above 2 cwt. ; so that, to take all the 
 sizes of bars as they are produced, the 
 yield will probably be about 2 cwt. on 
 the average. 
 
 Small iron is not rolled from piles 
 like the larger sizes, but from billets or 
 single pieces of bars, which are cut into 
 convenient lengths, according to the 
 size of the finished bar wanted. Where 
 billets are used, the bailer can very much 
 increase the work of his furnace, by 
 putting in a fresh billet for every one he 
 draws out, instead of waiting till the 
 whole furnace is drawn. He is enabled 
 to do this, as, instead of drawing the 
 hot pile to the rolls, he throws the billet 
 to the roller with his tongs, without 
 moving far from his place. He has, 
 therefore, sufficient time upon his hands, 
 before the roller has finished that bar, 
 to put in his fresh billet, especially as 
 a billet is put into the furnace much 
 more expeditiously than a pile would be, 
 which requires to be put in with care, 
 to prevent its different pieces from being 
 displaced. 
 
 The last operation in the manufacture 
 
 Fig. 9. 
 
 Fig. 10. 
 
 Fig.U. 
 
 of bars is the rolling. The variety of 
 sizes is very great, but may all be di- 
 vided into three heads : rounds or bolts, 
 squares, and flats. Figures 9, 10, 11 
 represent three pair of rolls ; the first 
 for round iron, the second for squares, 
 and the last for flats. These are what 
 are called the finishing rolls, for before 
 the pile is brought to them, it is reduced 
 to a size somewhat approaching to that 
 required, by the roughing rolls, which 
 are larger than the finishing rolls, and 
 provided with wider grooves. The pile 
 is passed through several of these, each 
 rather smaller than the preceding one, 
 and by this means reduced from its ori- 
 ginal form to that of a solid bar, the 
 various layers of which it is formed 
 being firmly welded together, and the 
 remaining portion of cinder and impu- 
 rity being thoroughly expelled. 
 
 There is a sort of rest or small bench 
 in front of the roughing rolls to support 
 one end of the bar, whilst the roller 
 
 holds it by the other in his"' tongs* and 
 pushes it through the grooves : it is re- 
 ceived by a man on the other side, called 
 the catcher, who returns it over the top 
 roll. It is handed backwards and for- 
 wards with as much expedition as pos- 
 sible, that it may not be allowed to cool, 
 for if much time is lost it becomes too 
 cold and hard to be reduced to the re- 
 quired form by the pressure of the rolls, 
 and must be heated again before^it can. 
 be finished. The number of layers in 
 the pile produce a fibre in the bar that 
 adds very much to its strength and 
 toughness. However perfect the weld 
 may be, this fibre is always perceptible 
 in good iron. 
 
 In rolling flat bars, the layers of the 
 pile are kept horizontal, that the fibre 
 may intersect the bar in its breadth, and 
 not edgeways as it were, like fig. 12 
 rather thanjfig-. 13. The section or end 
 of a bar is here represented, in which 
 there are six layers or strata, the pile 
 
24 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
 from which it was made having con- 
 sisted of six pieces of rough bar. In 
 the first of these figures, the workman 
 has kept the bar in the right position 
 throughout ; in the other it has been 
 turned on its edge, producing a trans- 
 verse grain. It will be readily seen that 
 the fibre in the first bar is much more fa- 
 vourably disposed for strength than that 
 in the second, just as a deal plank is 
 stronger when the grain corresponds 
 with its flat surface than when it inter- 
 sects its smallest diameter. In roll- 
 ing square bars no precaution of this 
 kind is necessary ; but the experienced 
 smith, if he wishes to make the most 
 of his iron, will always work it with a 
 due regard to the direction of the pile. 
 However true the rolls may be turned, 
 there will always be a little space be- 
 tween them which will prevent the 
 angles of the square bar formed at their 
 junction, from being so perfect as those 
 formed in the moulding of the roll itself. 
 When the bar, therefore, has been re- 
 duced to the required size, it is again 
 put through the same groove, turning it 
 so that the angles shall be changed, 
 those formed before at the sides being 
 now at the top and bottom, by which 
 means they are sharpened and corrected. 
 Round iron also, being formed between 
 the two semicircular grooves of the two 
 rolls, is liable to the same imperfection 
 unless it is passed several times through 
 the last hole ; and even this repetition 
 does not succeed, unless the bar, during 
 its progress, be held in its position by 
 the roller ; otherwise it will twist round 
 and adapt itself to the same situation in 
 the rolls that it before occupied, the 
 streak or finn, as it is called, still re- 
 maining. There are generally three 
 sizes of rolls, as has been stated before 
 the largest about 14 to 16 inches dia- 
 meter, the middle 10, and the small rolls 
 7 and to produce the same speed to 
 the bar in passing through these dif- 
 ferent sized rolls, they must of course 
 be made to revolve more quickly in pro- 
 portion as the circumference is de- 
 creased. But this is not all that is ne- 
 cessary, for the small iron is required 
 to be rolled at a greater speed than large 
 sizes, as it becomes cold so much sooner. 
 About 70 revolutions a minute are con- 
 sidered a good speed for the large rolls, 
 
 140 for the middle 'sized rolls, r and 230 
 or 240 for the small ones, which will be 
 found on calculation to give them a 
 considerably greater velocity than the 
 others. After being rolled, all that re- 
 mains is, that the bars have the ends 
 cut off by powerful shears worked by the 
 engine, when they are ready for ship- 
 ment. They are, however, previously 
 straightened by boys on a long bench of 
 cast iron, and stamped with some letter 
 or device to distinguish the works where 
 they are made. Small iron is put up in 
 bundles of half a hundred, or a hun- 
 dred weight each, which gives it a neater 
 appearance, and more convenient form 
 for removal. Notwithstanding the hard- 
 ness of the kind of iron selected for the 
 rolls, they are found to wear very fast 
 from the pressure of the hot bars passing 
 through them that is to say, the sur- 
 face becomes rough, and the angles 
 blunt and irregular,' and when this is 
 the case, the manufactured bar is neces- 
 sarily rough and imperfect. It is not of 
 great importance, for the larger sizes to 
 be a little uneven on the surface, but it 
 is very much so to have the small iron 
 perfectly smooth and accurate in its 
 appearance and size; and this is pro- 
 vided for by producing an artificial hard- 
 ness in the iron of which the small rolls 
 are cast. They are what is called case- 
 hardened in the casting, that is, instead 
 of being cast in sand like the large rolls, 
 and the generality of castings, they are 
 run in a thick solid iron mould. The 
 effect is to cool the iron suddenly on the 
 outside, or chill it, and thereby to give 
 it the hardness and appearance of white 
 iron on the surface, whilst the inside is 
 dark grey or bright. It is thus suffi- 
 ciently strong to sustain the strain to 
 which it is to be exposed, which it would 
 not be if it were cast entirely of white 
 iron. The surface being infinitely more 
 hard than the inside, the turning it, and 
 cutting the necessary groves in the latter, 
 is a very tedious process, but when finish- 
 ed it retains its polished surface for along 
 time, and effects so great an improvement 
 in the appearance of the work done, as 
 amply to compensate for the extra ex- 
 pense and trouble in its manufacture. The 
 very small sizes of iron are generally rolled 
 in long lengths, sometimes as much as 
 40 feet, and afterwards cut into two or 
 three lengths for the convenience of re- 
 moval. They look better rolled in this 
 way than in short lengths, and at the 
 same time are less trouble to the roller, 
 who can roll a long piece almost as 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 readily as he can one of half the length. 
 The manufacture of common bar iron 
 .has now been described in all its dif- 
 ferent stages. The Welsh iron masters 
 confine themselves more to this regular 
 trade than those of Staffordshire, who, 
 from their situation and longer standing 
 in the trade, have a constant demand 
 for a great variety of articles on which 
 they get an extra profit. Of these 
 articles we may mention slit nail rods, 
 boiler plates, and sheet iron of all sorts, 
 hoop iron, spade iron, &c., as some of 
 the most important. They also roll 
 angle iron, wrought iron rails for roads, 
 &c. These branches of the trade of 
 course require extra attention, and are 
 sometimes troublesome from their hin- 
 dering the regular progress of the work, 
 but they have hitherto been a source of 
 great profit greater than they are ever 
 likely to be again, for they are now be- 
 coming much more general than they 
 have been, and will probably be exten- 
 sively entered into in Wales before very 
 long. Indeed at present nail rods and 
 boiler plates are regularly made for sale 
 at some of the Welsh works; the first 
 to a great extent, the last only in a less 
 degree. The manufacture of nail rods 
 is performed in a very easy and expe- 
 ditious manner. It consists in rolling a 
 flat bar five or six inches wide, by the 
 thickness required in the rod, say a 
 quarter of an inch, and then, while it is 
 yet hot, passing it between steel rollers, 
 or cutters that intersect each other. It 
 is drawn in by them as they revolve, and 
 cut into twenty or thirty small rods ac- 
 cording to the width of the cutters. The 
 rods are completed at once, and merely 
 require to be straightened and put up in 
 bundles. As may be expected, they will 
 not bear a comparison in appearance 
 with rolled iron, as they are always more 
 or less ragged at the edges, and rough 
 and imperfect in their general execution, 
 but they answer very well for the manu- 
 facture of nails, and are infinitely cheaper 
 than rolled iron of the same size would 
 be. The waste of iron in the balling 
 furnaces is so great, and the process of 
 rolling so slow with the very small sizes, 
 that the cost is prodigiously increased, 
 and the slitting mill is therefore an ad- 
 mirable expedient for obtaining small 
 iron at a low price. Hoop iron is rolled 
 in the same manner as bars, except that 
 the rolls are perfectly plain instead of 
 being grooved. They are brought nearer 
 to each other by a screw, at each suc- 
 cessive time that the hoop is passed 
 
 between them, till it is reduced to", the 
 required thickness. Boiler plates and , 
 sheet iron are also rolled between plain 
 rolls, which should be case-hardened if 
 the work is required to be turned out 
 well. Boiler plates are frequently very 
 heavy as much as 2 cwt. each, and 
 when this is the case the work is very 
 laborious for the rollers, of whom an 
 additional number is required. The iron 
 for them is prepared by making a pile of 
 rough bars which is heated in a puddling 
 or balling furnace and brought under the 
 forge hammer, where, by repeated blows, 
 it is beaten into a solid slab of about two 
 or three inches thick and nearly square, 
 long and broad, according to the weight 
 and shape of the boiler plate for which 
 it is destined. It then requires to be 
 again heated, as it has become too cold 
 under the hammer to be rolled at the 
 same heat: when heated again it is 
 rolled to the proper thickness, the rolls 
 being brought nearer to each other by 
 screws every time it passes between 
 them. It is also brought to the required 
 shape by passing it through the rolls in 
 different directions, sometimes length- 
 ways, and sometimes with the side or 
 one corner foremost. A skilful roller will 
 in this way bring it very nearly to what- 
 ever dimensions are wanted, so that the 
 ragged and uneven edges which are after- 
 wards to be cut off shall amount to as 
 trifling a sum as possible. 
 
 There is a great difference in the 
 quality of bar iron, which has not yet 
 been explained. It varies in this respect 
 as much as almost any other manu- 
 factured article, and, without great care 
 on the part of the manufacturer, will 
 lose its reputation in the market as well 
 as most other commodities. The iron 
 produced in different districts is naturally 
 different in its quality, and that of Wales 
 has its peculiar and distinguishing pro- 
 perties. The foundry iron and the bars 
 of Wales differ in the same way from 
 the same descriptions elsewhere: they 
 are both remarkable for strength. The 
 Welsh foundry iron is, therefore, 
 esteemed for all castings where great 
 strength is required. It has been as- 
 serted that this advantage is counter- 
 balanced by a defect, and that, though 
 the Welsh pig iron is undoubtedly strong, 
 it will not run into the fine delicate cast- 
 ings that can be made of Staffordshire 
 iron, and, in addition to this, that it is 
 liable to shrink unequally in cooling, to 
 draw, as it is called, forming an imper- 
 fect and unsound casting. We have a 
 
26 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 strong argument against the first of these 
 objections in the fact, that a great deal 
 of Welsh foundry iron has actually been 
 sent to Staffordshire for the purpose of 
 being run into saucepans, nails, and 
 other small castings for which a very 
 fluid iron is necessary. In reply to the 
 second objection, namely, that Welsh 
 iron makes imperfect and unsound cast- 
 ings, it may be stated that it has been 
 used in the execution of government con- 
 tracts for cannon with great advantage. 
 This could hardly be the case if the al- 
 legation were valid, for it is well known 
 that cannon are required to be perfectly 
 sound and accurate, and any unsound- 
 ness in the body must either be detected 
 in the boring, or lead to failure in the 
 proving of the gun. 
 
 Nearly the same may be said of the 
 bar as of the pig iron of Wales. It is very 
 hard and strong, not working so easily 
 under the smith's hammer as a softer 
 iron, and therefore is frequently found 
 fault with by the smith, who would pre- 
 fer an inferior iron because it would 
 give him less trouble. This description 
 applies most forcibly to the iron of the 
 south-eastern part of the Welsh district, 
 that of the north and west not being so 
 hard. The two great defects of bar iron 
 are its being red short, or cold short ; the 
 former term is applied to iron that cracks 
 when bent or punched at a red heat ; it 
 is generally very strong when cold, but 
 the difficulty of working it is a great ob- 
 jection in the market not but that it 
 may be readily worked with care, as it 
 is generally only at one degree of heat 
 that the imperfection shows itself, but 
 it is not every smith that will give him- 
 self the trouble to find out and avoid this 
 particular heat ; and it is certainly an 
 advantage, all other things being equal, 
 that iron should work readily at any 
 temperature. Cold short iron, on the 
 contrary, is wrought without difficulty 
 when hot, but is weak and brittle cold. 
 The method of trying the quality of iron, 
 is to nick a bar at one side with a chisel, 
 and then to break it, or double it down, 
 as the case may be, at the notch. If the 
 iron is cold short, it will break off at 
 once with a blow of the sledge hammer. 
 The fracture will be bright and shining, 
 the texture large grained, with little or 
 no appearance of fibre ; in fact, it will 
 very much resemble foundry iron in its 
 appearance, and sometimes will be al- 
 most as brittle. Any iron may be brought 
 to this state by being overheated in the 
 balling furnace]! and that which is natu- 
 
 rally inclined to be cold short must be 
 heated with great care to prevent the 
 evil. If, upon trial, the bar should be of 
 good quality, instead of breaking short 
 off, it will bend double, and those por- 
 tions of it to the depth of the notch on 
 both sides will separate a little from the 
 body of the bar and split up just as a 
 piece of fresh ash stick would do, and 
 will exhibit a clear, distinct, silky fibre. 
 If this appearance is shown on the trial 
 of the bar cold, and if it is then taken to 
 the smith's shop and bent double at a 
 cherry-red heat, first in the direction of 
 the pile, and then at right angles to it, 
 without being at all cracked on the outer 
 side of the bend, it may safely be pro- 
 nounced to be of excellent quality, 
 neither red short nor cold short. There 
 are some works in Wales where the iron 
 has a tendency to be red short, and 
 others where the opposite quality is most 
 to be dreaded. A cold short iron is 
 generally produced from a lean ore, that 
 is, one containing only a small per cent- 
 age of iron, and at several works in 
 South Wales it is found advantageous 
 to mix the rich red hepatic ore of Lan- 
 cashire and Cumberland with the poorer 
 iron stone of their own district. The 
 mixture gives strength to the iron, and 
 prevents it from being cold short. The 
 Lancashire ore is an oxide of iron con- 
 taining few impurities, and producing as 
 much as 75 per cent, of iron. It does 
 not require roasting, but is put into the 
 furnace in the state in which it is brought 
 from the mine. If smelted by itself, it 
 would produce a very red short iron, 
 and it is, therefore, only when mixed 
 that it can be advantageously used. 
 
 There are three qualities of bar iron 
 regularly recognised in the trade ; com- 
 mon iron, best, and best best, or chain 
 cable iron. The manufacture of the first 
 of these, or common iron, is what has 
 hitherto been described. Best iron, as it 
 produces a higher price, is more expen- 
 sive in the manufacture, and requires 
 greater care in the selection of the mate- 
 rials. The refined metal used by the 
 puddlers for best iron should be made 
 of dark grey pigs, selected for the pur- 
 pose. Best metal differs from common 
 by being more brittle, and when broken 
 its fracture is of a more shining and sil- 
 very white. The texture is also more 
 compact and less broken and interrupted 
 by air-bubbles. This quality of metal 
 is puddled by itself without any mixture 
 of pig, nor is the puddler allowed to use 
 any cinder in his furnace. By these pre- 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 27 
 
 cautions a stronger and tougher rough 
 bar is obtained, and the quality of the 
 finished bar is proportionably better and 
 more regular. Scrap bars are frequently 
 used with best rough bars in the ball- 
 ing furnace. The scrap bar is com- 
 posed of the short imperfect pieces that 
 are cut off the ends of the finished bars, 
 In a large work they form an important 
 amount, and are collected and either 
 piled up carefully together to be heated 
 and rolled at once into a bar, or if they 
 are too small to be so arranged, they are 
 put into a puddling furnace, and at a 
 welding heat formed into a ball which is 
 shingled and rolled like common puddled 
 iron. Scrap bars are of a strong com- 
 
 Eact quality, and produce very good 
 nished iron when mixed with best 
 rough bars. Cable bolts are differently 
 made at different works, according to the 
 strength and other peculiarities of the 
 material. In all cases they are made of 
 carefully selected materials, and have 
 more work upon them than common 
 iron that is to say, have been wholly or 
 in part piled, heated, and rolled a se- 
 cond time. This extra process always 
 very much improves the quality, and a 
 bar of inferior common finished iron, if 
 cut into lengths, piled and rolled again, 
 will be found perhaps of best quality 
 merely from having undergone this ad- 
 ditional process. It will possess more 
 fibre and consequently be stronger and 
 tougher than it was before. Cable bolts, 
 being intended entirely to resist a longi- 
 tudinal strain, should possess this tough- 
 ness and fibrous texture in an eminent 
 degree, and any inequality or variation 
 should be sedulously avoided, for one 
 defective link in the chain would be as 
 destructive as if the whole were weak. 
 The strength of cable iron is proved by 
 stretching a short piece of bar (or of the 
 manufactured chain) in a machine for 
 the purpose, till it break, and noting 
 down the precise weight required to pull 
 it in two. It is surprising how much 
 a good bar will stretch before it sepa- 
 rates for instance, a piece of inch and 
 quarter bolt, of about two feet six inches 
 long, will sometimes be lengthened six 
 inches, or twenty per cent., before it 
 breaks. In the beginning of the expe- 
 riment the little oxidized portions of the 
 outside will scale off and drop down ; and 
 just before the bar breaks, the point 
 where it is going to separate will be 
 shown by a considerable contraction in 
 the bar. The broken ends will be quite 
 hot, latent heat being evolved by the 
 
 texture of the iron having become closer, 
 and the fibre appears harsher, smaller, 
 and less silky than before the trial. The 
 following table shows the proof which 
 cable iron ought to bear in the trial with- 
 out breaking. 
 
 Inches. Tons. Tons. 
 
 I 19 17.15 
 U 26 23 
 
 II 32 27.10 
 1| 38 35 
 
 li 44 39 
 
 1| 52 44.10 
 
 The first column shows the diameter of 
 the bar; the second the required proof of 
 the manufactured chain ; and the third, the 
 proof of the bar before it is manufactured 
 into the chain. Thus an inch bar ought 
 to bear a weight of seventeen tons and 
 three-quarters without breaking, and 
 when made into a chain it ought to sustain 
 nineteen tons. Charcoal iron is another 
 variety in the manufactured article that 
 is made to a certain extent in Wales, but 
 only at a few works. It receives its 
 name from an extra process of refining 
 to which the iron is subjected, and in 
 which charcoal is used instead of coke. 
 In this second refining the iron loses its 
 fluidity in the same way as it does in the 
 puddling furnace and indeed the char- 
 coal refining is not altogether an addi- 
 tional process, but rather a substitution 
 for that of puddling. The bloom when 
 it is taken out of the charcoal fire is put 
 under a heavy hammer and beaten down 
 to a flat cake, in which state it is called 
 stamped iron. It is then broken up into 
 small pieces, piled, heated, and again 
 put under the hammer, and reduced to a 
 regularly shaped slab of about a hundred 
 pounds weight. The slab so formed is 
 sold to the tin-plate manufacturers to be 
 rolled down into thin sheets, and after- 
 wards tinned. It is particularly tough 
 and strong iron, and much harder than 
 that made in the common way. Char- 
 coal iron is used also for other purposes, 
 the principal of which is the manufac- 
 ture of horse-nail rods, for which the 
 strongest and toughest material is re- 
 quired. Every branch of the Welsh iron 
 master's trade has now been described. 
 All that has been attempted has been a 
 plain straight-forward delineation of the 
 practical part of the subject before us, 
 rather than a chemical or scientific trea- 
 tise ; and if the matters that have been 
 treated of have been so explained as to 
 be clearly understood, the object will 
 have been attained. 
 
 It may perhaps be interesting here, 
 to look back for a moment to the various 
 
28 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 yields of which mention has been made 
 at different times, and to form a calcula- 
 tion of the total consumption of the 
 different materials to make a ton of bar 
 iron. It should be stated that, in speak- 
 ing generally of bar iron, common iron 
 is to be understood ; and it is necessary 
 to make this remark here, as the manu- 
 facture of best and cable iron, requiring 
 an extra process, is of course attended 
 with an extra expense of material, and 
 in all calculations of the yield of bar 
 iron, all the current sizes made at the 
 three different sizes of rolls should be 
 taken into the account. It would be 
 fallacious to make the calculation on the 
 larger sizes only, as the result with those 
 would be much more favourable than 
 with the small sizes, and an average of 
 the whole forge should therefore be taken 
 as the fairest and most correct result. 
 In the first place, then, let us establish 
 the quantity of pig iron required to make 
 a ton of bars, and for this purpose it 
 will be necessary to follow it through all 
 the different stages of the manufacture. 
 The refinery is the first of these ; and we 
 have seen that there the yield of pig 
 iron to the ton of metal is from 2 to 3 
 cwt., and we will therefore assume as an 
 average that 22 cwt. of pig is taken. 
 The next stage is the puddling, in which 
 we will say that 2l cwt. of refined 
 metal is consumed for the production of 
 a ton of the rough bars. 22 cwt. was 
 before stated as the average puddler's 
 yield, but this was on the supposition 
 that little or no cinder is used, and for 
 common iron a pretty free use of cinder 
 may be allowed. But the 21 1 cwt. of 
 refined metal will be found on calcula- 
 tion to be equal to 24.188 cwt. of pig 
 iron ; and this is therefore the yield of 
 pig iron to the ton of rough bars. The 
 third and last process in which there is 
 a waste of the material is the balling, 
 and here it was stated that the waste per 
 ton was about 2 cwt. which we will 
 therefore take as an average. By pur- 
 suing the calculation, we shall see that 
 supposing one ton of rough bars equal 
 to 24.188 cwt. of pigs, 22 cwt. of rough 
 bars will be equal to 26.909 cwt. of the 
 pigs, which will be the quantity neces- 
 sary for the production of a ton of bar 
 iron, the yields being as above stated. 
 The above figures, when reduced from 
 the decimal to quarters and pounds, will 
 be 1 ton 6 cwt. 3 quarters and 19lbs. 
 To continue the subject, we will now en- 
 deavour in the same way to trace down 
 the yield of coal, mine, and limestone, 
 
 and ascertain the total 'consumption of 
 all the materials. Supposing 4^ tons of 
 coal to be used at the furnace for the ton 
 of pigs, including the engine and mine 
 kilns, the 1 ton 6 cwt. 3 quarters and 
 1 9lbs., as above, or, stating it decimally, 
 1.345 of pig iron will require 6.378 tons 
 of coal, or 6 tons 7 cwt. 2 quarters and 
 6 Ibs. reducing the decimal to cwt., quar- 
 ters, and pounds. In addition to this, 
 we have to take the consumption of coal_ 
 at the refinery, the puddling furnace and 
 the balling furnace, including what is 
 used at the forge engine. The consump- 
 tion of coal at the refinery has been 
 stated as about 10 cwt. to the ton of 
 metal; but as 1.222 of metal is taken to 
 the ton of bars, the coal must be calcu- 
 lated on this quantity, and will therefore 
 be .6 11, or rather more than 12 cwt. The 
 third item of coal to come into the ac- 
 count is what is used at the forge, in- 
 cluding the puddling and balling fur- 
 naces and the engine. This may be 
 taken at once, and will be found to be 
 about 38 cwt. on the ton of finished iron. 
 We have therefore to add together the 
 three sums of 
 
 first. . . 6.378 tons used at the furnace 
 secondly 611 refinery" 
 
 thirdly 1.90 forge and mill 
 
 tons cwt. qr. Ibs. 
 
 Total.. 8.889 ....or 8 17 3 3 
 of coal to the ton of bars. The calcula- 
 tion of the consumption of iron stone is 
 very simple, that of pigs having been 
 ascertained. Three tons of mine being 
 assigned as the yield to the ton of pigs, 
 4.035, or rather more than four tons, will 
 be the amount required as the yield of 
 iron stone to finished bars. In the same 
 way, supposing 21 cwt. of limestone is 
 used to the ton of pigs, 1.415 will appear 
 as the proportion of limestone to bars. 
 It will be seen from the foregoing obser- 
 vations, that in the manufacture of 
 foundry iron, the great object is not to 
 produce pure iron, but a compound of 
 iron with carbon ; and the greater the 
 proportion of carbon, the better will be 
 the quality of the pig. In wrought iron, 
 on the contrary, the aim is, to attain to 
 the greatest possible purity, any admix- 
 ture of a foreign substance being found 
 disadvantageous. Two eminent che- 
 mists (Bergman and Meyer) found that 
 by treating cold short iron with sulphu- 
 ric acid, a white powder was separated, 
 which they discovered to be phosphuret 
 of iron, but the same result did not at- 
 tend the experiment if the iron operated 
 upon was not cold short. Hence it 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 29 
 
 would appear that this defect is to be 
 attributed to the presence of phosphorus. 
 The same chemists also pronounced that 
 silica, as well .'as carbon and oxygen, 
 enters into the composition of cast iron. 
 It is curious that such slight chemical 
 differences should be attended by so 
 wide a difference in the properties of 
 iron ; and this remark is in no instance 
 more forcibly illustrated than in the com- 
 position of steel. Steel is produced by 
 the combination of carbon with pure 
 iron in so small a proportion as the ^th 
 part. Again, plumbago, black lead as 
 it is called, or the kish that has been 
 described as being produced in the fur- 
 nace in the smelting of foundry iron, is 
 also a compound of carbon and iron, 
 though in different proportions. 
 
 The iron trade in Wales was formerly 
 a source of great profit, and a few very 
 large fortunes have been made in it ; but 
 like many other branches of our com- 
 merce, the production of iron has lat- 
 terly been so excessively extended, as 
 to force down prices beyond anything 
 that could have been anticipated. By 
 this means the profits of the iron master 
 have not only been extinguished for the 
 last few years, but his anticipations as 
 to future gains have been, to say the 
 least, very much moderated, and he can 
 now only expect to realize even a small 
 profit on his investments by the very 
 strictest attention to economy and ma- 
 nagement in all the departments of his 
 trade. To justify these remarks it may 
 be stated, that in the year 1825 the cur- 
 rent price of ^common bar iron at the 
 shipping port was 14. per ton ; and that 
 now, in July 1831, the same article is 
 selling for 5l. 5s. per ton. The different 
 points of reduction between these two 
 extremes, with the occasional checks 
 and revivals in the price, are shown by 
 the following list of prices from 1824 to 
 the present time. 
 
 Price of Bar Iron 
 per Ton. 
 
 September, 1824 . . 9 
 
 November . . 10 
 
 January 1825 . . 12 
 
 March . 14 
 
 August . . 12 
 
 October . . 10 
 
 May 1826 . . 9 
 
 October . 8 10 
 
 November . 900 
 
 February 1827 . . 8 10 
 
 May . . . . 800 
 
 August . 8 10 
 
 September . 900 
 
 Price of Bar Iron 
 
 per Ton. 
 
 "8 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 December ~,, 
 
 February 1828 
 
 May ,, 
 
 October 
 
 December 
 
 January 18 9 
 
 April 
 
 May 
 
 June 
 
 September 
 
 October 
 
 December 
 
 March 18 
 
 April 
 
 May 
 
 October 
 
 January 18 1 
 
 April 
 
 June 
 
 A prodigious increase of the make 
 in 1825 was the natural consequence 
 of the excessive prices of that pe- 
 riod, and likewise the natural cause 
 amongst others of the subsequent de- 
 pression. The quantity of iron now 
 made is probably greater than it has 
 ever been, for it is found that in an 
 extensive establishment like an iron 
 work, the general charges are so heavy 
 that low prices are only to be met by 
 increasing the productiveness of the 
 work. Thus the evil operates to its 
 own extension ; and it has been only 
 by the opening made in the increase of 
 our foreign trade, that markets have been 
 found for all the iron that has been ma- 
 nufactured. The foreign demand, it is 
 to be hoped, will still continue, but whe- 
 ther its extension is likely to continue 
 as it has hitherto done, is a very proble- 
 matical point, for iron works are esta- 
 blishing rapidly in North America and 
 elsewhere. And the Welsh and Stafford- 
 shire iron masters are at this moment 
 actually employed to their own destruc- 
 tion, in the execution of castings, &c., 
 for a very large establishment that is 
 forming under the auspices of a public 
 company in France. One of the chief di- 
 rectors and shareholders in this company 
 is Marshal Soult, hitherto better known 
 in a military than in a commercial capa- 
 city. The works are erecting at Alais, 
 in the province of Languedoc, not far 
 from Montpellier. The iron stone and 
 coal ore are said to be of excellent quality 
 and most abundant so much so, that it 
 is confidently anticipated that pig iron 
 will be made there at half the price that 
 it can now be manufactured at in Great 
 
30 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 Britain under the most favourable cir- 
 cumstances. The great drawback is the 
 situation of the works, which will be 
 thirty-five miles from the Rhone, the 
 nearest navigable river, and forty from 
 the sea. Until a facility is afforded by 
 the establishment of a rail-road or canal, 
 this circumstance will occasion a charge 
 in carriage that will more than double 
 the cost of the iron. 
 
 It may be interesting here to give the 
 comparative quantities of iron manu- 
 factured in Great Britain at different 
 periods, as stated in the British Alma- 
 nac of 1829, from which the precise in- 
 crease in the production is seen up to 
 1827. 
 
 Anno 
 
 Iron made in 
 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 No. of 
 Furnaces. 
 
 1740 . 17,000 . . 59 
 
 1788 . 68,000 . . 85 
 
 1796 . 125,000 . . 121 
 
 1806 . 250,000 
 
 1820 . 400,000 
 
 1827 . 690,000 . . 284 
 By this table we find that the make 
 of 1827 is prodigiously above any pre- 
 vious year. The following is a state- 
 ment of the distribution of this quantity 
 in the proportions in which it was pro- 
 duced at the different iron districts. 
 
 
 Tons. 
 
 Furnaces. 
 
 South Wales 
 
 272,000 
 
 90 
 
 Staffordshire 
 
 216,000 
 
 95 
 
 Shropshire . 
 
 78,000 
 
 31 
 
 Yorkshire . 
 
 43,000 
 
 24 
 
 Scotland 
 
 36,500 
 
 18 
 
 North Wales 
 
 24,000 
 
 12 
 
 Derbyshire . 
 
 20,500 
 
 14 
 
 Of this quantity three-tenths is calcu- 
 lated to be foundry iron. This table shows 
 that the Welsh furnaces are considerably 
 more productive, as to quantity, than 
 those of any other districts ; and the dif- 
 ference would, probably, be even greater 
 at the present time, as the average make 
 of the furnaces in Wales has certainly 
 increased since 1827. The following is 
 a list of the quantity of iron sent down 
 from some of the principal works in the 
 Merthyr district, by the Glamorganshire 
 Canal, in 1828. The particulars are 
 supposed to be not all of them perfectly 
 correct, though they are probably not 
 far from the truth. They do not pre- 
 cisely establish the make of the different 
 works, as they only, of course, include 
 the iron sent to the shipping port, and 
 can take no account of home consump- 
 tion, or increase and decrease of stocks 
 at the works. 
 
 Cyfarthfa and Hirwen works, 
 
 Messrs. Crawshay and Co. 25,412 
 
 Dowlais . . Guest and Co. . 25,020 
 
 Plymouth . Hill and Co. . . 14,500 
 
 Pen yDarran, Foreman and Co. 10,805 
 
 Aberdare .... 9,262 
 
 Gadlys . 593 
 
 Bute 177 
 
 Total 85,774 
 
 In 1829, the total quantity sent down 
 the Glamorganshire Canal was 88,000 
 tons ; and in 1830 it was rather reduced 
 again, the quantity being 87,364 tons, 
 distributed in the following proportions 
 amongst the different works. 
 
 Dowlais . 
 Cyfarthfa, &c. 
 Pen y Darran 
 Plymouth 
 Aberdare 
 Blakemore and Co. 
 Brown and Co. 
 
 Tons. 
 
 29,621 
 
 21,312 
 
 12,582 
 
 13,046 
 
 7,248 
 
 2,891 
 
 664 
 
 Total 87,364 
 
 The above works do not comprise half 
 the South Wales district, the shipments 
 from the port of Newport being greater 
 than those from Cardiff. The returns of 
 iron by the Monmouthshire Canal to 
 Newport, are for 
 
 Tons. 
 
 1829 . . . 108,000 
 
 1830 ^. . . 106,000 
 This superiority on the part of New- 
 port to Cardiff, was by no means the case 
 some years ago, but latterly the works 
 of Monmouthshire have been much in- 
 creased, and have given a population 
 and an importance to that district that 
 was before unknown. Indeed the face 
 of nature has been entirely changed in 
 some places in the space of a few years, 
 by the establishment of new works. 
 Romantic vallies, that before were rarely 
 traversed by a human being, are now 
 intersected by , rail-roads, and studded 
 with rows of workmen's houses. The 
 flourishing woods that clothed the sides 
 of the hills, and in the winter sheltered 
 innumerable woodcocks, are now cut 
 down for pit timber, or blackened by 
 smoke, which prevents the former tenants 
 from resuming their visits; and the clear 
 mountain streams that teemed with life, 
 and afforded a never-failing resource to 
 the fisherman, are now thickened and 
 poisoned by the mineral waters that 
 drain into them. 
 
MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 The statistical inquirer may perhaps 
 be curious to learn some particulars as 
 to the number of people supported by 
 the manufacture of iron in South Wales. 
 These particulars are not to be obtained 
 with facility, from the circumstance of 
 there being many master workmen, or 
 contractors, at every work, who employ 
 a number of workmen under them, 
 whose names are not. returned in the 
 pay books. From the best information 
 that could be obtained on this subject, 
 
 the following is a statement of the num- 
 ber employed on a work where there 
 are five furnaces, and a forge and mill 
 capable of manufacturing about two 
 hundred tons of bar-iron weekly. Each 
 particular class of labour is here kept 
 separate, and the number of women and 
 boys is given as well as that of the 
 men, from which it will be observed 
 that the employment for the former at 
 iron-works is not very extensive. 
 
 Colliers, including road-men, horse-tenders, and sundry la-\ 
 bourers ..... 
 
 Miners, including stacking and loading the mine, road-men, j 
 horse-tenders, and sundry labourers . . / 
 
 Furnaces, &c., including furnace-labour, viz., keepers, fillers,! 
 refiners, cokers, pig-weighers, engineers, fitters-up, moul- \ 
 ders, smiths, carpenters, sawyers, stable-men, brick-ma- J 
 kers, masons, machine-men, carriers, &c. &c. 
 
 Forge and mill, viz., puddlers, shinglers, rollers, catchers,} 
 straighteners, smiths, bailers, engineers, bar-weighers, > 
 clerks, &c., &c. . . . . J 
 
 Agents, overlookers, and others, not included in the above 
 
 280 
 395 
 
 257 
 
 145 
 31 
 
 40 
 
 39 
 
 Boys. 
 
 27 
 
 73 
 
 55 
 
 TOTALS . 
 
 . 1108 84 191 
 
 From the above statement it appears 
 that five furnaces, with a corresponding 
 establishment for the manufacture of 
 bar-iron, provide direct employment for 
 near fourteen hundred individuals. Sup- 
 posing in round numbers that a work of 
 this size produces a twentieth of the 
 iron made in South Wales and Mon- 
 mouthshire, which supposition will not 
 be far from the truth, and supposing, 
 likewise, that the number of work-peo- 
 ple here stated affords a tolerably fair 
 average, the iron-works in this district 
 give direct employment to about twenty- 
 eight thousand people, to say nothing 
 of the wives and families who derive 
 
 their support from'the labour of the men, 
 and the much larger number who are ne- 
 cessarily employed and maintained in a 
 variety of way sin every populous district. 
 It will be seen by a reference to the 
 canal returns of bar-iron sent to New- 
 port and Cardiff, that a work producing 
 about two hundred tons a week may 
 fairly be stated to form a twentieth of 
 the whole production of South Wales, 
 and this calculation is confirmed by the 
 following table of the number of fur- 
 naces, which shows a proportion of 
 nearly one to twenty in a work consist- 
 ing of five furnaces compared with the 
 total number. 
 
 Dowlais Iron-works Guest and Co. 
 Cyfarthfa Crawshay and Sons 
 Hirwen .... 
 
 Plymouth Hill and Co. 
 
 Pen y Darran Thompson, Foreman, and Co. 
 Romney and Bute Works . 
 Sir Howey and Ebbw Vale Works Harfords,! 
 Davies, and Co. J 
 
 Nant y Glo Bailey, Brothers 
 Tredegar Thompson, Foreman, and Co. 
 Aberdare .... 
 
 Abersychan British Iron Company 
 Varteg Hill Kenricks and Co. 
 Blaenafon Hills and Wheeley 
 Beaufort Kendal, Bevan, and Co. 
 Clydach Frere and Co. 
 The Race C. H. Leigh 
 
 Carried forward 
 
 No. of Furnaces No. of Furnaces 
 in blast. out of blast. 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 3 
 5 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 1 
 
 74 
 
 
 
 3 
 '2 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 I) 
 
 2 
 16 
 
 Total. 
 12 
 9 
 4 
 7 
 5 
 4 
 
 7 
 5 
 6 
 5 
 5 
 4 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 
 90 
 
32 
 
 MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 
 
 No. of Furnaces No. of Furnaces 
 
 Brought forward 
 
 Pentwyn Hunt, Brothers, and Co; 
 Coalbrook Vale Brewers 
 Blaina Jones and Co. 
 Yniscedwin Crane and Co. 
 Maesteg 
 
 Pontrhyd y Ven Reynolds and Co. 
 Vigors , 
 
 Pentyrch R. Blakemore 
 Gadlys Bryant 
 Ryddry . . 
 
 Cefn Crubur 
 
 in blast. 
 
 out of blast. 
 
 Total. 
 
 74 
 
 16 
 
 90 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 TOTAL 
 
 90 
 
 18 
 
 108 
 
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