60 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



THE VALUE OF IRON. 



To show how cheaply iron is obtained, and how the mechanical skill 

 and labor expended upon it totally overshadow the price, a number of the 

 British Quarterly Review gives the following curious and instructive calcu- 

 lation : 



Bar iron, worth 1 sterling, is worth, when worked into horse shoes, 



Table knives, . 



2s T eedles, 



Penknife blades, 



Polished buttons and buckles, 



Balance springs of watches, 



Cast iron, worth 1 sterling, is 'worth, when conver ed into mac iiner3>- 



Larger ornamental work, . 



Buckles and Beriin work, . 



Neck chains, . 



Shirt buttons, 



71 



657 



897 



50,000 



4 



45 



2 10 

 36 

 

 

 

 

 

 



600 

 1,386 

 5,896 





 

 



Thirty-one pounds of iron have been made into wire upwards of one 

 hundred and eleven miles in length, and so fine was the fabric, that a part 

 was converted, in lieu of horse-hair, into a barrister's wig. The process 

 followed, to effect this extraordinary tenuity, consists of heating the iron, 

 and passing it through rollers of eight inches diameter, going at the rate of 

 four hundred revolutions per minute, down to No. 4 on the gauge. It is 

 afterwards drawn cold, down to No. 38 on the same gauge, and so on, 

 till it obtains the above length in miles. 



COMPOSITION OF STEREOTYPE METAL. 



Persoze, the French chemist, has published the following table, of va- 

 rious fusible alloys used in producing stereotypes : 



