MECHANICS ANl5 USEFUL ARTS. 73 



per annum to each furnace say one ton per furnace for each working day. 

 Mr. Hewitt estimates the entire annual product of Europe at that time at 

 100,000 tons, 60,000 of which were made hi Sweden and Russia, and one 

 half of this exported to England. The total consumption of iron hi England 

 at that day (only 116 years ago, or since the birth of some persons yet living) 

 was not 15 pounds per head per annum, and that of all Europe but two 

 pounds per head. The whole human race did not then annually require or 

 produce so much as one pound of iron per head. Now Mr. Hewitt produces 

 data showing an annual production of seventeen pounds per head for the whole 

 human family, or seven millions of tons in the aggregate, of which Great 

 Britain produces rather more than one-half, and consumes at least one-fourth. 

 The total product of 1856 is estimated by Mr. H. from imperfect data as 

 follows : 



Tons. Tons. 



Great Britain 3,585,000 United States 1,000,000 



France 650,000 Prussia. 600,000 



Belgium 255,000 Germany (baL of ) 200,000 



Eussia 300,000 Austria 200,000 



Sweden and Norway 179,500 Spain 2T,000 



Italy and Elba 72,000 Denmark &c. 20,000 



Total 6,889,000 tons. 



Asia, Africa, and America outside of the United States, may possibly raise 

 this aggregate to 7,000,000 tons. 



The annual production and consumption of the several countries is estimated 

 as follows : 



Produces. Consumes, 



per head, Ibs. per head, Ibs. 



Great Britain 287 144 



UnitedStates 84 117 



Belgium 136 70 



France 40 60 



Sweden and Norway 92 30 



Germany, including Prussia 50 50 



Austria. 12 15 



Eussia. 10 10 



Switzerland 22 



Spain - 4 5 



The rest of the world too little to be computed. 



The intimate relations of iron to industrial progress and efficiency, as 

 exhibited by this table, need here only be suggested. 



Iron is now relatively one of the cheapest of metals, costing from about a 

 cent a pound hi its crudest and lowest state (pig), at the points of its cheapest 

 production, up to five or six cents per pound for its purest and rarest qualities. 

 In its refined and carbonized form of steel, it was not long since worth 

 twenty-five cents per pound at retail hi this country ; but the cost of the 

 steel making processes has been rapidly reduced by recent discoveries and 

 improvements, until steel is hardly double the value of the better qualities of 

 iron. New steel making processes several of them originating hi this 

 country have recently been patented and are now being reduced to practice, 

 by which it is believed that the price of steel will be still further reduced 



