MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 79 



In answer to Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Davey said that the powder would be 

 rather cheaper than that now used, as less nitre was employed in its manu- 

 facture, and the process was quicker. The Chairman said the Court would 

 grant the application. 



The Mining Journal, from which we take these particulars, observes: 

 " We understand a vast number of experiments have been made (with Mr. 

 Davey's powder), and from the testimony of the leading managers, it ap- 

 pears certain that a saving of at least one-third in the expense will be 

 effected. It is less dangerous than ordinary powder, produces very little 

 smoke, and that of a less pungent kind than usual, not only enabling the mi- 

 ner to work in close places without the delay consequent on smoke, but 

 greatly diminishing the unhealthy effects of it in the mines. London En- 

 gineer. 



THE IRON MANUFACTURE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



From a statistical summary given by Mr. J. P. Lesley in his " Iron Manu- 

 facturers' guide to the furnaces, forges, and rolling-mills of the United States," 

 we derive the following information respecting the iron manufacture in the 

 United States : 



The entire production of raw metal in the United States in 1856, was a lit- 

 tle over eight hundred thousand tons (812,917), being an increase of 12 per 

 cent, from 18-34. For the year 18-36 the whole iron production advanced only 6 

 per cent, over the previous year, but the anthracite branch of the manufacture 

 reached the aggregate of 394,509 tons, being nearly one-half the whole iron 

 product of the country, and showing an increase of thirteen per cent, over the 

 previous year, a fact to be explained by the conversion of charcoal furnaces 

 into anthracite furnaces. The industry naturally tends to concentrate itself 

 about the geological centre of fuel in Pennsylvania, a fact shown by the de- 

 cline of this branch of the iron industry outside of Pennsylvania by an an- 

 nual rate of over six per cent., which raises the Pennsylvania anthracite 

 increase to over twenty -two per cent. 



The grand total of iron of all kinds, domestic and foreign, used in the Uni- 

 ted States in 1856, is set down at 1,330,548 tons, which it distributed thus: 



Domestic. Foreign. Total. 



Rolled and hammered, 519,081 298,275 817,356 



Pig iron, 337,154 55,403 392,557 



856.235 353.678 1,209,913 



which results give 70 per cent, domestic to 30 per cent, foreign iron. The great 

 facts demonstrated by the statistics collected by the American Iron Associa- 

 tion are, that we have nearly 1200 efficient iron works in the United States, 

 producing annually about 850,000 tons of iron, the value of which, in an ordi- 

 nary year, is fifty millions of dollars, of which the large sum of $35,000,000 is 

 expended for labor alone. 



Mr. Whitney, in his Metallic Wealth of the United States, estimates the iron 

 product of the world at 5,817,000 tons, of which 1,000,000 are set down for the 

 United States, Great Britain producing that year 3,000,000. When we remem- 

 ber that, so late as 1845, the total product of the United States in iron had not 

 reached half a million tons (486,000), and that in 1850 it was only 600,000 

 tons, it will be seen that the progress in this important industry, in the first ' 



