368 Proceedings of the British Association for 1850. 



Dr Robinson, the President, in introducing Mr Budd io 

 the Section, said, the subject on which that gentleman was 

 about to speak was one of very great importance to the iron 

 trade of this country. According to the present system, an 

 iron founder, in melting a ton of iron, sent out into the atmo- 

 sphere about four tons weight of gaseous products, all of 

 which were entirely lost. Now, Mr Budd had satisfactorily 

 proved, by actual experiment, that the heat which escaped 

 from the tops of blast furnaces was a matter which the iron 

 manufacturer might turn to material account in the way of 

 increasing his own profit, as well as in diminishing the price 

 to the purchasers of that commodity. 



Mr Budd stated that, since the meeting of the Association 

 at Swansea, he had continued, and with increased success, 

 to apply the waste gases that escaped from the top of blast 

 furnaces, to the manufacture of iron ; and it was the result 

 of his farther experience applied to the whole of his furnaces 

 (nine in number) since that period, that he now wished to 

 submit to the Section. He considered that he could not have 

 fallen on a better locality for this purpose than Scotland, 

 where the iron trade has been developed with a rapidity that 

 is quite surprising and quite characteristic of the enterprise 

 of Scotchmen. Twenty-five years ago, Scotland was of no 

 importance in the iron trade, but, since then, the produce of 

 iron in Scotland had increased to between 600,000 and 

 700,000 tons a year. In that short period Scotland had ac- 

 complished a ])roduction which Staffordshire and other places 

 in England took two hundred years, and South Wales a 

 hundred years to accomplish — the make of iron in Scotland 

 being now equal to that of either England or Wales. This 

 great accession to the produce of iron has had a most sensible 

 effect on its price ; but as he believed that necessity was the 

 mother of invention, and that nature had in store for us an 

 immense reservoir of riches to be yet developed, he was of 

 opinion that the tendency of all this cheapness was to teach 

 us that nothing should be wasted, and that we should look 

 forward to the time when the smoke that at present conta- 

 minated the atmosphere, and the filth that polluted our 

 streets, would be regarded as too valuable to be wasted. 



