ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 7 



amount of pig iron and the amount of bar and other wrought iron produced, 

 and thus obtains a result of 92 pounds of iron produced for each inhabitant of 

 the United States ; which, as he says, "speaks volumes for the progress of the 

 nation in all its industrial and material interests." It speaks a volume or two 

 for his own ignorance of the elements of metallurgy ; since, as everybody, except 

 the Superintendent of the United States Census, knows, the bar and rolled iron 

 is nearly all converted from the pig, and only a small proportion made direct 

 from the ore ; so that his method of computation is as near correct as it would 

 be, for instance, to estimate the amount of beef consumed per head in San 

 Francisco, by adding the weight of all the cattle slaughtered in the city to that 

 of the beef produced by said slaughtering. As. in 1856, only 28,433 tuns of 

 bar iron were made directly from the ore, to 812,917 of pig produced ; so, allow- 

 ing that 28,000 tuns were made direct in 18G0, the amount, per head, of all the 

 iron made in that year would be (if) pounds, instead of 92, as Mr. Kennedy cal- 

 culates* Taking the population of the United States at 23,000.000, in 1850, 

 and the make of iron at 800,000 tuns, as given by the returns of the Commis- 

 sion of the Iron-Masters of Pennsylvania, the amount produced, per head, in 

 that year, would be 78 pounds ; so that all Mr. Kennedy's glorification goes 

 for naught, unless we admit that his returns for 1860 are wrong. 



In regard to the statistics of the other metals mentioned in the Census Keport, 

 it may be said, with truth, that they are very defective. No mention is made 

 of gold, silver, or mercury, the value of the first-named of which produced in 

 this country is nearly double that of all the other metals. Under zinc, there is 

 no mention made of New Jersey, the great zinc-producing State. The yield of 

 lead in the Mississippi Valley is put down at considerably less than its real 

 amount. 



But the most important remark to be made, in this connection, is in refer- 

 ence to the mode of reporting the results adopted by Mr. Kennedy. Instead of 

 giving the amount of metal produced, the number of tuns of ore is stated, and 

 no clue given to the yield of the ore. This is something as an assessor's report 

 would be, which should give the valuation of the individuals he might lie called 

 on to appraise, in pieces' of money, leaving it uncertain whether five cent or 

 twenty dollar pieces were intended. 



The table given by Mr. Kennedy does not state what amounts of each metal 

 are produced ; and. if we attempt to arrive at them by examining the columns 

 of values, it is found to be impossible to decide whether these values are those 

 of the ore as mined before being smelted, or of the metals produced from them. 

 In short, the whole matter is left in such obscurity, that it is much to be wished 

 that the table could be expunged from the Report, as it can only serve to mis- 

 lead and confuse those who resort to Government documents for information in 

 ! d to our metallic and mineral productions. 



* In point of fact, the amount of bar iron made in the bloomery furnaces direct from 

 the ore is growing less every year, and must be now reduced to a very small figure. 



