By J. W. I. HARVEY. 



Bead hefore the Engineering Section. 



"TV yiriLD steel lias been produced in comparatively limited 

 -^^-'- quantities during the last thirty years (1862), and 

 was originally employed in the construction of land boilers, 

 although I believe more than one steamer was built of this 

 material, to run the blockade at the time of the American 

 War about the year 1862. But it is only within the last 

 15 or 17 years (1875), that it has been possible to introduce 

 greater precision and certainty into the exact composition of 

 the material. 



Sir W. Siemens commenced his operations in 1862, and 

 the Landore Steel Works at Swansea were established in 

 1869, but they were chiefly confined to the production of 

 steel rails, tyres, and axles up to the year 1874. The first 

 application to ship-building on an extensive scale was in 

 1876, when this Company, under the management of Mr. 

 James Riley, supplied the steel for Her Majesty's despatch 

 vessels Iris and Mercury^ and so lately as 1878 the tonnage 

 of shipping built of steel in this country did not exceed 

 4,500 tons. 



The mild steel industry is one that has in the course 

 of about twelve years grown from insignificance to one of 

 the most important in Great Britain, and this material has 

 practically supplanted iron for constructive purposes in that 



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