DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN RAIL AND TRACK. 655 



iron from the colonies except in English ships; and in 1679 a duty of 

 10s. was imposed by the British Government upon each ton of pig iron 

 exported. 



In 1750, about 3,500 tons of pig iron having been imported into Eng- 

 land from America, a law was passed by Parliament removing this 

 duty, but prohibiting all persons in the colonies, under penalty of £200, 

 from erecting a forge or working a tilt hammer or a rolling mill. This 

 was one of the "grievances" that instigated the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence. 



The historian Bancroft, commenting on this fact, says : 



America abounded in iron ore ; its unwrpught iron was excluded from the English 

 market, and its people were rapidly gaining skill at the furnace and forge. Iu Feb- 

 ruary, 1750, the subject engaged the attention of the House of Commons. After a 

 few days' deliberation a bill was brought in which permitted American iron in its 

 rudest forms to be imported duty free; but now that the nailers in the colonies could 

 afford spikes and large nails cheaper than the English, it forbade the smiths of Amer- 

 ica to erect any mills for slitting or rolling iron, or any plating forge to work with a 

 tilt.* 



In 17G1 less than 17,000 tons of iron had been made in all Great Brit- 

 ain and over 4,500 tons had been imported from America. 



COAL-MINE TRAMROADS. 



The earliest railways were laid in the coal mines and from the mines 

 to the adjacent water courses. These ways consisted of squared timber 

 rails laid in the ground, held to gauge by cross timbers, to which they 

 were fastened by wooden pins. 



Roger North in 1072, in his biography of his brother Francis, the 

 Lord Chancellor, describes a wooden railway which he had seen at 

 Newcastle during the reign of Charles II, as follows: "The manner 

 of the carriage is by laying rails of timber from the colliery down to 

 the river exactly straight and parallel, and bulky carts are made with 

 rowlets fitting these rails, whereby the carriage is so easy that one 

 horse will draw 4 or 5 chaldrons of coals." The Newcastle chaldron 

 weighed 5,936 pounds, so that one horse hauled 8 or 9 tons. 



EARLY AMERICAN COAL MINES. 



Coal was mined in America as early as 1770 on the James River in 

 Virginia, and was used at the Westham foundry to manufacture shot 

 and shell during the Revolutionary War. 



"Theexacl wording of the act as finally passed was as follows: "And that pig 

 and bar iron in his Majesty's colonies in America may be further manufactured in 

 this kingdom, be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after 

 the 24th day of June, 1750, no mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron, or 

 any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace for making steel, 

 shall be erected, or after such erection continued in His Majesty's colonies in America ; 

 and if any person or persons shall erect or cause to bo erected, or after such erection 

 continue, or cause to be con! inued, in any of the said colonies, any such mill, engine, 

 forgo or furnace, every person or persons so offending shall, for every such mill, 

 engine, forge or furnace, forfeit tin: sum of '2(H) pounds lawful money of Great 

 Britain." 



