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in capacity to two, three, four, five, and six thousand cubic feet. 
In later years these were followed by furnaces equal to ten 
thousand cubic feet without the maximum effect even then 
being obtained. 
The oldest casting met with by Mr. Mushet in Dean Forest 
is dated 1620. The first iron guns cast in England were in 
1547, by a person in London of the name of Owen, who, in 
1535, had succeeded for the first time in making guns from brass — 
or bronze. 
The opinion that the blast furnace for the production of cast 
or pig iron was an English invention has received corroboration 
from various circumstances. 
The fact of Owen casting iron guns in 1547, would indicate a 
knowledge of the re-melting of iron, and is a considerable confir- 
mation of the previous existence of the blast furnace, and of its 
productions in the shape of castings of various sorts, a great variety 
of which would most likely be first fabricated before commencing 
upon pieces of ordnance. It is fair also to presume that pig iron 
would be well known, and applied for the purpose of making bar 
iron, long before it became a staple article in the manipulations of 
the foundry. 
Mr. Hill, of the Plymouth Iron Works, gave to Mr. Mushet 
a perfect casting, on which are inscribed the Arms of England, 
with the initials E.R., bearing date 1553,—being the last year of 
the reign of Edward the Sixth. 
We have now come down to that, to us, interesting period of 
iron manufacture, extending from the year 1752 to 1783, when the 
old furnace at Maryport was built and worked as a commercial 
speculation. All honor to the names of those who entered on the 
enterprise, sanguine, no doubt, of great results, but doomed 
eventually to disappointment ; all honour also to the man who had 
intelligence to read the future, and also the liberality to afford them 
on very reasonable terms the necessary land, buildings, and other 
facilities for starting their venture. Viewing, as we now do, the 
great iron industries established at Maryport of late years, one 
cannot fail to be impressed with the apparent prescience of the 
