12 THE IRON ORES OF NICTAUX, AND 
inexorable, and iron fulfilling the conditions of purity became 
known as Bessemer pig. This always commands a higher price 
than ordinary pig iron, and at the present moment ranks next 
in price to pig iron made with charcoal, a very pure fuel, and 
the most expensive form of pig iron. 
This necessity for a very pure variety of iron ore at first 
limited the production of Bessemer steel and kept up its price. 
Gradually, however, prospectors searched all parts of the earth 
within easy reach by water of England and Germany the early 
homes of this new process. It was soon found that Spain, Elba, 
and Algiers could be drawn upon for enormous supplies of ore of 
the requisite purity and cheapness. Rich ores were found on 
the north-west coast of England, and large steel works were 
started in Cumberland. Now iron ore is carried to England 
from Norway within the Arctic circle. Similar necessities led 
to the discovery of rich ores in Pennsylvania and on Lake 
Superior, and to the establishment of steel works at Chicago 
and other points in the United States. 
The result of the ready supply of these cheap and pure 
ores, and the reduction of the Bessemer process to an exact 
science, was a steady course of declension in the malleable iron 
production, and in the production of pig iron, so far as its 
derivatives came into competition with steel. So noted is this 
in England that the output of iron ore in the Cleveland district 
has fallen from 6,000,000 tons to 4,000,000 tons a_ year. 
The ore of this district being of inferior quality, and capable of 
yielding only a pig iron, the conversion of which produced an 
iron incapable of competing with steel. 
The effect of this cheapening of steel is most clearly shown 
in the case of steel rails which have replaced iron rails, and 
have themselves fallen in price per ton from $50 to $22. 
The great advantage given by cheap water carriage and pure 
ores to the steel makers situated on tide water, produced a feel- 
ing almost of despair in the continental blast furnace districts, 
which were some distance from water carriage. They saw that 
their iron was being replaced by steel, and that the expense of 
