PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 213 



its companion, slag, has been left behind at the smelting 

 works, a hideous memorial, defiicing the landscape, absorb- 

 ing something like a quarter of a million sterhng annually 

 in its disposal, and destroying for ever hundreds of acres 

 of valuable land ; forming, as it were, a blot upon the 

 face of the earth, and left as a landmark to show where 

 the wonderful metal, iron, has been extracted, the de- 

 velopment of which has contributed so much to bring the 

 world to its present state of civilization. 



The first use to which slag was devoted was road- 

 making, but until the introduction of stone-breaking 

 machinery, its extreme toughness rendered it so difficult 

 to break, that it was not, I believe, very largely employed ; 

 now at many of the slag heaps, old and new, a machine 

 may be seen constantly at work, breaking it up into road 

 metal, and discharging it into railway trucks, to be con- 

 veyed considerable distances. 



Another and simpler use has been to throw the rough 

 blocks of slag into the sea in the construction of break- 

 waters. At the works at the Tees mouth enormous 

 quantities have been used. The molten slag is simply 

 run out, as usual, into cases placed upon the bogies, and 

 the bogies are then run right out on to the breakwater. 

 These blocks then serve an excellent purpose in breaking 

 the force of the waves. Something like half a miUion 

 tons have been annually used at the Tees works for some 

 time past. 



The next stage in slag utilization consists in the 

 endeavour which has at various times been made, to run 

 the liquid slag, as it flows in a stream from the furnace, 

 into moulds, or in other words, to make slag castings. 

 Such an idea would, at first sight, seem natural enough. 

 Here, it may be said, is a material, flowing to waste in a 

 liquid state, capable of being run into moulds, and of 

 taking impressions almost equal to those of cast-iron. 

 The castings, also, when successfully made, are exceed- 

 ingly durable, and not unpleasing to look at. So alluring 



