100 REPORT—1846. 
established by Sir William Petty in the county of Kerry in 1660, continued 
to be carried on until the exhaustion of the timber in the neighbourhood 
brought them to a stand, and in 1788 there does not appear to have been 
any iron-work in existence in Ireland. 
About this time the iron-masters in Great Britain began to avail them- 
selves of Mr. Watt's improvements of the steam-engine, and were thus en- 
abled greatly and rapidly to increase the productive power of their works, 
so that in eight years from 17788 the quantity of British-made iron was nearly 
doubled. An inquiry made in 1796, consequent upon the proposal of Mr. 
Pitt, which was afterwards abandoned, to place a tax upon coal at the pit’s 
mouth, showed the make of British iron to be then— 
In England and Wales... 108,993 tons. 
In Scotland ......... een 16,086 tons. 
Together ...... 125,079 tons. (See App. No. 2.) 
Ten years later, in 1806, it was proposed to tax the production of iron, 
and again on that occasion an account was taken of the number of furnaces 
and the quantity of iron produced, which was found to have been more than 
doubled in ten years; the production being 
In England and Wales... 234,966 tons. 
TneScotldnd alto. desieds 23,240 tons. 
Together ...... 258,206 tons. (See App. No.3.) 
Of this quantity it was stated that about 95,000 tons were converted into 
bars and plates, and that the capital engaged in the manufacture amounted 
to £5,000,000. The proposed tax was so powerfully opposed in the House 
of Commons, that the bill was carried through the Committee by a majority 
of only ten, and the measure was abandoned. 
The next account of this manufacture which has been given, was prepared 
by Mr. Francis Finch, formerly member for Walsall, and had reference to 
the year 1823. From that account (see App. No. 4) it appeared that in 
seventeen years the make of iron in Great Britain had been increased from 
258,206 tons to 452,066 tons. Between 1823 and 1830 there were erected 
ninety-six new furnaces; and in the latter year it was found, on a further ex- 
amination by Mr. Finch, that the quantity of pig-iron made in Great Britain 
amounted to 678,417 tons (see App. No.5). Our confidence in the cor- 
rectness of the quantities here stated should be confirmed by their having 
been adopted in his evidence before the Committee on Import Duties in 1840 
by Sir John Guest, whose authority upon this subject is conclusive. 
From this time (1830) a series of improvements has been introduced 
into the processes of making iron, which has had the effect of improving 
the quality of the metal and of materially ceconomising the cost of its pro- 
duction. One of the most important of these improvements was made the 
subject of a patent in 1829 by Mr. Neilson of Glasgow, and consisted in the 
artificial heating of the air previously to its being passed into the furnaces. 
The effect of this plan in saving fuel has been most remarkable. In 1829, 
at the Clyde Iron Works, where Mr. Neilson’s experiments were made, and 
in which his patent was first adopted, it required more than § tons of coal, 
when converted into coke, to produce | ton of cast iron. This was when 
the air was forced into the furnace at its natural temperature. By heating 
the air to 300° Fahrenheit preparatory to its introduction, it became neces- 
sary to consume for each ton of iron produced only 5 tons 34 cwt. of coal 
converted into coke; but in heating the air to the required degree, nearly 
