108 REPORT—1846. 
partly used, and mentions three other furnaces now building in which it will 
be employed. 
Referring to the counties of Durham and Northumberland, Mr. Mushet 
gives a list of thirty-five furnaces where twenty years ago only one blast- 
furnace, at Chester-le-street, was known to exist; and he mentions, but not 
as of his own knowledge, another source of supply as about being brought 
forward into notice from the spoil and waste of the lead-mines in Weardale, 
“which are now worked and have been so for ages.” He says, “‘ The rider 
of the lead-ore is a true carbonate of iron, some of it yielding from 25 
to 40 per cent. A small blast-furnace has been erected at Stanhope, where 
a very important and interesting experiment has been made, aud a suc- 
cessful result obtained, in which this rider ironstone has been smelted, and 
pig-iron of a strong and excellent quality produced. This ore, even after 
being ground and washed, still contains some particles of galena, and which 
in smelting gives out at the furnace-top a heavy cloud of sulphurous smoke, 
of a forbidding aspect. The pig-iron, however, when remelted, yields no 
smoke from its surface, which would be the case if a small quantity of me- 
tallic lead were thrown in, from which it may be inferred that the lead is in 
the process of smelting entirely dissipated and driven off. What effect may 
be produced upon the conversion of this iron into bar-iron remains to be de- 
termined. The result of this experiment has been deemed so satisfactory as 
to induce the company to erect large smelting-works about three miles from 
Wolsingham. These works consist of two powerful blast-engines and six 
large blast-furnaces. In this enterprise we shall by and by behold the spoil 
of ancient mines, which has reposed for ages, brought to light, no longer as a 
useless, but as a useful material for the production of the common and ordi- 
nary sorts of pig-iron. Great and beneficial results are calculated upon, and 
should they be realized, will no doubt contribute greatly to the produce of 
our iron manufacture.” 
Other authorities do not speak so hopefully of this discovery, and certain 
it is, that of the six blast-furnaces of which Mr. Mushet speaks, only three 
have hitherto been erected, and only one of these is lighted. A great part 
of the furnaces now existing in Durham are chiefly employed in reducing 
ores procured from Whitby and from Scotland, and occasionally small quan- 
tities of hematite ore are procured from Devonshire and from Cumberland. 
There is a considerable quantity of ironstone of the argillaceous kind in the 
eastern division of Durham, but it is for the most part found at inaccessible 
depths, or in such positions of dislocation as to render the cost of working it 
too great. At a place called Shottley-bridge, about fifteen miles west of 
Newcastle, where the ore is plentiful and very accessible, there have been 
eight furnaces at work for some time, and six others are now about to be 
lighted. The argillaceous ironstone found at that place resembles in quality 
the ironstone of Staffordshire. This is the only portion of the county of 
Durham in which it has hitherto been found practicable to make iron in any 
large quantity with materials wholly found on the spot. I have a list of 
twenty-two furnaces now in blast in the two counties of Durham and North- 
umberland yielding weekly 1895 tons of pig-iron, equal to a yearly produc- — 
tion of 94,750 tons, the quantity made in 1843 having been estimated at 
25,750 tons, and in 1844 to only 21,250 tons. In various localities in North- 
umberland there is abundance of clay-ironstone in the immediate vicinity of 
plenty of excellent coal and limestone, and in the course of years large quan- — 
tities of iron may be made in that district. The great obstacle to any sudden 
increase there and elsewhere is offered, as already mentioned, by the difficulty 
of procuring skilled labour. Any addition to the number of coal-miners can 
