222 ON THE WING. 



furnace. Thus a body of from 40 to 50 lbs. of 

 melting iron can be obtained at one heat ; a matter 

 of economy and necessity, where large quantities are 

 required, besides possessing the superior advantage of 

 having the whole mass equally heated : this cannot be 

 done by the old hoop method, as the surface must be 

 frequently burnt before the interior is at all in a 

 welding state." 



Stub Iron and Steel. 



" Experience taught the late Mr. Adams and his 

 brother George — who still manufacture some of the 

 best gun iron in the world — that the stub iron alone 

 was insufficient ; for even then (forty years ago) the 

 absurdity of imagining that no barrels were or could 

 be good without being soft, was understood and acted 

 upon by them. They introduced at first one fourth 

 of steel to three of stubs ; this having been found 

 highly advantageous, the prejudices of the gun-makers 

 were gradually overcome, or left in abeyance from ig- 

 norance of the introduction. It is a fact that as late 

 as 1842, when I issued my former work, men who had 

 been all their lives gnn-viake7's (by courtesy) actually 

 refused to believe that any steel at all entered into the 

 composition of the best barrels ; and several whom I 

 know perfectly well ordered the factors with whom 

 they dealt ' to be sure to send them no barrels with 

 steel in, as they did not wish their customers' hands to 

 be blown off.' p 



Charcoal iron has, up to this day, been the only 



