ee 
Bibliography. 381 
sait voir a quelles substances le fer devait sa propriété de devenir 
cassant,”’ etc. etc. 
‘Cet ouvrage devait faire la matiére de trente lettres in folio, dont 
Roger fit imprimer les deux premiéres afin de se procurer des sous- 
cripteurs. A l’annonce de cette publication et a la lecture de V’intro- 
duction dans laquelle le plan en était savamment developpé, la terreur 
s’empara des maitres de forges Anglais: ils craignirent que le savant 
chimiste ne portét la lumiére dans une carriére od ils avaient soin 
@entretenir l’obscurité ; ils résolurent d’étouffer ce beau génie et ac- 
coururent en foule dans le Monmouthshire pour racheter au prix de 
lor un monopole qui allait leur échapper. Roger eut la faiblesse de 
céder aux offres de ces avides Bretons et ses élucubrations restérent 
enfouies dans les cabinets de trente personnes intéressées a les cacher 
de tous les yeux.”—Landriu, tom. I, pp. 11 and 12. 
With less of the somewhat theatrical pomp under which M. Landriu 
saw fit to introduce his notice, another, grounded upon the careful pe- 
tusal of the said thirty letters and personal enquiries among those under 
and with whom Rogers had worked, was made by Mr. Alexander, in 
his Report on the Manufacture of Iron, noticed in Vol. xx1, No. 2, of 
this Journal, 
Under these concurring testimonies there is reasonable ground for 
believing that the book will be found to contain matter of importance 
for all who are interested in the subject. 
Mr. Alexander stands in no other light with regard to the publicatio 
than that of friendly editor, as we are informed; adding nothing of his 
Own except a review of the experiments on the expansibility and point 
of fusion of this metal, and the results of his own experiments on the 
fusibility of different earthy and metallic silicates which are found in 
or may advantageously enter into the composition of the furnace cinder 
or slag. 
The design of Mr. Alexander in taking the trouble of this publication 
Was, as well toaid the family of Rogers—some of whom are understood 
to be struggling in obscure poverty somewhere in Wales—as in fur- 
therance of a corpus of treatises on the subject, which he proposed to 
Publish in the interest of this most important branch of American man- 
ufactures, under the general title of ‘Contributions to the History of 
the Manufacture of Iron;? to which his Report, &c. before mentioned, 
was meant to serve for introduction. 
In the introduction to that report he mentions Rogers and his work 
in the following terms : acit 
“In 1819, Samuel Rogers, a working hand about one of the estab- 
i ts in Monmouthshire, but in many regards an extraordin 
Person, had yet, by some means, acquired a very judicious comprehen- 
