57 



f 



uses the hoi blast, which, with anthracite fuel, is essential to complete success. 

 He thinks the iron is equal in quality to that proJuced by charcoal, and is pre- 

 ferred for most purposes to that reduced by bituminous coal or coke ; but he has 

 not succeeded in substituting this species of fuel for the others used in the pud- 

 dling and refinery furnaces, as I understand they have done in Pennsylvania. Mr, 

 Crane sells his iron in pigs, having no rolling mills. 



My next visit was to Mr. Llewellen's sheet-tin works. The best Blaenavon or 

 Monmouthshire iron pigs are broken up, melted, and run into a charcoal refinery. 

 It is then taken out in large .white hot masses and put under a heavy trip-hammer, 

 which crushes and moulds it as if it were a ball of snow. It is then reheated 

 and beaten in like manner by another trip hammer into short irregular bars, and 

 then rolled into bars. From the rollers they are passed into a machine which cuts 

 them, as if they were pasteboard, into convenient lengths. Each bar or piece is 

 then rolled and doubled until it is brought into the usual size of sheet tin, and 

 consists of eight lamina. To the eye it is one homogeneous mass of very malle- 

 able iron, without flaw. It is then marked with the required dimensions, clipped 

 by machinery to those dimensions, then carried to a table where the laminae are 

 divided, and eight sheets are made of one. This is done by turning down one 

 corner which partially separates the leaves ; and the corner of the exterior laminae 

 is seized by the thumb and forefinger and stripped ofl', and the others are success- 

 ively removed in the same manner, a knife being occasionally used to effect a partial 

 separation. They are then bent or doubled into the form of a pent-house, by hand, 

 and placed, for a short time, in a furnace to be annealed. They are then dipped 

 in liquid muriatic acid to remove the oxydation, then rolled out smooth, cold. The 

 sheets are then rubbed with fine sand and water, and are then immersed in a weak 

 solution of sulphuric acid. In the meantime, a large pot, a« big a^ a pot-ash 

 kettle, has been placed over a furnace, and filled with oil, tallow, and block or 

 pig tin, and the whole mass fused together. Into this bubbling caldron, after 

 much toil and trouble, the iron plates are immersed, and when removed, are found 

 covered with tin. But to complete the operation, they are introduced successively 

 into three other receptacles of a similar fluid, but of a progressively better quality. 

 They are then dipped into a boiling mass of thick lime and water, which seems so 

 to fix the tin, and to remove the impurities. The plates are cleansed and bright- 

 ened in tubs of wheat bran, where they are well rubbed — (nearly all the light 

 labor being performed by females.) This completes the process, and these plates 

 are the usual tin of commerce. The block tin is brought from Cornwall, and is 

 worth in SvSansea, about £100 per ton. This establishment is very large and is 

 understood to be profitable. * 



December 8th. — Left Swansea this morning at 6 o'oclock for CardiflT, which 

 reached at half past 11 A. M. The ride was through a very beautiful and pic- 

 ttiresque country. The coach loaded down with passengers, luggage, and game. 

 Breakfasted, dressed, and called to deliver my letters to Captain Sniythc, R. N., 

 superintendent of the afl'airs of the Marquis of Bute. Then walked down to the 

 harbor and saw Lieutenant Donkfield, harbor master, who gave me a note to Mr 



