AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 385 



Cold blast pig iron is most likely to produce tlie strongest iron for cast- 

 ings. I submit tH w form of rail ; it is made from a thick plate of iron 

 and steel united. The plate, when hot, is bent up into the form of a rail, 

 the steel coating outside before the bar is cold. It is hardened by being 

 plunged into cold water and tempered the usual way. By these means are 

 obtained great combined strength of the two metals, and an addition of 

 thirty-three per cent, by hardening and tempering the steel, which not only 

 prevents its running surface from rapid wear, but prevents all lamination^ 

 and they are much stronger. M. Chenot, of France, uses an electro-mag- 

 Detic machine to separate iron from deleterious matter. He then adds 

 thick lime water and produces cast steel. 



Sir Francis Knowles has a patent for making east steel from iron ore 

 -direct. 



France imports iron from England. In 1856, nearly 85,000 tons of 



pig ; in 1857, 89,000 tons. The United States imported from us, in -, 



58,000 tons of pig ; in 1856, in rails, bars, &c., 231,000 tons ; in 1857, 

 221,000 tons. In the United States, many iron works are not in operation* 

 and others, like ours, doing very little. Our exports to all countries, so 

 far this year, show decrease, from 1857, of 149,000 tons, of which 118,000 

 tons are of the United States. 



England now exports iron, and articles made of it, to the value of 

 ^22,994,671. This export will continue while we are able to make iron 

 at our cheap rates. Were I to look back into the private history of many 

 of our large works from their commencement, I should find large sums 

 devoted to projects of which no vestige now remains ; while the erection of 

 the requisite machinery had cost more than double the original estimates, 

 they are not worth half the money they cost. 



Whilst England may, at present, look round with some security upon 

 the efforts of other nations, do not let us forget that knowledge expands 

 among them as among us. We have the power, let us have the will, to 

 bring our Eastern Metropolis in direct communication with the I'ulers of 

 that vast empire at home ; let us hope to see her rivers, which every where 

 stretch their arms throughout this land, teeming with riches and prolific 

 vegetation, covered with light-draught steamboats ; let railroads open out 

 the immense resources of a country which has successively enriched many 

 European nations, and England's wealth and energy will then draw from 

 this long neglected portion of our empire, those benefits which she ought 

 long ere this to have enjoyed. 



Our rails, generally speaking, are not so good as they can be made, and 

 the almost daily reports which we hear of the- defects of our iron-built 

 steamships, are proof that this kind of iron might be improved ; and this 

 can only be do7ie by giving the maker a better price. 



[Am. Inst.] 25 



