AMERICAN INSTITUTE. • 495 



lost its electricity on an old bridge of 1,000 years. The iron used in that 

 old London bridge was brought from the primitive rock of Saxony. 



Mr. Stetson. — This subject is great. Who shall fully tell us what we 

 want to know, without waiting a thousand years ? 



Mr. Bradford. — American iron is better than English. 



Mr. Meigs. — Plates spotted with rust showing their unequal qualities. 



Mr. Seeley. — That may test plates. 



Mr. Butler. — Iron bars and rods stacked show ruin at their ends from 

 rust and very unequal corrosion. 



Mr. Everitt. — The cannon balls in the Hussar, sunk in 1776 at Hellgate, 

 lost all the iron. 



Chairman. — Paper on iron. 



Mr. Cohen. — Percussion on a boiler when steam is up, seems to lead to 

 explosion. It has happened in jManchester, when a sound locomotive boiler 

 seam was being caulked I 



John Johnson adverted to the peculiar vibration of boilers when steam 

 is up. 



The Chairman saw splendid boilers of T?//?/ //ears' serr/ce at Manchester, 

 turned out into the yard. 



Mr. Butler. — Safes of plaster of Paris are injured by the corrosion in- 

 side. In a short time holes are eaten through some of them from the 

 inside. We find alum better. 



Mr. Pell made the fallowing remarks on iron : 



The discovery of this most important of all metals, has without doubt 

 effected far more than any other substance to facilitate man's advances in 

 the onward career of improvement. We are amazed to find that it is ser- 

 viceable to all our desires, caprices and requirements. It is equally useful 

 in times of peace or war, furnishing us in the former case with the plow, 

 the needle, the watch spring and the chisel ; in the latter, with the bomb- 

 shell and cannon ; and is actually the only metal that can be used advan- 

 tageously as a medicine. It is found in the greatest profusion throughout 

 the world, and though so common, is rarely discovered in a state prepared 

 for use, and really was not worked until after silver, gold, and copper had 

 been a long time in use. Iron v/orks were established by the Romans in 

 Great Britain, and wood was used for smelting the ore. In the year 1619 

 Lord Dudley substituted pit coal for that purpose, and in 1740 his inven- 

 tion was universally, adopted, at which period the quantity produced in 

 Wales and England amounted to about sixteen thousand tons ; in 1858, to 

 nearly four millions of tons. 



In the United States, 1,300,000 



France, 7f>0,000 



Russia, 350,000 



Prussia, 650,000 



Belgium, 300,000 



In all the countries in the world the total production may be eight mil- 

 lions of tons. There are two kinds o iron known, commercially speaking, 



