SIR WILLIAM iVA.l/A.Y.v, F.RS. 213 



there are Ecoles Industrielles at Paris, Lyons, Lille, &c., and 

 it is gratifying to observe the great attention given to such 

 elementary education at leading works. 



By way of example I will only cite the instance of Le Creusot, 

 where the schools afford instruction to over 6000 children of both 

 sexes of the population connected with those works, and the out- 

 lying branches. The number of teachers employed in these schools 

 amount to 121, and although the information given to the children 

 is strictly elementary, care is taken to impart the elements of the 

 higher branches of knowledge to those who seem desirous and fit 

 to rise to a higher level. 



The Creusot Works taken altogether form a most interesting 

 instance of what can be accomplished by patient industry and 

 systematic organisation. Situated in a district possessing moderate 

 deposits of coal of an inferior character, a meagre clay iron stone, 

 having only a scanty population, and without possessing the 

 advantage of natural means of communication, an establishment 

 has been reared chiefiy through the genius of the late M. E. 

 Schneider, representing an annual production of 125,000 tons of 

 iron and steel wrought into the forms of rails, forgings, plates, 

 and finished engines, remarkable for their finish and general 

 quality. Yet these works depend in a great measure for their 

 superior ores upon a supply from the coast of Africa, and for a 

 portion of their fuel upon the south of France, whilst their produce 

 has to pass over some hundred miles of railway before it reaches 

 any harbour or important market of the world. 



Some of you will have the opportunity, thanks to the kind 

 invitation of M. Henri Schneider, of visiting these remarkable 

 works, and your attention will be especially attracted by a steam- 

 hammer, recently erected there, which with its weight of 80 tons 

 falling through a distance of 5 metres, is by far the most powerful 

 tool of this description now in existence, and does excellent service, 

 I believe, in consolidating heavy ingots of steel for the production 

 of steel cannon, armour-plate, and other heavy forgings. 



The works of Terrenoire, with which we have been made 

 acquainted from time to time by the interesting papers of 

 M. Gautier, the chemist of those works, furnish another instance 

 of great results produced by a combination of intelligence and 

 systematic management ; and, thanks to the invitation of 



