WILLIAM SI1.MENS, F.R.S 2\"J 



REMARKS ON THE OCCASION OF THE EXCURSION OF THK 

 IRON AND STEEL INSTITUTE TO CREUSOT. 



THE President* (DR. SIEMENS) said he rose to thank their 

 worthy host for the kind manner in which he had received them 

 already, and at the same time to thank him for the kind words he 

 had spoken with regard to his presidency. He had for many years 

 been proud to consider himself a friend of that house. He had 

 enjoyed the society of that house many years ago, and the more he 

 knew of M. Henri Schneider the more admiration did he feel for him. 

 Looking upon him from whatever point they might, he could only 

 express by the word " admiration " the impressions they received 

 of his character. The man who found Creusot a comparative 

 wilderness, a small place cast away in a valley, had by his genius, 

 his method, his system, his honesty of purpose, created an estab- 

 lishment there such as, he believed, the world could not boast of 

 elsewhere. Naturally, Creusot had got its minerals and its fuel, 

 but those minerals and that fuel put together would give very poor 

 results indeed the fuel was a non-binding kind of anthracite ; the 

 stone was very poor ironstone of the oolitic formation. If any 

 ordinary person had made the attempt to produce iron there he 

 would have relinquished it very soon ; but with growing means of 

 communication M. Schneider took advantage of all the circum- 

 stances he could. He himself had very great pleasure in going 

 with him when he paid daily visits to inspect systematically the 

 result from the puddling furnaces and works, and rewarded with 

 a premium the puddling furnace which produced in that day the 

 best set of samples. It was through such a system as that that 

 Creusot was able to produce the marvellous results which they saw 

 now. The ironstone had to be supplemented by ironstone from 

 abroad the coal of the district had to be supplemented by bind- 

 ing coal from the South of France. Elaborate machinery, which 

 in those days was considered refined machinery, had to be erected 

 to grind those coals together and burn them in an apparatus, 

 which up to this day had not been acknowledged in England, and 



* Excerpt Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1878, pp. 522-524. 



