CAST IRON ANT) STEEL IXDUSTKV, 



145 



In recent years the price of cast iron enamelled plate at the Fair of Nizhni- 

 Novgorod was 3.20 roubles per pond; at the manufactories of the Vistula region it 

 sold from 2 to 2.40 roubles per poud. Wares of soft cast iron are also worked at 

 some of the manufactories; however, this trade is not conducted on a large scale. 



The casting of articles of the fine arts, the chief representatives of which 

 are, from long ago, the Kyshtym manufactories of the Urals, does not represent any 

 considerable branch of industry. It does not even form any part of the regular pro- 

 duction of these works, although, due to the special qualities of the cast iron em- 

 ployed, permitting of the finest finish, the wares of the Kyshtym works, being very 

 cheap, could easily find markets abroad, especially if subjects of Russian life were 

 treated in the designs. The articles produced are generally not of large size, and 

 owing to their pure outlines and evident material ai-e never stamped; they bear a 

 great resemblance to works made of bronze. 



In order to give an idea of the relative distribution of the different kinds of 

 cast iron articles (the casting of bombs and shells for the artillery being ex- 

 cluded), among the difterent mining works and various foundries, as well as to show 

 the market growth of the industry, the following table based upon official data of 

 recent years has been prepared. 



It should be mentioned that the quantity of the casting in hot blast furnaces, 

 given in the column of foundries for cast iron, does not show the full amount of the 

 yearly production of these foundries, because the castings made for private customers 

 at the mechanical manufactories and those included in the statistics on machinerv 

 building, have not been considered here. The general total of this kind of castings 

 should be reckoned at not less than half of that given in the table above. 



Thus, making due allowances for the total, and counting the average price of 

 simple cast iron by high furnace as well as by cupolas, at 1.50 roubles per poud, 

 the value of the production as well as the quantity produced and the import and ex- 

 port thereof for the years from 1886 to 1890, may be given as in the following 

 table, which equally shows the import and export for the two succeeding years, the 

 data for the home production having not yet been published. The crude castings are 

 not separated from the elaborated works in the amount of the export column. 



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