24^3 



NATURE 



[April 21, 192 1 



perate regions of the entire northern hemisphere 

 as far south as North Africa and Mexico, which 

 appear to have been the southern hmit of the 

 great waves of migration of the various types of 

 mammoths from Central Asia. This is, in fact, 

 the climax in the history of such diverse families 

 as the proboscideans, camels, horses, bison, and 

 the great carnivora that preyed upon them. The 

 impression created by the collection in a single 

 hall of all these various types is that the period 

 just preceding the final great glaciation of the 

 northern hemisphere witnessed the assemblage of 

 the most superb land mammals that the earth has 

 produced. It is virtually the climax of the Age 

 of Mammals, and marks the beginning of what 



has since proved to be the close of the Age of 

 Mammals, because the elimination which began 

 from natural causes during the early stages of 

 human evolution, and reached the dimensions 

 of a cataclysm as the Ice age progressed, has 

 now been accelerated by the introduction of 

 firearms. By the middle of the present century 

 man will be alone amid the ruins of the mam- 

 malian world he has destroyed. The period of the 

 Age of Mammals will have entirely closed, and 

 the Age of Man will have reached a numerical 

 climax, from which some statisticians believe it 

 will probably recede, because we are approaching 

 the point of the over-population of the earth in 

 three of the five great continents. 



The Rise and Development of the Sussex Iron Industry. 



A PAPER of considerable interest on this 

 subject was recently read before the New- 

 comen Society (formed two years ago for the 

 study of the history of engineering and techno- 

 logy) by Mr. Rhys Jenkins. He pointed out that 

 although the industry in Sussex has been extinct 

 for a hundred years, the district is historically one 

 of great importance, for it was here that the blast- 

 furnace was first used in England, and after- 

 wards spread to what are now the chief iron- 

 making districts in the Midlands, the North, and 

 South Wales, Although it is customary to speak 

 of the district as Sussex, it embraces parts of 

 Kent, Surrey, and Hampshire; in fact, it is the 

 Weald between the North and South Downs. 

 Sites of old iron works exist from a little beyond 

 Haslemere on the west to Sissinghurst on the 

 east. 



It appears that iron was manufactured in the 

 Weald in early times, and there are clear indica- 

 tions of the existence of the industry during the 

 Roman occupation. It is supposed to have waned 

 with the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, and the 

 indications of its existence are very scanty until 

 Norman times are reached. Down to about the 

 fifteenth century the iron was made by a direct 

 process — i.e. the ore was reduced directly to mal- 

 leable iron. Its production must have been on 

 quite a small scale. At some period in the latter 

 half of the fifteenth century, however, the blast- 

 furnace was introduced into Sussex, and proved 

 to be the forerunner of the modern process in 

 which the ore is first smelted with the production 

 of fluid pig-iron, and afterwards converted either 

 into wrought iron or into one of the many varieties 

 of steel. It was the blast-furnace which started the 

 Wealden iron industry on its career of prosperity, 

 and soon Sussex became the premier iron-pro- 

 ducing district of England. It must not be 

 imagined that there was ever anything in the 

 nature of a "black country," for, although there 

 were a great many works, they were scattered 

 over a wide area, and they were small. The only 

 fuel employed was charcoal, and the power was 

 derived from the streams. 



NO. 2686, VOL. 107] 



Mr. Jenkins reviewed at some length the evi- 

 dence available, and came to the conclusion that 

 the blast-furnace, together with the finery process 

 for converting cast iron into malleable iron, had 

 been introduced into England before the year 

 1 500 ; by that date there were certainly three fur- 

 naces at work — namely, at Buxted, Hartfield, and 

 Newbridge. The iron workers were of French 

 origin, and this points to the method of manu- 

 facture having been borrowed from France. No 

 doubt the old direct method of manufacture did 

 not disappear at once, but it is probable that by 

 the middle of the sixteenth century it had been 

 entirely displaced. By that time a number of 

 native workmen had been trained in the new pro- 

 cess, and the total number of works in the district, 

 according to a return made in the year 1548, was 

 fifty-three, of which about half were fur- 

 naces. The new works were established as near 

 as possible to the sea-coast ; clearly the object was 

 to reduce, so far as possible, the expensive land 

 transport. Every reduction in the cost of car- 

 riage placed the Sussex maker on a more favour- 

 able footing, as against the foreigner, in the 

 London market. 



The direct process had been carried out on a 

 small scale, and produced a bloom weighing from 

 100 lb. to 200 lb. at a time. The manufacture 

 could be carried on with few appliances and inex- 

 pensive erections, and entirely by human labour. 

 It needed only a small capital outlay ; obviously 

 it was the industry of the small man. All this 

 was changed with the coming of the blast-furnace. 

 The furnaces, with the finery, chafery, and 

 hammer, were comparatively expensive structures. 

 The furnace bellows and the hammer called for 

 more power than could be conveniently applied 

 by workmen, so water-power was pressed into 

 service. This meant the acquisition of an exist- 

 ing mill, possibly of a number of water rights, 

 and the construction of dams or bays to form the 

 furnace and hammer ponds, once so common a 

 feature in Sussex. All this required an outlay of 

 capital, probably in many cases the ownership of 

 land, etc. ; in short, iron-making was transformed 



