No. 216.] 123 



The specimens of iron were submitted to the trial of reducing 

 from a rod a quarter inch in diameter to No. 18 wire at three anne- 

 alations, and the same found to be superior quality of iron. 



There was also another model of a forge for the same purpose on 

 exhibition; your committee gave a decided preference to the former, 

 and for which a gold medal was awarded. 



The subject of iron making is one of vast importance and de- 

 mands an extended and careful notice. 



It will be the design of yr ur committee to point out several de- 

 fects in the mode of procedure in this country of mountain wood- 

 land, which hitherto has attracted but little attention as relates to the 

 most economical kind of fuel for reducing the ores, and the necessi- 

 ty of combining processes more extensively. 



It will be foimd ujjon strict enquiry that iron making as a whole 

 is seldom attempted; that usually a single operation in the process 

 is embraced in one man's undertaking; we find the following in sepa- 

 rate and distinct establishments, 1, owners of ore beds; 2, blast fur- 

 naces; 3, blooming forges; 4, puddling furnaces, -which generally 

 have rolling mills for reducing; 5, rolling mills without puddling 

 furnaces, but sometimes in connection with wire mills; 6, wire mills 

 sometimes in connection with screw mills; this being the case, the 

 fact is made plain, that the owner of the blast furnace pays a profit 

 to the owner of the ore-bed, the puddler to the pigmetal maker, or the 

 rolling mill to the bloom forge, the wire drawer to the rolling mill, and 

 the screw maker to the wire drawer; and further, in the course of 

 these changes of ownership, this heavy material is in motion seeking 

 a market, and thus loaded with an additional cost by way of unne- 

 cessary bills of transportation. 



If but a part of these different owners put upon the article a pro- 

 fit of $10 per ton each, and this is usually the case, and then add 

 for commissions on sales, and a sum sufficient to cover the cost of 

 unnecessary freight, the native ore will have been loaded with at 

 least $50 per ton in these superfluous items of expense; and the 

 screw maker will have paid on wire at 6| cents per lb., a tariff of 

 40 per cent. 



That this is an important view of the subject, may be seen by the 

 following estimated amount of iron wanted in the United States in 

 the shape of wire, viz: 



