No. 129.] 231 



also interested in knowing how arsenic, sulphur, phosphorus, 

 and manganese affect the quality of the metal ; and is not this 

 knowledge valuable to the community if it prevents the loss of 

 human life from the bursting of a steam boiler, the fracturing of 

 an axle of the railroad car, or of the mariner's last resort upon 

 a ler shore in a storm — the great sheet anchor and iron chain ? 

 Though he may not be a manufacturer of steel, is he not inte- 

 rested in knowing what it is and how it differs from soft iron ? 

 Is not every man who owns a penknife or a razor interested in 

 knowing what those implements are made of, and on what their 

 excellence depends? Is it enough for the ircn master to know 

 that somehow, or other, heat and fuel change iron orcn into cast 

 iron ? Has he not an intelligent curiosity to know exactly what 

 takes place in this conversion 7 Will it harm him to know how 

 his fluxes and fuel operate, and in what the differences between 

 hot and cold blast, anthracite, coke, and cl arcoal-made iron con- 

 sist *? Will not science aid him in attaining the desirable result 

 of making iron as cheaply, and as well, on this side of the At- 

 lantic as on the other ? Can we not make as good cast steel from 

 our excellent American irons as is made from similar metals 

 from Sweden and Russia by the people of England ? 



Although we have learned to smelt lead advantageously, our 

 working men do not know how to extract the silver which it 

 often contains in considerable proportions, and the profit of its 

 extraction goes into the hands of European refiners. 



So with respect to alloys of copper and silver; we abandon the 

 business of extracting the precious metals to Europeans, and 

 have not a single cupelling furnace in the United States. 



Only a few years since, we were wholly dependent on England 

 for copper ; but now we produce about one-tenth of the quantity 

 required in the United States, by working a few of our own mines, 

 and by smelting ores brought from other parts of the world. 

 There is room for the extension of this business and, in time, we 

 shall become independent of foreign min^s and furnaces. 



Gold we have in abundance on both shores of our continent ; 

 but unfortunately, this delusive metal has led too many to ruin 



