ON THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 741 
be confined almost exclusively to the Cleveland stone, mention may be made 
of other trials to render available the bed of ironstone-nodules of the moun- 
tain limestone. This was attempted at Brinkburn, on the Coquet, but after 
a very short trial the works were closed. Another experiment was made at 
Haltwhistle with a similar view, but it also was abandoned soon after the 
erection of the works. 
At Bedlington two furnaces were constructed to smelt the same bands, 
formerly used at the charcoal-works in that locality, with an admixture of 
Yorkshire stone, mill cinder, and other materials, but these also were only a 
short time in operation. 
We have now arrived at the period when the newly discovered Cleveland 
bed of ironstone was about to supersede all other modes of supply of this 
mineral, and the present will therefore be a convenient opportunity of esti- 
mating the position of the iron-trade previous to its introduction. This will 
be most readily done by glancing at a list of the furnaces then in existence, 
which were as follows :— 
Furnaces. Proprietors. No. Description of Ironstone used. 
Lemington...... Tyne Iron Co....... 2 Whitby stone, black band, and hematite. 
Birtley ......... Birtley Iron Co..... 2 Whitby stone, &e. 
Wylam ......... Bell, Brothers...... I Do. black band, hematite, &c. 
Ridsdale......... Ridsdale Iron Co. 2 WNodules from mountain-limestone formation. 
Hareshaw ...... Hareshaw IronCo. 3 Do. do. 
Shotley Iron Derwent Iron Co. 14 Bands of ironstone from coal-measures, and 
Works. hematite. 
Walker ......... Bp ets z Whitby stone, black band, hematite, &c. 
and Bell. 
Tow Law and Weardale Iron Co. 6 “Rider ore” from lead-veins, and a portion 
Stanhope. from coal-measures. 
Bedlington ...Longridge and Co. 2 Whitby ironstone, and a portion from coal- 
measures, 
Witton Park...Bolckow& Vaughan 4 Do. do. 
PROTA Se vamos de gas 38 Furnaces. 
The entire make of all these furnaces would never exceed 150,000 tons 
per annum during the period under consideration. 
We have now (i. ¢. A.p. 1851) brought up the account to what substan- 
tially in principle is the position at present occupied by the manufacture of 
iron, on, or in connexion with, the Newcastle and Durham coal-fields. In 
pursuing the narrative, illustrating the development of the trade, it will be 
convenient to give, in the order they arise, some account of the character 
and composition both of the raw materials used and of the products 
obtained. 
Coal.—Notwithstanding the varieties of coal which occur in the northern 
coal-field, the whole, with few exceptions, are more bituminous in character 
than the produce of other localities in this country. North of the Ninety- 
fathom Dyke is the district where the Low Main of the Tyne (Hutton Seam 
of the Wear) furnishes the least caking coal we possess; but even here the 
small coal, when coked, loses all trace of its original form and leaves the ovens 
as large masses of coke. At Wylam, Walbottle, and other places, a thin layer 
of a dry-burning splint coal does occur in connexion with a seam of a highly 
caking description, but the entire quantity of it, and of any other similar 
variety, is very insignificant. The caking property, although very valuable 
for many purposes, entirely unfits the coal of this district for use in the raw 
state in our blast-furnaces, where its fusing property, by impeding the blast, 
causes the contents of the furnace to hang and slip, and thus to descend at 
