~ 
ON THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 761 
be in the district, previous to 1850, about 300 puddling-furnaces, capable of 
turning out above 150,000 tons of finished iron per annum. 
The following list, compiled from actual returns, shows the number of 
puddling-furnaces now existing in connexion with the iron-works of the 
Northumberland and Durham coal-field :— 
Number of 
Works. Firms. Puddling Furnaces. 
Walker i ... Messrs. Losh, Wilson, and Bell pase eae 5O 
Gateshead ... ... Messrs. Hawks, Crawshay, and Sons ... oa! 
Consett ae ..» Derwent Iron Company ats ne wae 109 
Bishopwearmouth ... Derwent Iron Company ae = see gy 
Birtley oes ... Birtley Iron Company ... ce a eas LO 
Bedlington ... ... Messrs. Mounsey and Dixon ... te ase ale 
Shotley Bridge ... Messrs. Richardson and Son ... ee pres, 
Hive, Jarrow .... Messrs. Elliot and Co. ... -. ae s25eerG 
Sunderland .., ... Messrs. Tyzack and Co. sf aco Se, 
Britannia... ... G. Hopper tes ae aoe aa dm 526 
Jarrow a. ... Messrs. Palmer and Co. aa is it +30 
Tudhoe a ... Weardale Iron Company oe 355 ve) 64 
Middlesbro”... ... Messrs. Bolekow and Vaughan “i aan) 68 
Witton Park ... Messrs, Boleckow and Vaughan ce py! 
Tees Side... ... Messrs. Hopkins and Co, Be =r sect ats 
Albert a ... Messrs. Barmingham and Co. ... sae ae AS 
Stockton... ... Stockton Iron Company sce bee ite 20 
Total ... a ae sida ..- 646 
The united power of all these works will be equal to an annual production 
of 340,000 tons of finished iron, and probably the actual make during the 
year 1862 may have amounted to 300,000 tons. 
In addition to the quantity of iron obtained by the puddling process, a 
considerable weight, possibly as much as 10,000 tons per annum, is manu- 
factured from old iron imported from various parts of the kingdom. 
At first a much stronger opinion existed in favour of refining pig iron 
previous to puddling it than is the case at the present moment. In fact, it 
may be said that this mode of working has been all but abandoned as more 
wasteful than simply puddling the pig iron direct, and indeed one manu- 
facturer of great experience gives as the result of his observation that a 
sectional inch of boiler-plate had its breaking-weight actually diminished by 
interposing the process of refining between the pig and the puddled bar. At 
the new works no refineries are built, and at the older establishments the 
refineries are all but discontinued. 
There are probably less mill and forge cinders used in the manufacture of 
pig iron from the lias ironstone, either for bar or other purposes, than in 
any other iron-district in the kingdom, and this obviously from the greater 
abundance and cheapness of ironstone. The extra loss in puddling and the 
depreciation of quality in the malleable iron are more than an equivalent for 
any saving in the blast-furnace which may be effected by using the forge 
cinders, into which the greater part of the phosphorus of the pig finds its 
way. It is also not improbable that the admixture of mill and forge cinders 
might, with the constitution of the Cleveland ores, be more detrimental to 
the quality of the bars than is the case in districts smelting other kinds of 
ironstone. At all events, our bar-iron makers seek to avoid any risk of this 
by its very sparing use. 
Some bar-iron manufacturers prefer pig having an admixture of a little 
hematite in the blast-furnace, or they seek to secure the advantages resulting 
from the use of this class of iron by using hematite pig in the puddling- 
