762 REPORT—1863. 
furnaces. It is highly probable that some good attends such a course of 
procedure, as well from the acknowledged excellence of hematite pig as from 
the advantage that is generally admitted to accrue from using different 
varieties im “the manufacture of malleable iron. The fact, too, that the 
tendency of the Cleveland iron is towards cold shortness, with that of the 
hematite is in the opposite direction, increases the probability of the sound- 
ness of these views. At the same time, by care in puddling and in the 
subsequent process, bar iron of a very high class of excellence can be pro- 
duced from pig obtained from Cleveland ir ronstone alone. 
Messrs. Bolckow and Vaughan have kindly furnished the writer with a 
series of samples which have been submitted to breaking strains, and the 
following are the results :— 
Experiment. Tons. ewt. 
No. 1 boiler plate $ thick sec.,=1 in. sq., breaking wt., 26 10 
No. 2 do. 7 1 in. do. 27 #6 
No: 3 do. 3 I in. do. 25. 0 
No. 4 do. + 1 in. do. 26 
No. 1 bar iron ,, 1 in. do. 25° <6 
No. 2 do. is I in. do. 25° 6 
No. #3 do. 5 I in. do. 25 10 
No. 4 do. 3 1 in. do. 24 10 
No.5 do. = 1 in. do. 24 10 
No. 6 do. % 1 in. do. 24. © 
No. 7 do. - rin. do. 25 5G 
No. 8 do. 65 1 in. do. 2ht rao 
No. 9 do. if 1 in. do. 25 20 
No. 10 do. PA 1 in. do. 25 wo 
No. 11 do. #3 I ue do. 25. 210 
No. 12 do. 0. 25 10 
No. 1 do. submitted for 60 ok to a strain of 22 tons, 
data which time the elongation was {ths of an inch. 
The quality of both the plates and bars tested in these experiments was No. 3 
of extra quality. 
Not a bad estimate of the inherent excellence of any pig iron may be 
formed from the quality of bars it is capable of producing and from the loss 
of weight incurred in the process of puddling. Within the last few days the 
writer has received from the manager of one of the largest bar-iron works in 
Scotland a return of the quantity of Scotch pig iron required to make one 
ton of puddled bar. He gives 22} cwt. of pig for one ton of refined metal ; 
214 ewt. #ths refined and ‘Ith pig to a ton of puddled i iron, which is equal to 
231 ewt. af pig per ton of puddled iron. When the pig is not refined but 
puddled direct, 23; cwt. are consumed for one ton of puddled iron, These 
figures, from personal experience of some years, the writer considers to 
* indicate as good a yield as the Scotch iron is capable of affording. From two 
separate works using pig iron made from Cleveland ironstone the following 
returns have been furnished: from one, the produce for the whole of 1862 
was 22 ewts. 0 qrs. 16 lbs. of pig to the ton of puddled iron, and for the first 
six months of 1863 it was 22 ewts. 0 qrs. 17lbs. at the same work. The 
second establishment gives for the year 1862, 22 cwts. Oqrs. 16 lbs. of 
No. 4 iron to the ton of puddled bar. The loss, therefore, on iron produced 
from Cleveland ironstone is only about 66 per cent. of that when using 
Scotch iron, and the quality of the former is such that the preliminary pro- 
cess of refining, as has been already stated, is all but entirely dispensed with. 
Many of the forges being, under the circumstances just enumerated, of 
recent construction, embrace all the latest improvements. Very powerful 
steam-hammers forge down the puddled balls so rapidly into blooms or slabs, 
