ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE MANUFACTURE OP IRON. 35 



great purity, provided he pays a little additional care in their preparation, 

 and is regardless of the expense incurred in this exceptional mode of treat- 

 ment. In like manner the iron-master, by selecting veiy pure ore and pure 

 coke, may run from his furnaces an unusually fine specimen of pig iron, 

 which, being puddled by his best men, hammered and rolled any number of 

 times, gives, as it cannot fail to do, a sample of iron of great excellence. 



If the question were asked, whether the articles we have the opportunity 

 of examining upon such occasions convey in every case a correct idea of the 

 average quality of the goods manufactured by and sold at the current rates 

 of the exhibitor, it is much to be apprehended that such would not be found 

 to be the fact. 



The Industrial Exhibition at Paris has afforded an occasion for the iron- 

 masters, engineers, and practical chemists of the United Kingdom to be told, 

 on the authority of very influential names, and possessing, we are informed, 

 very intimate acquaintance with the subject, that while foreign nations have 

 in recent times been making wonderful advances in manufacturing science, 

 little progress has been effected in this country. It will probably be beyond 

 the power of any one individual to speak with a proper degree of confidence, 

 from personal knowledge, on all the questions embraced in the general charge 

 against our national industry. This paper will be confined to an attempt to 

 institute a comparison between our position and that of our neighbours in 

 the treatment of the ores of iron and their products. 



This subject is selected because it is one to which the most pointed allusion 

 has been made, and because in it any deficiency on our part would be the least 

 excusable, seeing that nature has provided us with advantages which ought 

 to afford the means of our competing with those nations which, by their 

 superior intelligence and energy, are said to threaten us most. 



If cost of production has to form no element in the calculation, it is clear 

 results might be obtained which would lead to very erroneous conclusions in 

 any comparative estimate. It is equally evident that any inherent excellence 

 in his ores of iron would confer upon the smelter the power of producing a 

 superior quality of metal, in doing which little, if anything, may be due to 

 s kill in manipulation. These circumstances are referred to merely to remind 

 you of the difiiculty in pronouncing, with certainty, upon a question where, 

 in drawing a parallel, so many allowances have to be made. For the present, 

 however, these disturbing influences will be disregarded, and attention only 

 directed to the information conveyed by the numerous specimens of the metal 

 to be seen at the Champs de Mars, and which by many have been assumed 

 to proclaim our inferiority as manufacturers of iron. 



No one who gives himself the trouble to study this department of the 

 International Exhibition at Paris, can be otherwise than impressed with the 

 pains the French makers have taken, not only to afford proofs of the quality 

 of their produce by ingenious devices in showing fracture and tests of resist- 

 ance, but also by a great number of sections of iron, which, from thinness 

 and distribution of material, or great length, or with all these conditions 

 combined, prove at once the chemical excellence of the metal, and the per- 

 fection of the machinery used in its mechanical preparation. After giving 

 the most ample margin to the French, who in their own country would -wish 

 to do it aU honour, and probably would possess some superior facilities in 

 securing the necessary space for the display of their manufactures, an 

 Englishman cannot but feel disappointed at the attempts, as exhibitors, 

 made by some of our iron-masters, who have aspired to represent their own 

 nation ; indeed, nothing can excuse the careless indifference of one or two 



d2 



