ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON. 39 



in the year 1855, manufactured the iron for two floating batteries. To Mr. 

 G. G. Sanderson, of the Park Gate Works, we owe the idea that rolled plates, 

 by reason of their toughness, would be found superior in resisting shot to 

 those of hammered iron ; and to him, and to the owners of that establisli- 

 ment, is due the merit of hanug, in the same year, provided a mill and rolled 

 the plating for a third floating battery, buUt by Messrs. Palmer on the 

 Tyne*. The correctness of Mr. Sanderson's views have been justified by 

 subsequent experiments. Sir William Armstrong's ingenious method of 

 builchng up wrought iron so as to produce ordnance, having incredible 

 powers of penetration, has called for greatly increased thickness in armour- 

 plating. Manufacturers of this description of iron, however, by increasing 

 the powers of their heating furnaces, miUs, and other appliances, are now able 

 to supply our naval yards and military establishments with material stiU more 

 invulnerable 'than that formerly deemed suffieient as a means of defence. 



It is this character of machinery which has enabled mill-owners here and 

 abroad to handle such huge masses of wrought iron as have excited the 

 admiration of all who interest themselves in such matters, and it is bj'' means 

 of the so-called universal mill designed by Mr. Arrowsmith that our friends 

 in France are rolling their smooth-edged plates. 



This hasty sketch is, it is hoped, an impartial account of what has been 

 done in this countrj'^ towards advancing the manufacture of iron to its present 

 position. 



As soon as the occasion arose, other nations profited by the wisdom our 

 more matured experience had acquired, and every improvement in machinery 

 or in process, found immediate imitators in each locality where the " forge 

 Anglaise " had been constructed. It is mere repetition of a truth, admitted 

 on all sides, that the modern blast-furnaces, forges, and mills abroad are in 

 principle, and in most details identical with those of this country, and of 

 such excellent construction as to have placed their owners on a level with 

 ourselves so far as perfection of machinery is concerned. 



It is, however, not to be expected that those conditions which prevail here 

 should find an exact counterpart abroad; and wherever a deviation from 

 things as they exist with ourselves occurred, the foreign iron-master was 

 found, of course, adopting his mode of procedure so as to suit the change of 

 circumstances. The chief difference between other countries and this is in 

 the important matter of fuel. Here, regular lying beds of coal, generally of 

 great purity, and in very accessible positions, have furnished us with abun- 

 dant supplies of this clement for the production of iron, and upon terms more 

 favourable than those within reach of the continental iron-maker, who very 

 frequently has to work Avith a combustible costly in itself, and containing a 

 considerable amount of impurity. Long before it was thought of here, 

 because the same necessity did not exist, our neighboiirs occupied themselves 

 with devising ingenioiis methods of washing out the dirt contained in their 

 coal, and afterwards in constructing ovens so as to coke the purified product 

 with the least possible waste. Thej- also conceived, and now practice on a 

 very large scale, the idea of securing the advantages of large coal by cemcnt- 



* Sinco writing (lio above, I percoive Mr. Charles M. Palmer, in a paper on " Ship 

 Building," rend bofore the Britisli Association in ISijO, claims to have originated the idci 

 that rolled jilatcs would bo found suporior in power of resistance to tliosi^ of liammei-cd 

 iron, and that it was at liis request that tlif^ Park Crate Iron Company, then imder Iho 

 nianagement of Mr. Gr. ft. Sanderson, undertook to provide the necessary means for 

 manufacturing the plating for the floating battery then in course of construction at Mr. 

 Palmer's work.s. 



