192 REPORT—1868. 
sea receding from these valleys left wide channels in the low parts of the country 
which became receptacles for the drainage. The growth and decay of vegetation 
and the detritus brought down by the streams gradually narrowed the channels, 
and confined them to the present course of the rivers. Large spaces were, how- 
ever, left occupied by the water, which are now termed “ Broads.” They are 
thirty in number, and vary in size from 578 to 11 acres. 
The mean rainfall in the country for seyen years is 24:41 inches. 
The depths of the “ Broads” were stated as varying considerably. Some of the 
bottoms of them are on a level with the sea at low water at Yarmouth. 
All the “Broads” are supplied by the streams from the minor valleys and by 
springs, and there is no doubt that they are of great service in times of flood, 
when they store up the flood-waters and prevent them from oyerflowing the lands 
below; and it is in the capacity of reservoirs that all these ‘ Broads’? might be 
made most useful. 
With regard to the drainage, the author was of opinion that the marshes which 
surround them might be treated in a similar manner to those at Winterton and at 
Hemesby. The injurious effects of marshes upon health are well known, and he 
therefore thought the reclamation would remove the cause. 
An Improved Centrifugal Pump. By J. H. Gwynyz. 
On the Noted Slate-veins of Festiniog. By 8. Junx1ys. 
On some Points affecting the Economical Manufacture of Iron. 
By Joun Jonus, F.GLS. 
The author estimated the production of pig iron in Great Britain at 4,500,000 
tons per annum, and the make of finished iron at about 3,000,000 tons. The author 
adduced these statistics to show the immense issues involved in the improvements 
he wished to notice. The author then referred to the economical application of 
fuel in the iron-manufacture, more particularly in the finished iron processes, and 
remarked that the newer blast-furnace plant left little to be accomplished in the 
economical use of fuel, except in utilizing the waste products given off in coking 
the fuel. In puddling, however, great waste of fuel went on, and two modifica- 
tions of the ordinary puddling-furnace were to be noticed as calculated to save 
from 20 to 25 per cent. of fuel, and to consume all the smoke usually produced. 
The Wilson furnace, in its most recently improved form, consisted of a sloping 
chamber, into which the fuel was fed at the top; and the volatile matters gene- 
rally forming smoke were reduced by passing over the incandescent mass of fuel 
further along the chamber. The air for combustion was delivered into the furnace 
in a heated condition, and a steam-jet was delivered underneath the grate, by 
means of which the formation of clinkers was avoided. The Newport furnace, 
Middlesborough, had a chamber constructed in the ordinary chimney-stack; and 
in this were placed a couple of cast-iron pipes, with a partition reaching nearly to 
the top. These pipes were heated by the waste gases from the puddling-furnace, 
and through them the air required for combustion was forced by means of a steam- 
jet, and was thus delivered in front of the grate in a highly heated condition. 
These furnaces, of which a considerable number were in operation at the Newport 
works, effected a saying of at least 25 per cent. in fuel. The structural modifica- 
tions would involve comparatively little outlay, and the saving to be effected would 
recoup that outlay in a single year. The economy represented by applying the 
new plans to the whole iron trade would amount to Be 1,500,000 tons of coal 
per annum. The author next proceeded to describe the manufacture of iron by 
what is termed the Radcliffe process, which had been for some time in operation at 
the Consett Ironworks, Newcastle. The puddled iron, which was usually rolled — 
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into rough bars, straightened and weighed, allowed to get cool, then cut up, piled, — 
heated, rolled into blooms, reheated, and, finally, rolled into finished iron, after a 
complicated series of operations, was, by the new method, finished off by a con- 
