532 KEPORT — 1889. 



however, teen experienced hy this metallurgist in the attachment of the lime 

 linino- to the walls of the converter. This important question was solved hy Mr. 

 Edw. Riley by exposing dolomite to a very high temperature in order to prevent 

 further shrinking, and then grinding it and mixing the powder with coal tar. 

 This formed a species of cement which is applied to the sides and bottom of the 

 converter in the form of bricks or as cement. Doubtless, simple as the idea is, it 

 has greatly contributed to the success of the basic process.* 



The acidification and subsequent transference to the slag of the phosphorus by 

 the basic treatment has led to its application to agriculture. For this purpose the 

 slac is ground to a fine powder and sprinkled over the land without any further 

 preparation. By this operation an indispensable element of animal life is derived 

 from the remains of liviug creatures which, ages ago, found a grave in the 

 ferruginous mud destined to become the great Cleveland bed of ironstone. 



Before closing this portion of my official duty, I cannot refrain from tendering 

 to chemists an assurance of the great advantage the manufacturers of iron feel 

 they have derived from the lessons taught them by chemical science. I am the 

 more anxious to do this because we, among others, have been reminded that we are 

 losing the supremacy among industrial nations which we once enjoyed for want of 

 that knowledge of chemistry which is more assiduously cultivated abroad than it 

 is in our own country. I 'am not prepared to deny that the opportunities for 

 acquiring a scientific education are less generally spread here than is the case in 

 France, Germany, or Belgium ; but for this the nation, and not the iron trade in 

 particular, is responsible. It must also be admitted that as manufacturers we no 

 longer stand so far above other lands as we formerly did. In this result any 

 diff'erences of education are in no way concerned, for if I were to classify the 

 nationalities of the various inventions enumerated in the course of my remarks 

 the fears of those who are alarmed at the appearance of a Belgian girder or a 

 German steam-engine on our shores would, 1 think, be allayed. Perhaps I may 

 be allowed to offer a very few words on the technical side of this important question 

 of education. Much I shall not be able to say, because I have not yet been able to 

 learn the precise position which the subject occupies in the minds of its most earnest 

 advocates. If it means, as is sometimes alleged, a system by which, along with scien- 

 tific instruction, manual dexterity in the use of tools or a practical knowledge of 

 various manufacturing processes has to be acquired, I confess I am not sanguine 

 as to the results. Certain I am that if foreign workmen are more skilful in their 

 trades, which, as a rule, I doubt, and which in the iron trade I deny, this superi- 

 ority is not due to scientific training in the manner proposed, for in this they 

 possess, so far as I have seen, no advantage over our own workmen. My objection to 

 the whole system is the impossibility of anything approaching a general application 

 being practicable. I have not a word to say against the rudiments of science being 

 taught wherever this is possible. The knowledge so obtained may often give the 

 future workman a more intelligent interest in his employment than he at present 

 possesses, but I think they who expect much good to attend such a thin veneer of 

 chemistry or physics do not take sufficient account of the extent of the knowledge 

 already possessed by more highly educated men who are now directing the^ great 

 workshops of the world. It is by extending and enlarging this that substantial aid 

 has to be afforded to industry and science, and not by teaching a mere smattering in 

 our primary or any other schools. In the case of young people who from necessity 

 must leave the schoolroom at an early age, my own leaning is towards the present 

 system, with the addition of drawing and some natural science. By these certain 

 important lessons are taught, which, if not followed under the discipline of the 

 schoolmaster, run some risk of being entirely neglected. After this, probably, 

 the playground will be found more useful and much more popular with schoolboys 

 than trying to learn a trade by means of tools which, before he has to use them in 

 earnest, may be thrown into the scrap heap. 



As a national question the attention of the Government, Imperial or municipal, 

 ought to be directed to the importance of establishing in all great manufac- 



' Vide Postscript, 



