508 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 
ore supply. Every inhabitant of the United Kingdom, of the United States, and 
of Germany requires annually about a quarter of a ton of the iron of which the 
world last year produced 60,000,000 tons, the result of the smelting of over 
120,000,000 tons of ore. Year by year the production and consumption are 
increasing, and many of the deposits of the richer ores are showing signs of 
depletion, ‘The question of ascertaining how the demand for the vast supplies of 
iron ore that will in the future be needed will be met calls, therefore, for very 
serious consideration ; and a few statistical notes may be useful as a contribution 
to a discussion of the subject. 
During the past half-century the development of the iron industry has been 
remarkable. In 1854 Mr. J. K. Blackwell showed that the world’s production of 
pig-iron did not exceed 6,000,000 tons, of which the United Kingdom produced 
50 per cent., France and the United States each 123 per cent., and Germany 
6°6 per cent. In 1905 the world’s production had attained the enormous total of 
56,000,000 tons, of which the United States produced 42:7 per cent., Germany 
and Luxemburg 20 per cent., the United Kingdom 17°6 per cent., and France 
5'5 per cent. 
In Great Britain the principal iron-ore producing districts are Cleveland, in 
North Yorkshire, which in 1905 yielded 41-V per cent. of the total output of the 
kingdom ; Lincolnshire (14°8 per cent.), Northamptonshire (13-9 per cent.), and 
Leicestershire (47 per cent.), together yielding 33-4 per cent. of the total output ; 
Cumberland (8°6 per cent.) and North Lancashire (2*7 per cent.), Staffordshire 
(6:1 per cent.) and Scotland (5:7 per cent.). The Cleveland iron ore occurs in a 
10-foot bed in the Middle Lias, and contains about 30 per cent. of iron. It 
is worked by underground mining. In Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and 
Leicestershire the brown iron-ore beds form part of the Inferior Oolite, and contain 
about 35 per cent. of iron, the workings being mostly opencast. In Cumberland 
and North Lancashire the red hematite occurs in irregular masses in carboniferous 
limestone. It contains more than 50 per cent. of iron, and is worked by under- 
ground mining. The ironstone in Staffordshire and in Scotland is mostly obtained 
from mines that also produce coal. 
Such, in brief, are the home deposits from which the British supply of 
14,590,703 tons of iron ore, valued at 3,482,184/., was obtained in 1905. Tven that 
enormous output did not meet the consumption, and 7,344,786 tons were imported, 
Of that amount 78°5 per cent. was brought from Spain, 5°4 per cent. from Norway, 
4:2 per cent. from Greece, 4 per cent. from Algeria, 2°6 per cent. from France, 
2°6 per cent. from Sweden, 1°65 per cent. from Russia, and smaller quantities from 
Turkey, Germany, islands in the Pacific, Belgium, Newfoundland, India, 
Australia, Italy (Elba), Persia, Portugal, and other countries. In fact, the world 
is being ransacked for fresh iron-ore fields to supply ores for the British blast- 
furnaces. The port at which most of the ore was delivered was Middlesbrough 
(1,789,639 tons), then followed Glasgow with 1,042,179 tons, and then Carditf 
with 875,462 tons. 
While it is probable that the British iron-ore fields will be exhausted in a 
century or two, the outlook in other countries is similar. This is borne out by 
data relative to the available iron-ore supplies of the world which have been 
collected by Tornebéhm for the Swedish Parliament, and, although largely con- 
jectural, these figures are of great interest. 
In the United States the iron-ore production in 1905 exceeded 423 million 
tons, the highest output ever recorded, the ore containing more iron than the ores 
raised in Germany, in the United Kingdom, and in Spain combined. The bulk of 
the production was ubtained in the Lake Superior region, where the five iron-ore 
belts, or ranges (Marquette, Menominee, Gogebic, Vermilion, and Mesaba), beds 
of pre-Silurian Age, have furnished since the beginning of regular mining over 
800,000,000 tons of iron ore. The average percentage of iron in the ore is 55, 
the 60 per cent. ores produced ten years ago having been exhausted by wasteful 
mining methods. The amount of ore still available in the United States is 
estimated by Térnebohm at 1,100,000,060 tons. 
In Germany and Luxemburg two-thirds of the iron ore raised (283 million 
