223 REPORT— 1873. 



a uniform quality, a premium is given to tlie puddlers who Lave produced the Lest 

 specimens during a turn. The puddled iron is taken under the steam-hammer to 

 knock out the slag and impurities, and is made into what are called "stampings" 

 and " nobhlins." The stampings are broken into several pieces under fall-hammers, 

 piled, heated, taken under a steam-hammer, and made into blooms or billets, in 

 which state they are taken to the bar- or guide-mill, reheated, and rolled into round 

 or square bars, angle-irons, rods, or such other shapes as may be required. The 

 nobblins are piled, heated, taken rmder the steam-hammer, and made into blooms 

 or slabs of various sizes, and afterwards to the plate-mill, where they are reheated 

 and rolled into plates. From stampings are made the Bowling-iron weldless tyres. 

 A hole about 5 inches in diameter is punched through the centre of the bloom, 

 forming it into a ring of iron. The ring thus made is hooked on the back of an 

 anvil, and is hammered with a suitably shaped hammer-head to raise up the flange, 

 the ring being constant^ rotated on the Beck between the blows of the hammer, 

 so that all parts may be evenly worked. At the end of this process the ring begins 

 to have some resemblance to a tyre, and is then rolled out. 



The steelworks were erected in the year 1806, and the steel manufactured is 

 crucible steel, produced in the ordinary manner in furnaces heated by coke. The 

 iron used is scrap from Bowling plates, and its conversion into steel is efiected by 

 the addition of suitable quantities of carbon, chiefly introduced by Spiegeleisen, 

 and also by a mixture of ^teel scrap. Of the steel produced, a part is used fop 

 making tyi'es from ingots in a similar manner to iron tyres and general forgings ; 

 and a considerable portion is used for making castings of all descriptions, where 

 strength, with lightness, is the desideratum. Arrangements are now being made, 

 and are partly completed, for applying Siemens's gas process for melting the 

 crucible steel in suitable furnaces ; and a Siemens-Martin's furnace is also in 

 course of erection for the conversion of pig-iron into steel, which will produce four 

 tons of steel at one operation. 



The engineering is done in an extensive range of buildings, where the whole 

 of the work and new plant required to keep the collieries and works described in 

 repair are made. This department is also devoted to the construction of engines, 

 boilers, &c. for the market. In the model-room (one of the finest in the country) 

 is a model from which the first wheel was cast for Blenkinsop's locomotive. The 

 boiler-shop is now being extended, so as to be capable of producing from two to 

 three boilers per week, besides all descriptions of plate-nanging. The foimdrj' 

 has been recently rebuilt iipon the old site. 



The distinguished qxialities of the Bowling iron are hardness with great plia- 

 bility, homogeneity and uniformity of texture, capability of withstanding the action 

 of fire and of receiving a brilliant polish, it being used extensively in the Sheffield 

 trades on account of the last-named virtue. Works established in the infancy of 

 the iron trade, and producing a superior quality of metal (quality being always 

 preferred to quantity whenever the alternative presented itself), must naturally be 

 disposed to conservatism. Besides, repeated experiences have proved the necessity 

 of keeping to the original mode of working with the minerals and iron. It is 

 rarely known to what purposes or tests the iron may be put to on leaving the 

 premises ; but it is known that it ynll have to withstand usage such as no common 

 iron or any other iron but charcoal iron perhaps could do, and it was for the latter 

 tJiat the Bowling iron was oi-iginallj' manufactured as a substitute. Keeping in 

 view the production of a uniform quality, changes of whatever description have 

 been jealously regarded, and those that have been made have only been arrived at 

 by very gradual stages. 



