Address of Mr. Fairbairn the President. 371 
once seized upon the suggestions of Henry Booth, to employ tubular 
boilers; and, that, united to the blast-pipe, previously known, has been the 
means of affecting all the wonders we now witness in a system that has 
done more for the development of practical science and the civilization of 
man than any discovery since the days of Adam.” * * # 
Want of space compels us to pass Mr. Fairbairn’s very inter- 
esting remarks on the history of the steam engine and the man- 
ufacturing industry of Great Britain. . 
“I might greatly extend this description of our manufacturing indus- 
try, but | must for the present be brief, in order to point out the depend- 
ence of all these improvements on the iron and coal so widely distributed 
among the mineral treasures of our island. We are highly favored in 
the abundance of these minerals, deposited with an unsparing hand by 
the great Author of Nature, under so slight a covering as to bring them 
Within reach of the miner’s art. To them we owe our present high state 
mighty for the manifold bounties He has bestowed on us. Previously to 
€ inventions of Henry Cort, the manufacture of wrought iron was of 
the most crude and primitive description, A hearth and a pair of bel- 
lows was all that was employed. But since the introduction of puddling, 
never before attained. This has been effected to some extent by im- 
ion in puddling; but the process of Mr. Bessemer—first made 
“own at the meeting of this Association in Cheltenham—affords the 
highest promise of certainty and perfection in the operation of converting 
the melted pig direct into steel or iron, and is likely to lead to the most 
Important developments in this manufacture. hese improvements in 
the production of the material must, in their turn, stimulate its applica- 
tion on a larger scale and lead to new constructions. ac 
Securities of the liberties of the country. From the commencement of 
Iron shipbuilding in 1830 to the present time, there could be only one 
pinion among those best acquainted with the subject, namely, that iron 
must eventually supersede timber in every form of naval construction, 
The large ocean steamers, the Himslaya, the Persia, and the Great East- 
