1870.] The Metallurgical Industry of Cleveland. 191 



amounts to about 27,000 tons per acre; and in another, where the ore 

 maybe said to be of second-class quality, the yield is almost 18,000 

 tons per acre. The total amount of ironstone obtainable from the 

 Cleveland Hills is, therefore, upwards of 4,500,000,000 tons, an 

 amount so great that one can scarcely form an adequate conception 

 of it. According to the calculations of Mr. William Cockburn, 

 mining engineer at Messrs. Pease's Upleatham mines, the total 

 yielding power of the mines throughout the Cleveland district is now 

 upwards of 5,000,000 tons per annum ; and according to the same 

 gentleman's calculations the mineral of the first quality may be 

 expected to last seventy-three years, while that which he considers 

 to be of the second class is almost inexhaustible. It is to be hoped, 

 but hardly to be expected, that, the South Durham coal-field will 

 hold out long enough to supply the heating power to calcine and 

 smelt the ironstone which Nature has so bountifully deposited in the 

 Cleveland HiUs. 



At first the Cleveland ironstone was generally quarried where it 

 cropped out on the surface, but the plan now adopted is to sink 

 shafts from the surface or drive levels from the hill-side, or both, 

 and then work the mineral upon the " bord and pillar " principle. 

 Some of the iron-smelting firms have mines of their own, others 

 contract for their supply of mineral. As the mining operations of 

 Cleveland are conducted upon such a gigantic scale, it is but natural 

 to expect that no antiquated measures are adopted unless their 

 utility has been fully demonstrated. To be "time-honoured" is not 

 alone sufficient ; they must be the most economical methods of pro- 

 cedure, both as regards the mineral to be worked and the labour 

 and life spent upon it. One finds in use the most highly approved 

 mechanical appliances, both for " winning " the mineral and for 

 draining and ventilating the mines. As a single illustration it may 

 be mentioned that in one of the mines explored by the present writer 

 — one belonging to Messrs. Bolckow, Yaughan, and Co. (Limited), 

 at Eston — the engine-plane was brilliantly illuminated throughout 

 nearly a mile and a half with coal gas. The same plane is a level 

 or drift which serves as an air-course inwards and a water-course 

 outwards. The water is drained from the mine at the rate of 

 about 600 gallons per minute, and is carried by gravitation to the 

 company's blast furnaces, where it takes the place of water which 

 formerly cost 1000/. per annum. 



The ironstone, which is the raw material forming the prime 

 requisite of the great industry of Cleveland, is obtained so cheaply 

 that it can be laid down at the furnaces at a cost of 4s. to 

 4s. 6d. per ton; and as it contains very frequently from 28 to 31 

 per cent, of metallic iron, the ore for a ton of pig-iron costs less 

 than 14s. It is in a very great measure owing to the extraordinary 

 abundance and cheapness of the raw ironstone that the Cleveland 



