1870.] The Metallurgical Industry of Cleveland. 197 



no uncommon tiling in Cleveland to find the blast heated to from 

 850° to 1000° Fahrenheit, but even the greater of those tempera- 

 tures is not deemed sufficient. Under the leadership of Mr. Coch- 

 rane the tendency is still upwards. That gentleman has applied at 

 the Ormesby Works the Siemens' regenerative system as adapted 

 by Mr. E. A. Cowper, C.E., F.K.S., for the heating of the air of the 

 blast. He has of late used the blast at the unprecedented tempera- 

 ture of 1452° Fahrenheit, and the result of his experience is that 

 for each 100° that the blast is raised there is a saving of 1*34 cwt. 

 of coke per ton of iron made. It is the opinion of Mr. Bell that 

 21 cwt. of coke per ton of pig-iron is about the lowest minimum 

 that can be attained, but Mr. Cochrane is sanguine that a mini- 

 mum of 13 cwt. can be reached, provided that the blast is heated up to 

 2000°, and he has determined to aim at reaching that minimum 

 consumption of coke unless experience should prove it to be impos- 

 sible to attain it. Even a consumption of only 2 1 cwt. of coke per 

 ton of pig-iron must be deemed very marvellous, when it is remem- 

 bered that twice that amount is employed in producing a ton of 

 iron in cold-blast furnaces. There are instances of furnaces in the 

 Cleveland district — Consett and Ferry hill — working on a consump- 

 tion of 17 or 18 cwt. of coke per ton of pig-iron, but they are some- 

 what exceptional, as the ironstone used was either the rich Rosedale 

 stone or not exclusively Cleveland stone, but a mixture of it with 

 haematite, and therefore containing at first a much larger proportion 

 of metallic iron than is customary throughout the district. Super- 

 heated air is also in use at Consett Iron Works, the temperature of 

 the blast being about 1400° Fahrenheit, and produced in a hot-blast 

 stove, which is a modification and simplification of the .Siemens- 

 Cowper stove in use at the Ormesby Works. Eeport speaks of it 

 very favourably as a fuel-saving appliance. The inventor of it is 

 Mr. Thomas Whitwell, of the Thornaby Iron Works, Stockton. 



Various other appliances and improvements have been brought 

 to bear by the Cleveland ironmasters upon the great industry in 

 which they are engaged. By the use of separate heaters, water is 

 generally fed into the boilers in a boiling condition or nearly so. 

 Furnace materials have to be lifted to such vast heights that hoists 

 of almost every conceivable variety have been devised and brought 

 into use ; — the water-balance hoist, the vacuum hoist, the air-pres- 

 sure hoist, and the water-column hoist, may all be mentioned as 

 exhibiting special meritorious features of engineering construction. 



From the facts already alluded to, and on account of the inter- 

 esting scientific and practical problems which are at present being 

 worked out, the eyes of all iron-making districts are anxiously directed 

 to Cleveland. It is iron-smelting which really forms the staple in- 

 dustry of that district, and although it is scarcely twenty years since 

 it had its very small beginning, it is already of such enormous pro- 



VOL. VII. p 



