1867.] Mineralogy, Mining, and Metallurgy. 427 



nations are making." We must ask him, In what do those won- 

 derful advances consist ? Certainly not in inventiveness. For not- 

 withstanding the want of activity in English manufacture and 

 trade, we are so bold as to state that there has been more inventive- 

 ness shown in England since 1862 than in all the nations of Europe 

 put together. If the " wonderful advances " refer to manipulatory 

 details, we believe, in many cases — certainly not in all — Dr. Lyon 

 Playfair will be right enough. But the absolute weakness of this 

 letter, put forward with an air of authority which is not pleasant, 

 consists in taking what is confessedly an imperfect display of British 

 industry, as a fair example of the present power of the British 

 workshops. In concluding his letter, Dr. Playfair says, " It would 

 be important that the Grovernment either through your Commission 

 or through the Committee of Council on Education, should hold an 

 official inquiry on this subject, and should tell the people of England 

 authoritatively what are the means by which the great States are 

 attaining an intellectual pre-eminence among the industrial classes, 

 and how they are making this to bear on the rapid progress of their 

 national industries." 



In our Mineral and Metallurgical Industries to which especial 

 reference is made, and to which we desire to confine ourselves, there 

 is not, in the first place, that want of inventiveness which Dr. Lyon 

 Playfair supposes ; and in the second place, supposing it did exist, 

 it would not be remedied by any authoritative telling of a Koyal 

 Commission or a Committee of Council. 



Our iron furnaces are improving in construction and increasing 

 in size. The iron made from inferior ores is greatly improving in 

 quality. Our mills are now the finest in the world, and capable of 

 executing any work for which there may be a demand. We are 

 the only people in the world who are striving — and striving too 

 with every prospect of success — to carry out the process of puddling 

 by machinery ; and where else shall we find coal cutting by machinery 

 in so advanced a state as in the British coal fields ? 



In our processes of Lead Smelting great advances are being made 

 — and from ores of lead containing copper, the best lead can now be 

 manufactured. Indeed, in each of our metallurgical processes we 

 can point to improvements which will show how exceedingly imper- 

 fect is the knowledge possessed by Dr. Lyon Playfair ; and a little 

 consideration would have prevented Earl Granville from basing his 

 remarks, — made at the distribution of prizes at the London Univer- 

 sity, — on so fallacious a letter as that addressed to Lord Taunton. 



An alloy of Platinum and Steel has been formed which possesses 

 some peculiar properties. When these two metals are in a state of 

 fusion, they alloy in all the proportions tried. This alloy takes a 

 fine polish, does not tarnish, and its pure colour peculiarly fits it for 

 a mirror. Its density is 9,862. If two pieces, one of steel and the 



2f2 



