( Accmmt of 

 'Dr Koebuck. 



{80) HIS TORT of the SOCIETK 



The projedl: and eftabUfhrnent, however, of the ironworks 

 at Carron, the moft extenfive eftabUfhrnent of that kind hither- 

 to in Britain, muft be confidered as Dr Roebuck's principal 

 work. The great and increafing demand for iron in the pro- 

 greffive ftate of arts, manufadures and commerce in Britain, 

 and the great fums of money fent every year to the north of 

 Europe for that article, turned the attention of chemifts and 

 artifts to the means of promoting the manufadure of iron, with 

 the view of reducing the importation of it. No perfon has a 

 better founded claim to merit, in this particular, than Dr Roe- 

 buck. The fmelting of iron by pitcoal, it is indeed believed, 

 had been attempted in Britain in the beginning of the laft cen- 

 tury. In the reign of James I. feverai patents feem to have 

 been granted for making hammered iron by pitcoal, particular- 

 ly to the Honourable Dud Dudley and Simon Starlevant. 

 It does not appear, however, that any progrefs had been made 

 in the manufadture in confequence of thefe patents. In later 

 times trials have been made by fo many different perfons, and 

 in fo many different places in England, nearly about the fame 

 time, that it may be difficult to fay where and by whom the 

 firft attempt was made, particularly as the difcoverers of fuch 

 procefles wifhed to conceal the knowledge they had gained as 

 long as they could. But Dr Roebuck was certainly among the 

 firft, who, by means of pitcoal, attempted to refine crude or 

 pig iron, and to make bar iron of it, inftead of doing it by 

 charcoal, according to the former pradice : And he was, with- 

 out all queftion, the perfon who introduced that method into 

 Scotland, and firft eftablifhed an extenfive manufadure of it. 

 It is not meant to afcribe to him the fole merit of the eftablifh- 

 ment at Carron. No man was ever more ready than he was, to 

 do juftice to the abilities and fpirit of his friends and partners, 

 MefTrs Garbet, Caddell, &c. who firft embarked with him in 

 that great undertaking. But ftill it may be faid with truth, that 



the 



