MR H. MEAD ON THE PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES OP CEYLON. 115 



Great care is taken in making these retorts. The clay is trodden out with 

 the naked feet, by the sensibility of which grits and air-holes are detected, 

 and got rid of. With the steel fragments is mingled a little manganese, 

 and the mouth of the vessel is closed with bottle-glass, which melts in the 

 fire, and hermetically seals the retort. These charged erucibles or retorts 

 are placed in a furnace, and the steel melted, and poured out, in the form of 

 a glowing fiery liquid, into moulds. The ingots thus made are then ready 

 for forging into any of the thousands of articles for which such metal is used. 

 The tempering, which is done by heating the manufactured article and 

 suddenly cooling it, is an after process, regulated by the degree of hardness 

 required. 



From this indication of the labour and expense involved in making 

 iron into steel, the peculiar characteristics and value of the Taranaki sand 

 will be readily understood. It has merely to be fused , and may then forthwith 

 be moulded into bars ready for forging. It does not require to undergo any 

 of the intermediate workings above described. We have seen, at the shop 

 of a London cutler, some specimens of articles wrought from it. They are 

 dagger-blades, table-knives, cold chisels, &c. : their appearance is equal to 

 that of the finest samples of ordinary steel, and their temper is pronounced 

 to be excellent. 



The discovery of this singular deposit may lead to improvements in the 

 manufacture of steel, and to new views as to the constitution of that 

 curious compound. — ' Johnson's Register of Facts.' 



MR H. MEAD ON THE PRODUCTIVE RESOURCES OF CEYLON. 



A lecture on this subject was given by Mr Mead in August, at the 

 Council Chamber, Kandy, to a numerous and distinguished audience ; his 

 Excellency Sir Charles J. MacCarthy, the Governor, presiding on the 

 occasion. The Lecturer commenced by defining the object of his address, 

 which was an exposition of the nature and value of such substances found 

 in the island as could be converted into sources of trading profit. For 

 example, the dyewoods found in the hills had no place in the catalogue 

 of Productive Resources, for this reason, that it would cost more than they 

 were worth to carry them to a market ; and, in like manner, many articles 

 intrinsically valuable must be left in the jungle to perish, because, either 

 from the want of means of transport, or the difficulty of finding labour 

 at hand, it was not worth while to meddle with them. The island was 

 in reality one of the richest in the world, so far as regarded the extent 

 and value of its natural productions, but inquiries as to their commercial 

 value were beset with difficulty. It was needful, in the first place, to have 

 the chemist's knowledge of their nature and properties ; next, to have a 

 thorough acquaintance with the localities in which they were to be found, 



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