214 



JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON), 



[Vol. IX. 



plumbago which Ceylon exports is used in the great 

 crucible factories of Britain and the United States, that 

 established by the Messrs. Morgan Bros, at Battersea and 

 the crucible factories of Jersey City, New Jersey. 



Both establishments are on a very large scale, and afford 

 remunerative employment to a considerable number of 

 operatives. Mr. 0. V. Morgan, the principal partner in the 

 English Company, will be a candidate for Battersea at the 

 forthcoming Parliamentary election, and will pretty certainly 

 be chosen. He is a gentleman of high character, intelli- 

 gence, and enterprise, and has travelled much, including a 

 visit to Ceylon. His firm, that of Morgan Brothers, besides 

 their manufacturing and banking pursuits, turned their 

 attention to periodical literature, having founded the Euro- 

 pean Mail and the British, Trade Journal. Mr. Morgan 

 has taken an active part in general social improvements, and 

 has done a great deal to secure the well-being of the 

 operatives at the extensive crucible works, which he and the 

 brother next to him in age founded in 1855. The American 

 establishment had been at work long before this period, but 

 no doubt its productions did not go beyond local demand, for 

 in a notice of the Battersea works we find it stated that pre- 

 viously to 1855 crucibles were almost exclusively imported 

 from Germany. Now that country, together with other 

 centres of industry on the continent, is principally supplied 

 from Battersea, where crucibles are turned out at from 8d. 

 per dozen, up to a gigantic melting pot costing £6 5s., and 

 capable of taking in 1,000 lb. of steel. Such a crucible can 

 bear from 8 to 10 meltings, while in the case of gold a 

 crucible taking in 1,200 ounces can sometimes stand seventy 

 meltings. So in the case of brass, while crucibles for assaying 

 the precious metals are very carefully manufactured, being 

 rendered porous by the use of charcoal. The proportions of 

 graphite and fire-clay used in crucibles for various purposes 

 differ widely no doubt, but good serviceable melting pots 

 contain from 25 to 50 per cent, of graphite, the proportion of 

 graphite being, we may take it for granted, larger in crucibles 

 used in mints. The absence of coal fuel from Ceylon is 

 probably a fatal objection to local iron or steel manufacture 

 on any extended scale, but for small quantities of superior 

 steel for special local use, I would, with some diffidence, 



