PROCEEDINGS 



or THE 



GEOLOGICAL & POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY 

 m ii)t mmuumnq of Woxh^^ixtf 



AT THE THIRTY-SEVENTH MEETING, HELD IN THE PHILOSOPHICAL 

 HALL, LEEDS, ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 ST, 1848. 



In the absence of Earl Fitzwilliam, President of the 

 Society, on account of indisposition, the Rev. Theophilus 

 Barnes, Rector of Castleford, one of the Vice-Presidents, 

 was called to the Chair. 



The Chairman, after expressing regret at the absence of 

 the Noble President, and its cause, and stating that a letter 

 had been received from him excusing his attendance, said 

 that the first subject which would be brought forward was a 

 paper on the process of smelting iron v/ith anthracite coal. 

 It was a very great object in their Polytechnic, as well as 

 Geological meetings, to look after the produce of the West 

 Riding, amongst which iron was particularly important. He 

 had been lately at Whitby, and there found that a new bed 

 of iron-stone had been discovered upon the Whitby and 

 Pickering Railway ; and it was so favourable for putting on 

 board ships and on the railway, that Dr. Scoresby told him 

 his brother had an opening in a field, and that they wheeled 

 the iron ore out into the trucks. This iron-stone was re- 

 markable for the large quantity of shale which it contained, 

 and this formed so large an amount of carbonaceous matter 

 to smelt the iron, that it was taken from Whitby to New- 

 castle, and required very little more flux to be put into it. 



