PROCEEDINGS 1841 — 1848. 
187 
of the latter. The principle which he submitted bore on the 
determination of the different qualities of the different kinds 
of cast and malleable iron, as produced from the different ores 
iu the neighbourhood. His test was a magnetic one. A piece of 
iron was capable, by mere proximity to a magnet and still more by 
contact, of exhibiting very powerful magnetic phenomena. This was 
the case in different degrees with all ferruginous substances, whether 
in ore or in a metallic state, as malleable or cast iron and steel. By 
this means they called forth a latent principle within it, and those 
irons of the purest character, or most perfectly ferruginous, were 
capable of the highest development of magnetic condition. A piece 
of cast iron brought in contact with the magnet would be found to 
exhibit the magnetic character in a much inferior degree to that 
which malleable iron did, and a piece of steel exhibited a slighter 
degree than cast iron. There was a less tendency to get magnetism 
by juxtaposition than in iron, but there was a gTeater tendency to 
retain it ; for whilst the iron lost its power by removal from the 
magnet the steel did not. The more imperfect the iron the less were 
its capabilities for showing the magnetic action. Cast iron has 
susceptibility to the magnetic influence, but in a degree of capability 
very different from that of malleable iron, which, if pure quality and 
soft, would be found to possess the highest capacity for the magnetic 
condition. When he discovered these facts he drew the inference 
that that which Avas most perfectly iron would show the highest 
development to the magnetic condition, and therefore that the iron 
which should exhibit the highest capabilities would be the best iron. 
A number of experiments were shown to illustrate these propositions, 
and he proved that the best iron had decidedly the highest magnetic 
capacity, and that this capacity was analogous to the respective 
values of the article in commerce. The commercial value of 
these observations was duly appreciated, and a year afterwards, 
at a meeting held at Huddersfield in December, 1843, at which 
the Rev. W. Scoresby presided, he stated many discoveries 
of the highest order had arisen from the observations of minute 
circumstances, and he urged the younger members in particular not 
to refrain from communicating any new observations from tlie idea 
