64 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
tons of iron in each year : in our time, 600 blast-furnaces — the 
number now at work — are pouring out annually nearly 4,000,000 
tons of pig-iron. Beside those, three small furnaces exist in the 
neighbourhood of Ulverstone, and one in Scotland, in which 
charcoal is still used as the fuel : it rarely happens, however, 
that more than one of these is “in blast ” at the same time. 
The enormous development of the iron manufacture of Great 
Britain appears to have been due to the circumstance to which 
Dud Dudley was the first to direct attention, — that our best iron- 
ore, and good coal for smelting it, are, in many cases, associated. 
Dudley’s quaint arguments to persuade the king’ to grant him a 
patent are amusing. Amongst other tilings, he says, as a reason 
why his prayer should be heard , — “ Because in most of the coale 
mines in these parts, as well as upon the Lord Dudley’s lands, 
are Coals, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve yards thick ; the top or the 
uppermost cole or vein gotten upon the superfices of this Globe 
or Earth, in open works. Under this great thickness of coal is 
very many sorts of Iron, Stone, Mines, in the Earth, Clay, or 
Stone earth, like bats, hi all four yards thick ; also under these 
iron mines is several yards thick of coals,” &c. &c. Dud 
Dudley, as he was the originator of the process of smelting iron 
with pit-coal, so he Avas the type upon which all iron-masters 
since his time have been built. To the untiring industry, and 
that indomitable force of purpose, which has ever led them 
through periods of deep distress, — and to that irrepressible will 
which knows no difficulty, must be referred the position which 
England holds amidst the metallurgists of the world. 
In parenthesis, — we are constantly told that many of the con- 
tinental states have proved themselves to be superior in 
metallurgical knowledge to ourselves. In answer to this, let us 
always remember that their superiority exists in the clever 
books they have written : our supremacy is secured by the work 
we have done. Nature has given us the raw material, and 
British heads and hands have moulded it into every possible 
form, whether for use or ornament. We have practically per- 
formed the trick of transmutation, and converted our iron into 
gold, Avliile other people have been writing ingenious theories 
on the possibility of doing it. 
This essay would be incomplete if it did not describe — 
although it can do so but briefly — the sources from which we 
have derived our enormous supplies of iron ore. 
In South Staffordshire exist the beds of argillaceous, or clay- 
band ironstone, to which Dud Dudley drew attention, inter- 
stratified with the coal. We have the same conditions in Wales, 
in Yorkshire, in Derbyshire, and other of our coal-producing 
counties. In Scotland, Mr. Mushet drew attention to the 
“ black-band ironstone,” and thus founded that large industry 
