IRON AND STEEL. 
67 
The question of the duration of our coal-fields has been 
asked; and; most unfortunately; it has been answered by loose 
guesses and random speculations, which are not worthy of any 
reliance. The means of determining’ the problem with accuracy 
exist ; but they have not been made available. Quite inde- 
pendent, however, of this question of duration, we should open 
our eyes to the fact, that coals are becoming every year more 
costly ; and they must continue to increase in price ; this being- 
in strict accordance with the old Staffordshire proverb, which 
says, “ He that liveth longest let Mm fetch fire further” As 
the workings extend, the cost of obtaining the coals must 
increase, and with this, either the profits of the manufacturer 
must diminish, or the price to the consumer advance. 
In 1860 we smelted 8,024,205 tons of iron ore, the value of 
which was about £2,466,929; this produced 3,826,752 tons 
of pig-iron, valued at the mean average market price of the 
year at £12,703,950. Of this we exported, in the form of pig- 
iron, 342,567 tons, reserving 3,484,185 tons for manufacture. 
Upon this hundreds of puddling-furnaces were unceasingly 
employed, converting the crude- cast pig-iron into malleable 
iron ; and mills, Cyclopean in every sense, were rolling this into 
bars, rails, and sheets. 
Did our space permit us, we should have desired to examine 
with some care the conditions of the iron ores of this country. 
It does not ; and we therefore, with satisfaction, refer to the 
“ Memoirs of the Geological Survey,” which embrace “ The 
Iron Ores of Great Britain.” In these will be found analyses 
of all the important iron-stones, made with the utmost accuracy, 
under the care of Dr. Percy, — the cost of this great work having 
been mainly met by a handsome contribution from Mr. Samuel 
Blackwell, of Dudley, to whom, it will be remembered, was due 
the valuable collection of iron ores which were in the Exhibition 
of 1851, and are now in the Museum of Practical Geology. 
Leaving, therefore, the character of our iron ores to be 
sought for from the source indicated, it is necessary that the 
conditions of iron, as a manufactured article, should engage 
our attention. 
Iron is the most common of metals ; we have been manu- 
facturing it for hundreds of years, and a large amount of 
mental labour has been bestowed on its examination. Still, it is 
doubtful whether iron in a state of absolute purity is known 
to us. If we take pure oxide of iron, and reduce it in a tube, 
at a red heat, by passing hydrogen over it, — the only method by 
which the pure metal can be got, — we obtain a spongy mass, 
which takes fire spontaneously upon exposure to the air. We 
know not if this is due to the porous character of the mass, — 
by which it acts mechanically on the oxygen of the air, as does 
spongy platinum, or if it is owing to the intense affinity of the 
P 2 
