202 Importance of Rags. 
Government with many thousand g-inch and 8-inch elon- 
gated shells, some of them of the finest cutler’s steel. The 
8-inch shells contain a bursting charge of 8lb. of powder, 
and have pe etrated 44-inch iron plates without being in- 
jured, but they cost about 164 each. The Italians have 
had some 6-inch shells. All are hammered, as is everything 
turned out of these works. 
The conclusion to which we are led, examining Krupp’s 
works, is, I think, this. 
Whether his steel is the best for all purposes is matter 
for dispute ; whether his steel guns will ever stand the 
large charges which we in England demand is doubtful ; 
but for grandeur of conception and magnificence of manu- 
facture his establishment and its products place him in the 
first rank of engineers. C, BB 
IMPORTANCE OF RAGS. 
HE wealth that is brought into existence by manu- 
factures, or reproduced from apparently valueless 
substances by the marvellous transforming power of human 
ingenuity, impelled by human wants, is a subject of surprise, 
even to the thoughtful observer. Enormous quantities of 
refuse matter are transformed into healthful fruits, grains, 
vegetables, and flowers, by the liberation of their gases and 
the dissolution of their salts. Bones discarded by the 
housewife as useless, are wrought into forms of use and 
beauty, but in no instance is the value of articles which 
have outlived one condition of usefulness, and been sub- 
mitted to the recreative power of manufacture, more ap- 
parent than in the change which rags undergo. 
From time immemorial rags have been the symbol of 
poverty, worthlessness, and vileness, and, as such, are re- 
ferred to in the Bible, and in the earliest profane works. 
Their usefulness as a material for paper seems, however, to 
have been discovered several centuries ago. The oldest 
specimen of paper made from linen rags contains a treaty 
of peace between the kings of Aragon and Spain, bearing 
the date of 1178. Raw cotton was, however, used for 
_ paper making before this time. It is tolerably certain that 
mills for making paper from rags were operated in Spain 
as early as 1085 (vide “Chronology of Paper and Paper 
Making,” by J. Munsell.) 
Rags, particularly cotton and linen rags, have been for 
