40 ECONOMICAL MINERALOGY. 
ing the ore to the state of rough bar, one hundred and fifty pounds being the usual weight of 
the loup. Now analysis shows that the Arnold ore contains from sixty-eight to seventy-one 
per cent of metallic iron ; and although great allowance is to be made for the waste necessarily 
attendant upon metallurgic processes, we may fairly conclude that when it amounts, as it 
does in the present case, to a hundred per cent, there must be some defect in the process of 
reduction. 
The clay iron-stone so extensively used in Great Britain, seldom contains more than thirty- 
five per cent of metallic iron; and yet it is stated that three tons of this ore yield about one 
ton of cast iron, and this last again loses about ten or twelve per cent of its weight by con¬ 
version into refined iron, so that about three and a half tons of the ore yield a ton of refined 
iron. The difference will be more apparent from the following statement. 
Three tons of Arnold ore, at 70 per cent,.— 4,704 lbs. metallic iron. 
Three and a half tons clay iron-stone, at 35 per cent,_= 2,744 “ do. do. 
Difference,. 1,960 lbs. 
Showing that, by the process of which we are now speaking, for every ton of rough bar iron 
obtained, there is a waste of nearly another ton of metallic iron. And in this estimate, nothing 
has been allowed for the loss which these bars suffer in the various operations to which they 
are subjected previously to their preparation for the manufacture of nails, &c. 
The important influence which the facts just stated must exert upon the manufacture of 
iron in the district where this process is almost exclusively employed, can scarcely be doubted, 
when it is stated that the price of ore is sometimes not less than five dollars the ton. To all 
this should be added the waste of fuel, which I am satisfied may be fairly set' down to this 
mode of manufacture. 
Another, and perhaps more serious objection to the process under examination, is the want 
of uniformity in the texture of the iron, and its unfitness for many uses to which this metal is 
applied. This is owing to the alternate mixture of steely grains with those of the malleable 
iron, a result which no care can prevent. Hence chain cables manufactured from this kind 
of iron, although they are sufficiently tough in some parts, in others have a tenacity so in¬ 
considerable as to be easily destroyed by the weight applied to them. To the same want of 
uniformity in the texture, is to be ascribed the rapidity with which they are oxidated by ex¬ 
posure to the atmosphere. 
In adverting to these facts, I trust that I shall not be accused of a want of interest in our 
manufactures. They are, it is believed, well known to most of our iron masters; and my 
object in thus noticing them, is to urge the importance of the introduction of a less exception¬ 
able process than that which has just beer} described. The iron ores in various parts of the 
State will not suffer in the comparison with any in the world ; and there is no-reason, if proper 
attention be paid to the manufacture, why the iron obtained from them should not be as valuable 
as any other. _ 
The Dannemora iron ore, from which the most celebrated Swedish iron is obtained, is similar 
