57 
uses the hot blast , which, with anthracite fuel, is essential to complete success. 
He thinks the iron is equal in quality to that produced by charcoal, and is pre¬ 
ferred for most purposes to that reduced by bituminous coal or coke; but he has 
not succeeded in substituting this species of fuel for the others used in the pud¬ 
dling and refinery furnaces, as I understand they have done in Pennsylvania. Mr, 
Crane sells his iron in pigs, having no rolling mills. 
My next visit was to Mr. Llewellen’s sheet-tin works. The best Blaenavon or 
Monmouthshire iron pigs are broken up, melted, and run into a charcoal refinery. 
It is then taken out in large white hot masses and put under a heavy trip-hammer, 
which crushes and moulds it as if it were a ball of snow. It is then reheated 
and beaten in like manner by another trip hammer into short irregular bars, and 
then rolled into bars . From the rollers they are passed into a machine which cuts 
them, as if they were pasteboard, into convenient lengths. Each bar or piece is 
then rolled and doubled until it is brought into the usual size of sheet tin, and 
consists of eight laminae. To the eye it is one homogeneous mass of very malle¬ 
able irony without flaw. It is then marked with the required dimensions, clipped 
by machinery to those dimensions, then carried to a table where the laminse are 
divided, and eight sheets are made of one. This is done by turning down one 
corner which partially separates the leaves; and the corner of the exterior lamin© 
is seized by the thumb and forefinger and stripped off, and the others are success¬ 
ively removed in the same manner, a knife being occasionally used to effect a partial 
separation. They are then bent or doubled into the form of a pent-house, by hand, 
and placed, for a short time, in a furnace to be annealed. They are then dipped 
in liquid muriatic acid to remove the oxydation, then rolled out smooth, cold. The 
sheets are then rubbed with fine sand and water, and are then immersed in a weak 
solution of sulphuric acid. In the meantime, a large pot, as big as a pot-ash 
kettle , has been placed over a furnace, and filled with oil, tallow, and block or 
pig tin, and the whole mass fused together. Into this bubbling caldron, after 
much toil and trouble, the iron plates are immersed, and when removed, are found 
covered with tin. But to complete the operation, they are introduced successively 
into three other receptacles of a similar fluid, but of a progressively better quality. 
They are then dipped into a boiling mass of thick lime and water, which seems so 
to jix the tin, and to remove the impurities. The plates are cleansed and bright¬ 
ened in tubs of wheat bran, where they are well rubbed—(nearly all the light 
labor being performed by females.) This completes the process, and these plates 
are the usual tin of commerce. The block tin is brought from Cornwall, and is 
worth in Swansea, about £100 per ton. This establishment is very large and is 
understood to be profitable. 
December 8 th. —Left Swansea this morning at 6 o’oclock for Cardiff, which 
reached at half past 11 A. M. The ride was through a very beautiful and pic¬ 
turesque country. The coach loaded down with passengers, luggage, and game. 
Breakfasted, dressed, and called to deliver my letters to Captain Smythe, ft. N., 
superintendent of the affairs of the Marquis of Bute. Then walked down to the 
harbor and saw Lieutenant Donkfield, harbor master, who gave me a note to Mr. 
