ANNUAL KEPORT—MANUFACTURES. 
55 
Bessemer steel rails in Milwaukee., $110 in currency. Com¬ 
puting compound interest on this amount for ten years, at 8 
per cent, per annum, a ton of Bessemer rails would cost 
$237.38. A ton of iron rails, the first cost of which is $83, 
would cost in the same time $179.11, a difference at the end of 
ten years of $58.27 per ton. This is more than sufficient to 
re-roll and re-lay the iron rails at the end of ten years. Indeed, 
this difference of interest would re-roll the iron rails every 
seven years. 
“ In view of these facts, are the western roads soon to throw 
away their iron rails and adopt steel ? It does not need a 
sage to answer. The iron rails in the states of Indiana, Illi¬ 
nois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, are worth not less than 
$60,000,000. This sum is being largely increased yearly, by 
the building of new roads. The cost of building roads, as 
cheaply as they can be built, is so very great that it is difficult 
to raise money to build them. Double the price of mils and 
the task would be next to impossible. The day when solid 
steel rails shall be largely used in the west, is 7iot yet. The 
man who shall discover how to make an iron rail with a steel 
head perfectly welded thereon, will solve one of the most im¬ 
portant problems known to metallurgy. The difficulty hither¬ 
to has been, that the steel and iron requiring different degrees 
of heat to weld properly, cannot be heated in the same furnace 
without either overheating the steel or underheating the iron, 
so that a perfect weld is impossible. Progress in this problem 
is no doubt being made, both in this country and Europe, and 
we believe in its final successful solution. When the time 
comes for making steel-headed rails, this company will be' 
ready for the task. 
“Present success, however, lies in making good iron rails 
and for these the railroads should be willing to pay a fai^* 
price. With soft and very malleable iron in the heads, good 
and durable rails cannot be made. Much of the iron in use 
in England, Wales, and elsewhere, as we have stated, is of 
this character. And we would re-affirm, as our opinion, tha^ 
the discovery of the ore at Iron Kidge commences a new era 
