472 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 
able ores to use in large proportions, because of the impurities 
which they contain, viz., sulphur and titanium. Most all of them are 
titaniferous, many of them containing from 10 to 12 per cent. of titanic 
acid, which is one of the most Pen r substances to contend with 
in smelting the ores of iron. | 
The “Clinton ore” of Wayne Co., New York, which is precisely the 
same in character as the “‘flax-seed” ore of Dodge county, Wisconsin, and 
the “ Dyestone” ore of Tennessee, has been used at Irondale in some 
small proportions. The ore contains as a principal impurity, phos- 
phorus, which gives a cold short and hard character to the iron made 
from it. This, however, is considered as a favorable mixture, especially 
for the wearing surface of rails, where a particularly hard surface is 
desired. 
The Mingo furnaces, in 1873, used some limonite ores from Ken- 
tucky, in the vicinity of Louisville, and from Alabama. The ores are 
of excellent quality for admixture with the hard crystalline ores of Mis- 
souri and Lake Superior, and their more general use in such connec- 
tion would undoubtedly favor the regular working of the furnace. 
In this connection mention might properly be made of a fact which 
is patent to all rolling-mill proprietors, that the variations in the kind 
and proportion of materials used in the blast furnace entail a change 
in the character of the iron. That pig-irons made from different ma- 
terials entail some differences in the process of puddling and the 
character of the finished iron is well known. ‘Thus in many cases in 
the west, and to a greater or less extent in the United States, the rol- 
ling-mill proprietor, in purchasing an iron, it may be from the same 
furnace, is not always postive of its uniformity and consequently of his 
product. This is a complaint which is very often made of our Ameri- 
can pig-iron, wrought-irons and steels, when comparing them with 
English makes, that they are not wniform in quality, while the latter 
are. A furnace or a rolling-mill which produces constantly an iron of 
an established and well-known quality, will obtain higher prices than 
other makers for their product. 
The flux which is used in the region is y madly obtainable from the 
numerous limestone strata of the Coal Measures. In Columbiana county 
are the two limestones which may be associated with the limestone 
seams of coal. On the Yellow Creek, Steubenville and Mingo the 
chief source is from the stratum of excellent limestone, the “ Fossilifer- 
