IRON MANUFACTURE. 509 
nace equipment, and give rise to some trouble in cold weather from the 
tendency to freeze, and in this way clog and interfere with the running 
of the hoist. Simple water-hoists are found at some other furnaces in 
the State, and will be alluded to further on. 
The hearths of the furnaces are built, some of them, with a wide 
fore-hearth, which is closed by a dam and plate exactly as will be found 
described in “ Truran,” 
on the Iron Manufacture of Great Britain, or 
in all the older standard ‘‘' Treatises” on “ Metallurgy.” In the more 
recently lined furnaces the dam has been placed nearer the tymp or top - 
of the arch, over the opening into the bottom of the furnace, and the 
wide fore-hearth has been gradually abandoned; the loss of time at 
each casting, due to the necessity of replacing the tymp-stone and clean- 
ing the hearth is considerable, this operation taking from 1 to 2 hours. 
A curious fact in regard to the working of these furnaces of the 
Hanging Rock region is, that almost without exception work is sus- 
. pended during Sunday, the furnaces being stopped at 12 o’clock Satur- 
day night, the blast being turned on again at 12 o’clock Sunday night. 
It is claimed by the furnace men in the district that not only is this no 
disadvantage, but in the long run advantageous, as it secures them a 
better class of labor and more command over their men. Each of these 
charcoal furnaces is of necessity provided with large sheds, placed near 
the furnace and of a capacity of in some cases 400,000 to 500,000 
bushels of charcoal. The danger of storing charcoal in large amount is 
the risk of fire, a rather serious one, as these charcoal houses have fre- 
quently been destroyed in this way, entailing of course great loss. As 
to the effect of storage on the charcoal, it is stated that it works rather 
better when taken from the storehouse than when worked direct from 
the wagon load, the reason assigned being that the charges are more 
uniform, owing to the mixture of the material, which being loaded into 
the stockhouse is drawn from what represents the average quality, 
whereas different wagon loads differ enough among themselves to affect 
the relation between the fuel and ore, and consequently change, though 
perhaps only slightly, the working of the furnace. The greater or less 
dampness of the charcoal produces some effect, but owing to the univer- 
sal custom of measuring rather than of weighing the charges, does not 
change the ratio of tuel to ore. But even here it is stated that when 
wagons come in damp from rain, it is necessary to “lighten the ore 
burden ;” that is, diminish the amount of ore to a bushel of charcoal. 
