PRESENT STATE AND PROSPRCTS OF THE IRON TRADE. 351 fined metal will yield of puddled iron, at 21 cwt. per ton of the metal, and 18 cwt. of coal per ton of iron, 1,045 tons, with 940 tons of coal; and then the rolling-mills, at 22} cwt. of puddled iron and 20 cwt. of coal per ton, will produce 915 tons of merchant bars, or what is called No. 2 iron with a consumption of 915 tons of coal. * * Within the last three years, Mr. George Crane, of the Yniscedwyn iron works, has discovered, that by using heated air, he can melt iron ores with the anthracite coal. Wlien I was last in South Wales, I visited Mr. Crane at his works, near Swansea, in order that I might see and judge for myself of the merits of this discovery. To enable you to form some idea of its value and national importance, I need only inform you that it has added to the available resources of this kingdom, for the purposes of its iron trade, a district sixty to seventy miles long, by six to eight miles broad, abounding with the anthracite or carbon coal, lime, and iron. stone ; and further, that it has already trebled the value of this extensive mineral property. The third annual report of the Swansea Philosophical Literary Institution, for the year 1837, in alluding to Mr. Crane's discoveries, states :-“The benefits likely to arise from this valuable discovery will be most extensively felt, but it will nowhere be found of more immense importance than in our own neighbourhood ; for it will be the means of opening to commercial enterprise a portion of our extensive coal-field, which though abounding in the metal pronounced the most useful to man, has hitherto been ex. cluded from the influence of that ingenuity, by which he moulds it to his will." * This new feature in the iron traile soon attracted the attention of capitalists, both here and in London; and the counties of Pembroke, Carmarthen, and the western part of Glamorgan, give fair promise soon, at least, to rival Monmouthshire and the eastern part of Gla norgan, in the manufac. ture of iron. I will first enumerate the works already in operation in the Swansea and Neath districts, and then inform you of the extent to which new establishments are being erected and others contemplated. The Maesteg iron works are worked by Messrs. Robert Smith, and Co., with bituminous coal and hot air ; they have two furnaces at work, producing from 180 to 200 tons per week of cast-iron. A part of this they make into malleable iron, but I am not aware of the exact quantity, perhaps, about 60 to 70 tons per week. The make of Mr. Crane, at the Yniscedwyn iron-works, I have already acquainted you with. The Neath Abbey Iron Company have two furnaces in blast, blown with heated air, and fired with three-fourths bituminous, and one-fourth anthracite coal. They make about 160 tons of cast-iron per week, the chief part of which is made into castings on the spot, for thcir very extensive engineering establishment. The Millbrook Iron Company have two furnaces in blast, producing about 40 tons per week, blown with cold air. The works erecting in the anthracite dis. trict are the Venallt, in the vale of Neath, and belonging to our enterprising townsmen, Messrs. Jevons and the Messrs. Arthur, of Neath. They are carried on under the firm of Jevons, Arthur, Wood, and Co. They are building two furnaces, and hope to be in blast by the end of the year. They have a very abundant supply of both kinds of coal and ironstone. The Ystal-y-fera works, near Swansea, are also being erected by a Liverpool company, at the head of which stands our spirited and excellent fellow-townsman, Sir Thomas Brancker. This company is building four furnaces, and I am told that they intend building four more. Their fuel is all of the anthracite kind. The Cambrian Iron Company are erecting four furnaces near Pile, on bituminous coal, and I have been informed intend building four furnaces in the anthracite district. Messrs. Mellins and Co. have one furnace near Pile. The Gwendrath is a new work about to be established by a London company, near Swansea, but I could not ascertain the ex. tent to which they intend going. Mr. Crane informed me that he knew of twelve to fourteen new iron works, of from two to eight furnaces each, erecting, and about to be erected, in the anthracite district, the ex. istence of which will be solely attributable to his invaluable discovery. The aggregate number of furnaces in blast in South Wales we have found to be 122 ; out of blast, 7; building, 31 ; and contemplated, 91; and, allowing for the twelve works that Mr. Crane alludes to, as being likely to be erected soon, only five furnaces each, or sixty in all, we thus find that probably within the next five years the number of furnaces in South Wales will be doubled, and number 244. Allowing an average produce of 80 tons per week for each fur. nace, we have the astounding quantity of 1,015,040, or, in round numbers, 1,000,000 tons of cast-iron produced in this district alone—a quantity equal to that produced last year in the whole of Great Britain. a * 352 NOTES AND NOTICES. NOTES AND NOTICES. Thomas Tredgold.-To architects, engineers, and persons concerned in any department of building, the name of Tredgold must not only be familiar, but likewise respected and valued and it is presumed not less so by many individuals in the higher walks of life. To all such it must be a matter of painful interest to be informed, that the family of such a highly-gifted man and martyr to science, consisting of an aged mother, two daughters in extremely delicate health, and a son of about thirteen years of age, are in very dependent circumstances. His friends have long cherished the hope that before his time-for it is now ten years since his death-their situation might have attracted the favourable notice of government; but as this has not been the case, Mr. Habershon, one of his early friends and his biographer, with John Donkin, Esq., his joint executor, have commenced a subscription in furtherance of this laudable object.-2. Drainage of Lands by Steam Power.-The drainage of land by steam power has been extensively adopted in the fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire, and with immense advantage. A steam-engine of ten-horse power has been found to be suficient to drain a district comprising 1,000 acres of land, and the water can always be kept down to any given distance below the plants. If rain fall in excess, the water is thrown off by the engine; if the weather is dry, the sinices can be opened and the water let in from the river. The engines are required to work four months in the twelve, at intervals varying with the season, where the districts are large; the expense of drainage by steam power is about 2s. 6d. per acre. first cost of the works varies with the different nature of the substrata, but generally it amounts to 1. per acre for the machinery and buildings. An engine of forty-horse power, with scoop wheel for draining, and requisite buildings, costs about 4,000!., and is capable of draining 4,000 acres of land. many places in the fens, land has been purchased at from 10. to 201. per acre, which has been so much improved by drainage, as to be worth from 601. to 70 per acre.-Durham Advertiser. The In New Alloys of Metals.-A curious and valuable discovery has just been made in the alloy of metals. A manufacturer of Paris has invented a composition much less oxidable than silver, and which will not melt at less than a heat treble that which silver will bear; the cost of it is less than 4d. an ounce. Another improvement is in steel; an Englishman at Brussels has discovered a mode of casting iron so that it flows from the furnace pure steel, better than the best cast steel in England, and almost equal to that which has undergone the process of beating. The cost of this steel is only a farthing per pound greater than that of cast iron. Machine for copying it Paintings.-M. Liepmann, a painter of eminence at Berlin, is stated to have invented a mechanical process for taking, in a very short time, a copy of any painting in oil, however old, with an exactitude which cannot be attained by the brush. M. Liepmann has exhibited his machine in the galleries of the Royal Museum at Berlin, and in the presence of the directors, made 110 copies of a portrait of Rembrandt, with the greatest success.-Morning Herald. Whole Number of Steam-bouts. Locomotives and other Steam-engines.-The whole number of steam. engines of every kind in the United States, reckoning one to each boat, is ascertained and estimated to be 3,010. Of these, 2,653 have been ascertained, and 357 are estimated, in places from which the returns are either defective, or not received at all. Of this whole number, about 899 are supposed to be employed in steam-boats; of which 700 are ascertained, and 100 estimated. About 350 are employed in locomotives on railroads, of these 337 are ascertained, and 13 estimated. The residue, being 1,860, are used in manufactories of various kinds; of these, 1,616 are ascertained, and 241 estimated.- Government Report. Improvement in Gloves and Stockings. - The hosiers of Nottingham and Leicester are making gloves and stockings having bands of India-rubber web knitted at the wrists, and under the knees instead of garters; a patent has been obtained for the invention, and licences, at £5 a-year each, are sold to the frame-work knitters.-Nottingham Review. [In the Rolls Court on Saturday last an injunction was applied for by the London Caout chouc Company-as the proprietors of Sievier's patents, to restrain these Nottingham manufacturers from using the elastic web in this way. The matter was partially compromised by the infringers paying the patentees 10. as an acknowledgment of their right-and on being permitted to sell the stock of gloves and stockings they had on hand.] Discovery of Mummies at Durango, Mexico.-A million of mummies, it is stated, have lately been discovered in the environs of Durango, in Mexico. They are in a sitting posture, but have the same wrappings, bands and ornaments as the Egyptains: among them was found a poignard of flint, with a sculptured handle, chaplets, necklaces, &c., of alternately coloured beads, fragments of bones polished like ivory, fine worked elastic tissues, (probably our modern India rubber cloth,) moccasins worked like those of our Indians, bones of vipers, &c. It is unknown what kind or embalming was used, for the mummies above mentioned, or whether they were preserved by nitrous depositions in the caves where they were found. A fact of importance is stated, that necklaces of a marine shell are found at Zacatecas, on the Pacific, where the Columbus of their forefathers probably therefore landed from Hindostan, or from the Malay or Chinese coast, or from their islands in the Indian Ocean.-Silliman's Journal. Anthracite Coal. An Association has been formed in South Wales, the object of which is to demonstrate the applicability of anthracite coal to those purposes to which it has been but partially applied, and to make the properties of this descripof fuel more generally known and appreciated. The success which has attended the experiments and actual working at the furnaces of Mr. George Crane, at the Yniscedwyn iron works, near Swansea, doubtless, first attracted attention to the use of anthracite or stone coal in this country to any extent, thus rendering of importance here a mineral which had been before held compasatively as valueless. We are aware that, before the applica tion of stone coal in this country. America took the lead in its use in steam-boats, and also for domestic purposes-the quantity of carbon which it contains giving out a greater heat than that description of coal where combustion is more rapid. Whether stone coal is used in our steam-boats as mixed with other we are uncertain, but we have been informed, by practical engineers, that there can be no doubt of its being found to answer. Experiments have been made, both with marine and locomotive engines in this country, as also with those employed in manufactories, although but little advance has yet been made in its introduction. Much, we think, depends on the liberality displayed by the owners of anthracite coal property, and the means they take for its introduction, which, in all cases with a new article, has not only to surmount prejudice, but to meet with the opposition of those who occupy the market, and who would be supplanted by the introduction of a new materialMining Journal. LONDON: Printed and Published for the Proprietor, by W. A. Robertson, at the Mechanics' Magazine Office, No. 165, Fleet street.-Sold by A. & W. Galignani, RueVivienue, Paris. 354 SEAWARD'S SALT GAUGE AND of common occurrence) then the water MR. S. SEAWARD'S PATENT METHODS descending below the flues and furnaces, FOR THE PREVENTION OF SALINE DE leaves them uncovered, they become at POSITS IN MARINE STEAM-BOILERS. once red hot, and the boiler is damaged The present method of blowing out, to such an extent as to render its removal as it is termed, or, in other words, dis- absolutely necessary. charging the brine from boilers, is ex- To remedy these serious evils, which tremely uncertain and ineffectual. It have unquestionably been a source of consists simply in turning open the cock great loss to steam-boat owners, Mr. S. of a pipe or tube which leads from the Seaward has invented and patented two bottom of the boiler through the ship, contrivances of a very ingenious and either at the bottom or low down the philosophical character, and of such cer. side. When a steamer has gone some tain efficiency that they cannot fail to distance on a sea voyage, it is customary come into universal use. with the engineer to have a blow out, on The first is a gauge or meter, reprethe presumption that the water must have sented in the prefixed engraving, figs. 1 become so salt as to have produced a and 2, which indicates to the eye the delarge deposit. But he has no means of gree of density of the water in the boiler, knowing how the fact really stands; he after the same manner as a mercurial proceeds on conjecture entirely; and can, gauge indicates the degree of pressure. therefore, hardly miss discharging either A strong glass tube of about ths too much or too little. At one time he of an inch bore, and 14 inches long, is will suffer two, at another four or even firmly fixed at each end in a brass frame, six inches of the body of water in the to which are attached four cocks, boiler to flow out (the exact quantity one at each end, and two at the cannot well be known, for this depends sides. By the two latter, or side cocks, upon the shape of the boiler and the the instrument is attached to the front extent of surface of water) when perhaps of the boiler, and fixed at such a height half the quantity in each case would suf- that the water-line in the boiler may fice. And this chance sort of operation show its level in the glass tube. On he repeats every two, three, or four opening the side cocks, the water hours, according as his fancy dictates. If rises up from the bottom of the boiler eventually he saves his boiler from by a pipe attached to the lower cock, getting salted during the voyage, i.e., to the same level as the water in the injured by the deposit of salt, he con- boiler. These cocks being then closed, siders he has worked his vessel to ad- the upper one of the two others is opened, miration, although in point of fact he and two metallic, or glass balls are dropped may have blown out six times more than into the tube,--the first ball graduated to was necessary to produce the required one degree above the density which it is effect. The consequence of all this is desired the water in the boiler should an enormous excess in the expenditure maintain--the second ball graduated to of fuel, as all the water so blown out is one degree below. The upper cock is at the boiling point of salt water, under then closed, and the two co comthe pressure of the safety valve-say 226 municating with the boiler left open. degrees. Now, as salt-water increases in weight Again, if following a different and or density just in proportion as it holds more negligent course, he does not blow more or less salt in solution, it follows, out enough, salt will begin to be rapidly that when the water in the boiler is at deposited, and in a very short time the the degree of saturation desired to be whole of the lower part of the boiler will maintained, the lighter ball will float at be filled with salt, and then destroyed, the water-level, and the heavier ball rest for the salt preventing the water from at the bottom,-and further, that any coming in contact with the sides and change of density whatever will alter the tops of the flues, the fire quickly pene- position of the balls. For example, on the trates through them, they become red water becoming more saturated, the hot, and split to pieces. lower ball will rise, and on its becoming Should, moreover, the engine man more diluted the upper one will sink; so leave the blow-cock open, for only a few that even the slightest change must beminutes beyond the usual time, (a thing come apparent. 2 st 3 g 4 5 6 ਹ SALT DEPOSIT PRBVENTION APPARATUS. 355 Whenever the balls begin to change from the boiler to the discharge-pipe. their relative positions, this at once in. (A single 3-way cock may be so condicates that the operation of periodically strueted as to answer the pirpose of two discharging the brine should be com- distinct ones.) When the salt-water in menced, but so sure as these remain the boilers, after having been at work without alteration in this respect, so sure some time, has arrived at that degree of can no injury happen to the boiler. saturation or density intended to be The balls are adjusted according to maintained, or not exceeded, as indicated the following table; it being assumed by the balls before described, the feed that common sea water contains s' of water to the boiler must then be augits weight of salt (which is about the mented, and the cock leading from the general average). boiler to the receiver opened by the No. 1 o'ynd, or sea-water boils at 222° handle, which simultaneously closes the do. do. 224° other cock. The saturated water from do. do. 225° the bottom of the boiler then rises up the steam, when the cock is closed. 228° The object of causing the water to It is found that sea-water may be ascend into the chamber instead of deworked without inconvenience when it scending in the ordinary way, is to precontains as much as parts of salt vent the possibility of the pipe ever be(represented by the ball No. 6) but that coming choked, by the scale of the boiler, when the quantity exceeds that, a most or other matter, falling into it; which injurious deposition begins to take place. is often the case with the present plan of The upper and lower cocks enable blowing out-by which the pipes are the engineer to change and cleanse soon rendered useless. A small valve the balls when required; the bores of placed at the top, or a pipe leading from each cock being equal to the size of the ihence and bent like a syphon, and leadballs. ing into the ash-pit, will always indicate The second of Mr. Seaward's inven- when the receiver is full, and will also tions consists of a method of maintaining admit air when being emptied. the water in the boiler at any degree of Now, when the water in the boiler has saturation desired. regained its level, that in the receiver There is a vessel A, fig. 3 of iron, or may be discharged into the bilge, by other suitable material, capable of bear. opening the lower cock, which being ing a strain equal to the pressure of the closed, the receiver may be again filled steam in the boiler, and capable of con- by the other cock, and discharged as taining about zhth of the whole of the before. If, after one or more discharges, water in the boiler; this vessel, or re- the balls in the glass tube continue to ceiver, is placed in any convenient posi- retain their relative positions, that issition in the engine-room above the level one at the bottom and one on the surface of the water in the boiler, and at such a of the water, it is then evident that the height from the bottom of the ship, that proper degree of saturation is being any fluid contained in it, may by its own maintained; but, should the lower bal gravity, be discharged either into the rise to the upper one, that will denote sea, the bilge, or into the suction-pipe an excess of saturation ; if, on the other of the bilge-pump. To this receiver is hand, the upper ball sinks to the lower attached a cock and a pipe leading one, it will show an excess of dilution, therefrom down through the interior of and the discharges by the receiver must the boiler to within three inches of the be varied accordingly. By a proper obbottom. Another cock is also placed servance, therefore, of the position of at the bottom of the said vessel, with a the balls in the glass tube, the water in pipe leading to the bilge or through the the boiler may be maintained at the deship's side to the sea as the case may be. gree of density required, and no danger, Now these two cocks are so constructed by incrustation of salt, can possibly and attached together, working by the ensue, however much the degree of saltsame handle, that only one cock can ness of the water may vary in which the possibly be open at a time, so that there vessel swims. never can be any direct communication Mr. Seaward further suggests, that a |