earlier by Dud Dudluy, a cousin I believe of the unfortunate husband of Lady Jane Grey, but though he demonstrated the practicability of it, he achieved for himself only ridicule, disappointment and great pecuniary loss. Revived in 1735 by Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, it proved immediately successful, and restored to Britain her iron industry, which had fallen into a great decline through want of fuel. The first iron cylinders for supplying a blast to the furnace were constructed by John Smeaton at the Carron Iron Works in Scotland, and steam was first used at the same works to furnish the power through the influence of of Dr. Roebuck.

Since then the only important improvements introduced in the productive iron industry have been the application of the hot blast, first employed by Neilson in Scotland in 1728, and the withdrawal of unconsumed gases from the top of the furnace, and their utilization for the production of heat. I think France is entitled to credit for that discovery.

Iron is of two kinds-cast iron, containing from 3 to 5 per cent of carbon, which is brittle and granular in its construction; and malleable or wrought iron, which is ductile and fibrous, and contains little or no carbon. Between the two lies steel, containing from a quarter of 1 per cent to 2 per cent of carbon. If you ask me for a technical definition of the word steel, I shall tell you frankly that I cannot give it, and I have heard some very expert metallurgists express dislike to be put to the same test. A few years ago you would be told off hand that steel was an article which would forge, temper and weld; but if you demand these qualities to-day you will relegate to the iron heap a great many articles which the world calls steel, including all metal produced by the pneumatic process. I believe the article produced in the Bessemer converter, however, to be a true steel, but it will not weld.*

In former times steel was sometimes obtained as part of the product of the bloomary united in certain proportions with soft iron in the bloom or loop. But when it was desired to produce steel from iron, very fine bar iron was arranged in layers in a fire-brick oven, each layer of iron being overlaid with charcoal. All openings were then carefully closed with clay and the whole oven was heated to redness and kept at that temperature for from seven to ten days.

* Since this paper was read I have learned that improvements in the pneumatic process have resulted in producing steel that will weld, and that Bessemer steel is daily being applied to new

uses.

This process is still employed, and the product is variously known as cement or blister steel, or, if the bars are rolled together to secure homogeneity, as shear steel.. Reaumur described this process in 1722; and it is not known how long before his time it was employed or where, when or by whom it was introduced. About the middle of last century Benjamin Huntsman, in England introduced the modern method of making crucible cast steel substantially as it is practiced to-day.

Steel was also sometimes made by dipping bars of soft iron into molten cast iron, from which they absorbed a portion of the carbon and were converted into steel; and sometimes malleable and cast iron were fused together in a close chamber producing steel of an inferior quality.

Siemens-Martin steel is made by the decarbonization of cast iron in a reverberatory furnace heated with gas, the flame of which assists the reaction; and the subsequent recarbonization of the bath by the addition at the close of the process of white iron, spiegeleisen, or ferro-manganese. The operation requires from four to eight hours.

The Thomas-Gilchrist process is simply an improvement upon the Bessemer or pneumatic process. A chemical lining is put into the converter, which absorbs phosphorus and other objectionable minerals from the melted metal, and permits the use of a lower grade of iron than is possible in the Bessemer process.

Puddled steel is made in much the same way as wrought iron is made from cast iron. That is, the iron is melted in a reverberatory furnace exposed to a strong draught of atmospheric air, and is kept stirred or puddled until the oxygen of the air unites with the carbon in the iron and burns it out. If steel is desired the metal is withdrawn before all the carbon is consumed; if iron is desired the process is continued till the carbon is consumed, when the metal is brought to a spongy, pasty condition, is rolled into balls or blooms, and is lifted to the squeezer, where the slag and other impurities are squeezed out. Puddled, or open hearth steel, as it is generally called is growing in favor, and in England its production is increasing more rapidly than that of Bessemer or pneumatic steel.

The most important metallurgical discovery of the age was that of making steel from cast iron by the pneumatic process. This was the invention of Sir Henry Bessemer, and was made about 30 years

Bessemer's first idea was to produce wrought iron by forcing a strong blast of atmospheric air through the melted iron by which the carbon would be burned away and the iron reduced to nature. His earlier experiments were disastrous failures. The iron produced was so brittle as to be almost worthless, and no steel worthy of the name could be made. At length Mr. Robert Mushet suggested that if manganese were added to the iron good steel could be made. This was done and proved highly successful. Some improvements were also made in the lining of the converters by which the amount of silicon in the iron was reduced. The Bessemer process requires a good quality of pig iron, reasonably free from phosphorus, sulphur and arsenic, and not containing a superabundance of silicon or titanium. This is melted in an ordinary furnace and conveyed to the converter, which somewhat resembles an immense soda water bottle with the neck wrenched to one side. The ordinary converter contains from five to ten tons of molten iron, but is then not more than one fourth filled. A powerful blast of air is now conveyed to the bottom of the converter whence it rises through the iron, uniting with the carbon, producing combustion and intense heat. The blow is usually continued from 15 to 20 minutes, and manganese is added during the process, generally in the shape of spiegeleisen, but sometimes as ferro-manganese. When the operation has continued a sufficient time, which is determined by means of the spectroscope, the blast is stopped, the converter is tipped to one side, the metal flows into moulds, and the ignots so formed are known as Bassemer blooms. Sir Henry Bessemer's royalty amounts to only a shilling a ton, but in 1879 Mr. J. S. Jeans, secretary of the British Iron Association, wrote that he had then received from his patent upward of £1,050,000 sterling.

A description of the first iron works established in Canada will not, I hope, prove uninteresting.

Colbert, the great French financier and Prime Minister to Louis XIV., was strongly impressed with the importance of the Canadian dominions of France, and he carried on a long correspondence with M. Talon, the royal intendant, with a view to the discovery and working of mineral treasures in New France. Many of the letters are now in the Parliamentary Library at Ottawa.

In 1650 Father Drouillettes, a member of that noble band of

Jesuit missionaries who did so much to explore and develop not Canada alone, but the whole country as far as the Mississippi, settled among and converted to Christianity a tribe of Indians, the Attikamegues, living near Three Rivers, at the mouth of the St. Maurice, on the north bank of the St. Lawrence, about midway of Stadacona (Quebec) and Hochelaga (Montreal.) It is probable, though not certain, that Father Drouillettes reported the existence of iron near that point, for in 1666, M. Talon, who had been sent by Colbert to Gaspe to look for silver and had failed, sent the Sieur de la Tesserie to Baie St. Paul, near Trois Rivieres, where he found iron ore which appeared to be rich. M. La Portardiere was sent from Quebec to inspect the mine, but his report was unfavorable, and nothing practical was done for seventy years.

In 1681 the Marquis de Denouville reported to his Majesty's Government that he was convinced a very fine iron mine existed at Trois Rivieres, where a forge could be profitably worked. He said he had sent some of the ore to M. Colbert, who tested it with favorable results. In 1686 the same nobleman reported that he had sent a sample of the ore to France, where the iron workers found it "of good quality and percentage," and desired fifteen or twenty "bariques" of it to give it a thorough trial. In 1672 the Count de Frontenac reported that he had begun to mine the ore and that "there are six piles of ore now lying at Cape Madeleine, which, according to the annexed report of the miner, would last for two castings per day for four months." He strongly urged the establishment of "forges and a foundry."

In 1737 a firm known as Cugnet et Cie., was formed by royal charter, which acquired the mines and a tract of forest land, and at once erected two furnaces, a foundry and dwelling for the operatives. There was a French garrison at Trois Rivieres, and the soldiers were the principal workmen. The operations appear to have been very unprofitable, for in a few years Cugnet et Cie. surrendered their charter to the local Government, and the works were carried on for some time by agents of the Crown. The fuel used was charcoal, and the product of the furnace was pig iron. The greater part of this was cast into stoves, pots, etc., for local use; but some bar iron was made, though I can find no description of the method employed. It probably was the old method of repeated heatings and hammer ings, as there was a trip hammer operated by water power.

In 1752 M. Bigot, who was at that time Intendant of New France, resident at Quebec, instructed M. Franquet to visit the St. Maurice forges, and his report is of great interest. After describing the locality he says: "The stream that drives the machinery of the establishment is dammed up in three places; the first dam drives the wheel for the furnace, the second and third each a trip hammer... It is supposed that the stream or water power is sufficiently strong to drive two other hammers,

On enter

ing the smelting forge I was received with a customary ceremony; the workmen moulded a pig of iron about 15 feet long, for my especial benefit. The process is very simple; it is done by plunging a large ladle into the liquid boiling ore and emptying the material into a gutter made in the sand. After this ceremony, I was shown the process of stove moulding, which is also a very simple but rather intricate operation.* Each stove is in six pieces, which are separately moulded; they are fitted into each other and form a stove about three feet high. I then visited a shed where the workmen were moulding pots, kettles and other hollow ware. On leaving this part of the forge we were taken to the hammer forge, where bar iron of every kind is hammered out. In each department of the forges the workmen observed the old ceremony of brushing the stranger's boots, and in return they expect some money to buy liquor to drink the visitor's health. The establishment is very extensive, employing upward of 180 men. Nothing is consumed in furnaces but clean coal, which is made in the immediate vicinity of the post. The ore is rich, good and tolerably clean. Formerly it was found on the spot now the director has to send some little distance for it. This iron is preferred to the Spanish iron, and is sold off in the King's stores in Quebec at the rate of 25 or 31† per hundred pounds weight."

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In 1760, Quebec having been taken by Wolfe, Canada was ceded to Great Britain, and among the stipulations in the treaty was one that the papers relating to the forges should remain in the possession of M. Bigot, the intendant, and should be transmitted to France without inspection of the British.

For seven years after the event the works lay idle, but in 1767,

* Intricate simplicity was probably common in those days.

The editor says "castors."-beaver skins.