Copy 1, Volume 1

A treatise on the progressive improvement and present state of the manufactures in metal / [Anon].

  • John Holland
Date:
1831-1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the progressive improvement and present state of the manufactures in metal / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    48/364 (page 32)
    than “ metallum martis,” the iron and steel of modern times, which, though not possessed of the mystical power of transmuting all baser metals into gold alchemically, do, nevertheless, possess the more inestimable qualities of being capable of manufacture into articles so indispen- sable, that if they could only be procured through the conversion of gold itself into the baser metals, would be considered as inestimable even at such a price. The names of Dudley, Ravenson, Sturtevant, Wildman, and others, stand on record, soon after the interregnum, as speculators in the wide field of iron-working ; and the number of patents which they obtained, the money they spent, and the mortification or ruin they severally expe- rienced, collectively tend to prove that we are much in- debted to them for having cleared the ground to such an extent. Although there are small works scattered throughout England, yet by far the greatest quantity of ore is raised in the counties of Stafford, Salop, York, and Derby. In each district the ore, as well as the methods of smelting it, exhibit, of course, some local peculiarities, which it would be tedious to specify. Staffordshire, however, may be considered as the Chalybia of this country, con- taining, as it does, a tract of upwards of 50,000 acres, beneath which lie inexhaustible beds of coal and iron- stone, particularly in the neighbourhood of Wolverhamp- ton, Wednesbury, and Bilston. The blazing and roaring of the numerous furnaces, and even the burning of the ground near the last named place, impress on the recol- lections of most travellers on the Birmingham road the idea of a complete Terra del Fuego. Ironstones are generally distinguished into siliceous, argillaceous, and calcareous, in proportion as sand, clay, or lime are found ‘predominant in them. They are frequently found bedded in strata of laminated clay, termed bind, and partaking of the same inclination as the strata, above and below. When broken, the internal fracture frequently presents the most elegant configuration, impressions of vegetables,