LETTER

ΤΟ

MR. WEA L,

(PRIVATE SECRETARY TO LORD SHEFFIELD)

On his having sent the Author his PROSPECTUS, and at the same time expressed a wish to receive Information respecting any of its Objects.Sept. 20, 1808.

I

SIR,

HAVE received and perused with attention your Prospectus of an intended Work on IRON and STEEL. I am perfectly persuaded of the utility of such a work, both as it respects the advancement of mineralogical knowledge, and the promotion of our manufacturing and commercial interests. It appears to me to be a work of such magnitude, that a whole life might be well employed in preparing and of such difficulty, that it cannot

it;

fail to immortalize, when completed in a proper manner, the author who has courage to undertake it.

I heartily wish it were in my power to assist you in this arduous attempt, but chemical studies (though I still feel, at times, an hankering after them) have long ceased to engage my attention. When I was in my diocese in 1807, I met with a very intelligent iron-master, and requested him to procure for me, as a mere matter of curiosity, an account of the quantity of Iron annually made within the diocese of Landaff, and of the quantity of coal consumed in the making of it.

From his account, it appears that in one year (1806) forty-four furnaces and forges within the diocese of Landaff made 73,580 tons of pigs, 35,880 tons of bars, and consumed 596,015 tons of coal. There are moreover within the diocese twenty-five forges, mills, and tin works, not estimated as coke or pitcoal establishments; but what quantity of coal is annually

VOL. II.

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annually consumed in these works, my correspondent could not ascertain. If this little information can be of use to you, in any part of your work, it may, I believe, be relied on as accurate.—Perhaps it may be of service to you to mention a few treatises, written by foreigners, on the subject of your work, your work, though it is probable that you may have seen these, and many others, of more recent date, which I have never met with.-Reaumur's celebrated work, entitled, "L'Art de convertir le Fer forgé, en acier, et l'Art d'adoucir le Fer fondu," was published at Paris 1722.-" Baron Swedenborg's Opera Philosophica et Mineralia," were published in 1734.-" Voyages Metallurgiques, ou Recherches et Observations sur des mines et forges de Fer, la fabrication de l'acier, &c." were published at Lyons in 1774, and in this work there is the most extensive account of these matters, that I have ever met with.-Elementa Metallurgiæ, by Wallerius, Holmire 1767,

the

the first chapter of the third part of which work is entitled, "De ferri excoctione, præparatione, et malleatione;" and the first chapter of the fourth part, is entitled, "De præparatione Chalybis:" Both of these chapters are treated with great minuteness, for which the author apologizes in the following terms-Prolixior si fuerim circa excoctiones, et præparationes Ferri, hoc tribuendum partim amori Patriæ (Sweden) quum mullii majori copia, æquali et bonitate atque perfectione elaboratur, quam in monticularibus nostris regionibus; partim, defectui solidioris cognitionis, quo, circa Ferri præparationes, laboramus.-If this deficiency of skill in manufacturing Iron, of which Wallerius here complains, has within the last forty years been removed, it might be of use to be accurately acquainted with the processes used in Sweden. Indeed as the Swedish Iron is now, and has ever been, fitter for certain purposes, than our own, I have long thought that some of our intelligent iron

masters ought to examine with great care on the spot-Whether the superiority of the Swedish over British Iron, was attributable to the quality of the ore, or to the mode of fluxing it.

I am, with sincere wishes for the success of your project,

Sir,

Your faithful Servant,

R. LANDAFF.

THE question, with which I have here concluded my Letter to Mr. Weal, is certainly capable of a decision, and it is important to the interests of commerce, that it should be decided with accuracy. Wallerius, before mentioned, says-optimus præparari potest chalybs imprimis a mineris hæmatiticis, cum minera martis alba, stahlstein (steelstone) vocata admistis.

In the 2d volume of the English translation of Bergman's Essays, p. 230, there is a Dissertation on the white ores of iron,