The metal which is called iron, is familiar to all, both for its value
and its various uses. It is capable of being cast in molds of any form;
of being drawn in wires, extended in plates or sheets, of being bent in
every direction, and of being sharpened, hardened, or softened at
pleasure. It accommodates itself to all our wants, desires, and even
caprices; it is equally serviceable to the arts, the sciences, to
agriculture, and to war; and the same ore furnishes the sword, the
plowshare, the scythe, the pruning-hook, the needle, the graver, the
spring of the watch or that of the carriage, the chisel, the chain, the
anchor, the compass, the cannon, the bomb, the edge of the finest knife
or razor, and the ponderous trip-hammer of enormous weight. It is a
medicine of much virtue, and the only metal which is always useful, and
tends to no injury to mankind.
The ores of iron are scattered over the entire crust of the globe in
beneficent profusion, and in proportion to the utility of the metal
itself: they are found in every latitude and zone, in every mineral
formation, and in every soil and clime. These ores are nineteen in
number, ten of which are worked to profit by the miner, either for the
sake of the iron they contain, for use in their native state, or for
extracting from them some principle or material, useful in manufactures
or the arts.
Native iron, the existence of which was formerly questioned, has been
found in several places: it is, however, far from being common, though
it occurs in several mines. A mass of this description of iron was
discovered in the district of Santiago del Estero, in South America, by
a party of Indians, in the midst of a widely extended plain. It
projected about a foot above the ground, nearly the whole of its upper
surface being visible; and the news of its having been found in a
country where there are not any mountains, nor even the smallest stone,
within the circumference of a hundred leagues, was considered as truly
surprising. Although the journey was attended with great danger, on
account of the want of water, and abundance of wild beasts in these
deserts, several individuals, in the hope of gain, undertook to visit
this mass; and, having accomplished their journey, sent a specimen of
the metal to Lima and Madrid, where it was found to be very pure soft
iron.
As it was reported that this mass was the extremity of an immense vein
of the metal, a metallurgist was sent to examine the spot, and by him it
was found buried in pure clay and ashes. Externally it had the
appearance of very compact iron, but was internally full of cavities, as
if the whole had been formerly in a liquid state. This idea was
confirmed by its having, on its surface, the impression of human feet
and hands of a large size, as well as that of the feet of a description
of large birds, very common in South America. Although these impressions
seemed very perfect, it was concluded either that they were =lusus
naturæ=, or that impressions of this kind were previously on the ground,
and that the liquid mass of iron, in falling on it, received them. It
had the greatest resemblance to a mass of dough; which, having been
stamped with impressions of hands and feet, and marked with a finger,
had afterward been converted into iron.
On digging round the mass, the under surface was found covered with a
coat of scoriæ from four to six inches thick, undoubtedly occasioned by
the moisture of the earth, the upper surface being clean. No appearance
of the formation of iron was observed in the earth, below or round it,
for a great distance. About two leagues to the eastward was a brackish
mineral spring, and a very gentle ascent of from four to six feet in
hight, running from north to south: with this exception, the adjacent
territory was a perfect level. About the spring, as well as near the
mass, the earth was very light, loose, and greatly resembling ashes,
even in color. The grass in the vicinity was very short, small, and
extremely unpalatable to the cattle; but that at a distance was long,
and extremely grateful to them. From these concurrent circumstances it
was concluded, that this mass of native iron, which was estimated to
weigh about three hundred quintals, was produced by a volcanic
explosion. It is stated as an undoubted fact, that in one of the forests
of the above district of Santiago del Estero, there exists a mass of
pure native iron, in the shape of a tree with its branches. At a little
depth in the earth are found stones of quartz, of a beautiful red color,
which the honey-gatherers, the only persons who frequent this rude
territory, employ as flints to light their fires. Several of these were
selected on account of their peculiar beauty, they being spotted and
studded, as it were, with gold: one of them, weighing about an ounce,
was ground by the governor of the district, who extracted from it a dram
of gold.
A fibrous kind of native iron has been found at Ebenstock, in Saxony,
and also in Siberia, where one particular mass weighed sixteen hundred
pounds. It resembled forged iron in its composition, and was malleable
when cold, but brittle when red-hot. In Senegal, where it is most
common, it is of a cubical form, and is employed by the natives in the
manufacture of different kinds of vessels. Native meteoric iron, called
also nickeliferous, from its containing nickel, and native steel iron,
which has many of the characters of cast steel, have also been found.
Iron, although one of the imperfect metals, is susceptible of a very
high polish, and more capable than any other metal of having its
hardness increased or diminished by certain chemical processes. It is
often manufactured in such a way as to be _one hundred and fifty times_,
and, as will now be seen, in some cases, to be even above _six hundred
and thirty times_ more valuable than gold. On weighing several common
watch-pendulum springs, such as are sold for ordinary work by the London
artists, at half a crown, ten of them were found to weigh but one single
grain. Hence one pound avoirdupois, equal to seven thousand grains,
contains ten times that number of these springs, which amount, at half a
crown each, to eight thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling.
Reckoning the troy ounce of gold at four pounds sterling, and the pound
equal to fifty-seven hundred and sixty grains, at forty-eight pounds
sterling, the value of an avoirdupois pound of gold is over fifty-eight
pounds sterling. The above amount of the value of the watch-springs
weighing an avoirdupois pound, being divided by that sum, will give a
ratio of somewhat more than one hundred and fifty to one. But the
pendulum-springs of the best kind of watches sell at half a guinea each;
and at this price the above-mentioned value is increased in the ratio of
four and one-fifth to one; which gives an amount of thirty-six thousand,
seven hundred and fifty pounds sterling. This sum being divided by the
value of the avoirdupois pound of gold, gives a quotient of more than
six hundred and thirty to one.
It is one of the valuable properties of iron, after it is reduced into
the state of steel, that, although it is sufficiently soft when hot, or
when gradually cooled, to be formed without difficulty into various
tools and utensils, still it may be afterward rendered more or less
hard, even to an extreme degree, by simply plunging it, when red-hot,
into cold water. This is called tempering, the hardness produced being
greater in proportion as the steel is hotter and the water cooler. Hence
arises the superiority of this metal for making mechanics’ instruments
or tools, by which all other metals, and even itself, are filed, drilled
and cut. The various degrees of hardness given to iron, depend on the
quantity of ignition it possesses at the moment of being tempered, which
is manifested by the succession of color exhibited on the surface of the
metal, in the progress of its receiving the increasing heat. These are,
the yellowish white, yellow, gold-color, purple, violet, and deep blue;
after the exhibition of which the complete ignition takes place. These
colors proceed from a kind of scorification on the surface of the heated
metal.
The largest iron-works in England are carried on in Colebrookdale, in
Shropshire. This spot, which is situated between two towering and
variegated hills, covered with wood, possesses peculiar advantages, the
ore being obtained from the adjacent hills, the coals from the vale, and
abundance of limestone from the quarries in the vicinity. The romantic
scenery which nature here exhibits, and the works which are carried on,
seem to realize the ancient fable of the Cyclops. The noise of the
forges, mills, &c., with all their vast machinery, the flames bursting
from the furnaces, with the burning coal, and the smoke of the
lime-kilns, are altogether horribly sublime. To complete the
peculiarities of the spot, a bridge, entirely constructed of iron, is
here thrown over the Severn. In one place it has parted, and a chasm is
formed; but such is its firm basis, that the fissure has neither injured
its strength nor utility.
The great superiority of Swedish iron over that of all other countries,
for the manufacture of steel, is well known, and is ascribed to the
great purity of the ore from which the iron is smelted. The British
steel-makers have found it difficult to employ British iron in their
processes, it being too brittle to bear cementation; but attempts have
been made at Sheffield, with some success. Wootz, a species of steel
from India, has been successfully used for nicer kinds of cutlery. One
of the most remarkable of the Swedish mines, if the name can with
propriety be applied to it, is Tabern, a mountain of a considerable
size, composed entirely of pure iron ore, and occurring in a large tract
of sand, over which it seems to have been deposited. This mountain has
been wrought for nearly three centuries, notwithstanding which its size
is scarcely diminished.
But the richest iron mine of Sweden is that of Danmora, in the province
of Upland. It is in depth eighty fathoms; occupies a considerable extent
of territory; and its ore is conveyed to the surface of the earth,
through several pits or openings made for that purpose, by means of
casks fixed to large cables, which are put in motion by horses. The
workmen standing on the edges of these casks, and having their arms
clasped round the cable, descend and ascend with the utmost composure.
The water is drawn from the bottom by a wheel sixty-six feet in
diameter, and is afterward conveyed along an aqueduct nearly a mile and
a half in length. At certain distances from Danmora, are several
furnaces, with large and populous villages exclusively inhabited by the
miners.
In Wraxall’s tour through the north of Europe, the mine of Danmora is
described as yielding the finest iron ore in Europe, its produce being
exported to every country, and constituting one of the most important
sources of national wealth and royal revenue. The ore is not dug, as is
usual in other mines, but is torn up by the force of gunpowder, an
operation which is performed every day at noon, and is one of the most
awful and tremendous that can possibly be conceived. “We arrived,”
observes the tourist, “at the mouth of the great mine, which is nearly
half an English mile in circumference, in time to be present at it. Soon
after twelve the first explosion took place, and could not be so aptly
compared to anything as to subterraneous thunder, or rather volleys of
artillery discharged under ground. The stones were thrown up, by the
violence of the gunpowder, to a vast hight above the surface of the
ground, and the concussion was so great as to shake the surrounding
earth or rock on every side.
“As soon as the explosion had ceased, I determined to descend into the
mine, to effect which I had to seat myself in a large, deep bucket,
capable of containing three persons, and fastened by chains to a rope.
When I found myself thus suspended between heaven and earth by a rope,
and looked down into the dark and deep abyss beneath me, to which I
could see no termination, I shuddered with apprehension, and half
repented my curiosity. This was, however, only a momentary sensation,
and before I had descended a hundred feet, I looked round on the scene
with very tolerable composure. It was nearly nine minutes before I
reached the bottom; and when I set my foot on the earth, the view of the
mine was awful and sublime in the highest degree. Whether, as I surveyed
it, terror or pleasure formed the predominant feeling, is hard to say.
The light of the day was very faintly admitted into these subterraneous
caverns: in many places it was absolutely lost, and flambeaux were
kindled in its stead. Beams of wood were laid across some parts, from
one side of the rock to the other; and on these the miners sat, employed
in boring holes for the admission of gunpowder, with the most perfect
unconcern, although the least dizziness, or even a failure in preserving
their equilibrium, must have made them lose their seat, and have dashed
them against the rugged surface of the rock beneath. The fragments torn
up by the explosion, previously to my descent, lay in vast heaps on all
sides, and the whole scene was calculated to inspire a gloomy
admiration.
“I remained three-quarters of an hour in these frightful and gloomy
caverns, which find employment for not less than thirteen hundred
workmen, and traversed every part of them which was accessible,
conducted by my guides. The weather above was very warm, but here the
ice covered the whole surface of the ground, and I found myself
surrounded with the colds of the most rigorous winter, amid darkness and
caves of iron. In one of these, which ran a considerable way beneath the
rock, were eight wretched beings warming themselves round a charcoal
fire, and eating the little scanty subsistence arising from their
miserable occupation. They rose with surprise at seeing so unexpected a
guest among them, and I was not a little pleased to dry my feet, which
were wet with treading on the melted ice, at their fire.
“Having gratified my curiosity with a view of these subterraneous
apartments, I made the signal for being drawn up, and felt so little
terror while reascending, compared with that of being let down, that I
am convinced, after five or six repetitions, I should have been
perfectly indifferent to the undertaking. So strong is the effect of
custom on the human mind, and so contemptible does danger or horror
become when familiarized by repeated trials!”
Throughout the whole extent of Sweden, the iron mines at present
wrought, employ thousands of persons, and yield annually upward of one
hundred thousand tuns of metal. There are said to be between five and
six hundred mines in the entire country, nearly half of which are
situated in the central provinces: this, however, includes mines of all
descriptions, though by far the most are of iron. The products of all
these mines would be vastly greater than they are, were it not for the
multiplied and unreasonable restrictions of the government.
The iron trade of the United States, and the domestic manufacture of
iron, were spoken of by Mr. Gallatin, in a report to Congress, in 1810,
as being firmly established. He was able to obtain very imperfect
information about it, but it was known that iron ore was plentiful; that
numerous forges and furnaces had been erected, supplying “a sufficient
quantity of hollow-ware, and of castings of every description.” From
Russia, about forty-five hundred tuns of bar iron were imported yearly,
and perhaps another forty-five hundred from Sweden and England. A vague
estimate gave fifty thousand tuns of bar iron as the annual consumption
of the union, of which he considered forty thousand as the product of
the republic. Some good iron was made in Virginia and Pennsylvania, but
much inferior iron, carelessly manufactured, was brought into market. Of
sheet, slit, and hoop iron, about five hundred and sixty-five tuns were
annually imported; about seven thousand tuns were rolled and slit in the
United States. Massachusetts had thirteen rolling and slitting mills,
and the value of cut nails and brads made within the republic in a year,
was estimated at twelve hundred thousand dollars. Nearly three hundred
tuns of cut nails were exported. Agricultural implements were made at
home, and much coarse ironmongery; but cutlery, fine hardware, and steel
work, were brought from Britain. About forty thousand muskets were
yearly made in New England and at Harper’s Ferry: also balls, shells,
and brass and iron cannon, in various places. There were several iron
founderies for machinery castings, and steam-engines had begun to be
made at Philadelphia. Mr. Gallatin valued the iron and manufactures of
iron then annually made at home, at from twelve to fifteen millions of
dollars, and the imports at near four millions, as prices went.
Adam Seybert enumerates the domestic products of 1810, at 53,908 tuns of
pig iron, from 153 furnaces; 24,541 tuns of bar iron from 330 forges;
15,727,914 pounds of nails (partly out of imported iron) from 410
naileries; and 6,500 tuns of iron were required at 316 trip-hammers and
thirty-four rolling and slitting mills. His estimate of the value of the
home manufacture is $14,364,526. In 1806 or 1807, Chancellor Livingston,
then our minister to France, had to apply repeatedly to the British
ministry for permission to buy in England, and export to New York, the
steam-engine which Fulton put on board his first steamboat on the
Hudson. Now, the manufacture of steam-engines is an important branch of
our home industry.
In 1827-8, it was given in evidence before a committee of Congress, that
Pennsylvania had made, during the past year, 21,800 tuns of bar iron,
and 47,075 tuns of cast iron; that 3,000 tuns of bar iron were made near
Lake Champlain; that three counties in New Jersey had made 2,050 tuns,
and that in a circle of thirty miles’ diameter, in New York, there were
one hundred and ten forge fires, each of them able to produce
twenty-five to thirty-five tuns yearly. In 1830, a committee of Congress
reported on the iron trade, and from their report and other later
sources, we learn that that year 112,866 tuns of bar, and 191,537 of pig
iron, worth $13,327,760, employing 29,254 men, who received $8,776,420
in wages, were made. Perhaps the quantity and number of workmen are
overstated. In 1840, with improved machinery, only 30,497 men produced
484,136 tuns.
Without coal and iron, the United States and Britain never could have
risen to the rank of first-rate powers. In fact, without iron,
civilization must have made very slow progress, as must be evident to
any one who will take the trouble to try seriously to enumerate the
various articles _essential_ to society, of which iron is an
indispensable part.
In 1839-40, according to the official returns, which are imperfect, the
United States produced, with 804 furnaces, 286,903 tuns of cast iron,
and with 795 blomaries, forges and rolling-mills, 187,233 tuns of bar
iron. The capital invested was nearly twenty and a half millions of
dollars; the men employed, miners included, were 30,497, and 1,528,110
tuns of fuel were employed in these operations. The value of iron and
steel, and their manufactures, imported in 1839-40, as per official
returns, was $7,241,407. The estimated value of the iron made in the
United States that year, was $22,778,635; of which sum $15,585,730 were
for labor, including mining, transportation, coaling, hauling, &c. The
persons employed in the iron manufacture, and their families, were
estimated at 213,505, which, at twelve and a half cents each, per day,
for agricultural products consumed, would give $9,741,166.
In 1845, the product of the union was estimated thus: 540 blast
furnaces, yielding 486,000 tuns of pig iron; 954 blomaries, forges,
rolling-mills, &c. yielding 291,600 tuns of bar, hoop, sheet, boiler,
and other wrought iron, 30,000 tuns of blooms and 121,500 tuns of
castings; value of the whole nearly forty-two millions of dollars.
The United States imported of iron, chiefly bar and bolt, rolled,
hammered, or otherwise manufactured, and pig, hoop and sheet, in 1838-9,
115,637 tuns; in 1839-40, 72,769; 1840-1, 112,111; in 1841-2, 107,392;
in 1842-3, 38,405.
In 1846-7, we find by the treasury report, that the United States
exported of domestic manufactures, 3,197,135 pounds of nails, worth
$168,817, of which Cuba took 2,317,550 pounds; also other articles of
iron and steel to the value of $998,667, of which $478,681 to Cuba, and
$162,020 to British North America. In that year, among the imports,
chiefly from England, were 549 tuns of steel, value $1,126,458; 55,599
tuns of bar iron; 28,083 tuns of pig; 1,893 tuns of scraps; 6,167,720
pounds of chain cables; 13,410,556 pounds of sheet and hoop; 1,412,332
pounds of anvils; 921,845 pounds of nails; 361,423 pounds of anchors;
975,256 pounds of castings; 170,909 pounds of cast-iron butts; 431,916
pounds of band; 660,133 pounds of round or square; 347,737 pounds of
nail or spike rods.
Official tables show that the imports of manufactures of steel and iron
in 1839, were worth $6,507,510; in 1843, $1,012,086; in 1844,
$3,313,796; in 1845, $5,077,788; and that in 1839, the value of pig and
bar iron and steel imported was $6,302,539; in 1842 and 1845, nearly
four millions each year; in 1843, $1,091,598; and in 1844, $2,380,027.
Some idea of the extent of the iron trade inland may be formed from the
quantities carried on the canals. In 1847, there came to the Hudson on
the New York canals, pig iron, 21,608,000 pounds; bloom and bar
26,348,000 pounds; iron ware, 3,014,000 pounds: 340 tuns of iron and
iron ware were cleared on the canals at Buffalo and Oswego; St. Lawrence
county, N. Y., shipped 515 tuns of pig, a surplus made there; 7,716 tuns
of pig iron reached Buffalo _via_ Lake Erie, and 1,256 kegs of nails;
15,103,565 pounds of iron and nails arrived at Cleveland _via_ the Ohio
canal, and 4,085 tuns of iron and 12,537 kegs of nails were shipped from
Cleveland coastwise. There were cleared at Portsmouth, Chilicothe,
Massillon, and Akron, in 1847, about 5,713 tuns of iron; 5,269,055
pounds of nails were shipped at Akron. The trade in coal and iron on the
western rivers and lakes is very large.
Iron canal-boats were in common use in Wales thirty years ago: they are
beginning to be made here; also war-steamers. Fences, and even porches
to houses, are often of iron. The pipes for the Croton water in New York
required many thousand tuns. The annual value of 150,000 tuns of iron
ore of Maryland is worth $600,000 at Baltimore. A single foundery in
Tennessee sold, in 1844, of sugar-kettles, $50,000 worth.
Child’s statistics show that in Pennsylvania, in 1847, there were made,
at 213 furnaces, 98,395 tuns of cast iron, and at 169 blomaries, forges,
&c., 87,244 tuns of bar iron, 11,522 men being employed, including
limestone miners, and a capital of $7,751,470 invested. In 1846, there
were 173,369 tuns manufactured, seven of the furnaces using anthracite
coal. Forty furnaces, in 1847, were in blast, using anthracite, and
producing 121,800 tuns of iron, at a reduced price, which price had
induced capitalists to put up extensive rolling-mills. The American
Quarterly Register has a list of nineteen anthracite rolling-mills in
Pennsylvania, which make iron rails and plate, bar and rod, nails, axle
and small iron.
The first bar of railroad iron ever manufactured in the United States,
was made in 1841, and now it is said, one hundred thousand tuns could be
made easily; while the annual product of iron from all the furnaces,
which are said to be some three hundred in number, is estimated at over
four hundred thousand tuns.
The yearly manufacture of iron in Great Britain, is now estimated at
nearly three millions of tuns. In 1828, there were in Russia, nineteen
founderies, forges and mines, and in 1804, that country exported to
America over nine million pounds of iron. In 1819, France produced
seventy-four million pounds of iron, and in 1845, this had increased to
three hundred and forty-two millions, or over one hundred and fifty
thousand tuns. Of iron and steel, and the various manufactures from
them, Great Britain exported in 1845, to the extent of thirty-three
millions.