Blowing machinery, and steam engine of 80-horse power 6400
Inclined railway for mounting the charges 120
Gallery for charging 160
Steam engine house 400
Chimneys, boilers, &c. 480
Roasting kilns 480
Coke kilns 800
Dwelling-houses for workmen 800
------
Total cost of 3 furnaces complete _£_19,548
_Estimate from the Neath-Abbey Works in S. Wales, of the cost of
machines requisite for a forge and shingling-mill, capable of turning
out 120 tons of bar iron per week._
1. Steam-engine upon Bolton and Watt’s construction; of 40
inches diameter in the cylinder, and 8-feet stroke; with
boilers, pipes, grate, bars, fire-doors, &c. &c., complete _£_1600
2. System of great-geering for transmitting the crank-motion
of the engine to the mill-work, with fly-wheel, &c. 1090
3. A system of roughing rolls, with pinions, uprights, and every
thing else necessary 525
4. Two pairs of finisher-rolls, with all their accessories 525
5. Two pairs of shear-machines, at 170_l._ apiece 340
6. One pair of rolls of 10 inches diameter, for making small bar
iron, with all their accessories 230
7. Forge hammer, including the anvil, the cam-shafts, and all the
other requisites 185
8. A complete turning lathe 200
------
_£_4695
9. To the above must be added, spare cylinders weighing about
60 tons 960
10. Duplicate articles for the steam-engine ?
11. 150 tons of cast-iron plates, to cover the floor of the mill 900
12. Eight tons of cast-iron pieces for a reverberatory furnace 52
13. Tools of malleable iron; rakes, oars, &c. 28
14. Castings for mounting a cupola furnace 50
15. Blowing-machine for the cupola 80
16. Pieces of iron for a small forge, with two fires, two bellows,
two anvils, iron tools faced with steel, and common iron tools,
&c. 100
17. Eight tons of cast-iron pieces, and wrought-iron pieces for 14
puddling furnaces 983
18. Seven tons of cast-iron pieces, and wrought iron for 4 re-
heating furnaces 252
19. Tools for the puddlers and other workmen 15
20. Iron mountings for two cranes, partly made of wood 50
-------
Total cost of machines, and pieces of iron _£_8165
To the above, the cost of the steam engine house is to be added, that
of another forge hammer, and incidental expenses.
In Staffordshire the following estimate has been given:
A steam-engine of 60-horse power 2016
Rolls, with the iron work of the furnaces, &c., to make 120 tons
of bar iron weekly 2572
-------
_£_4588
The Neath-Abbey estimate is greater, but that company has a high
character for making substantial well-finished machinery.
Bar iron made entirely from ore without admixture of cinder, or
vitrified oxide, is always reckoned worth 10_s._ a ton more than the
average iron in the market, which is frequently made by smelting 25 per
cent. of cinder with 75 of ore or _mine_, as it is called.
Importation of iron in bars or unwrought, for home consumption; and
amount of duty, in
1836. 1837. 1836. 1837.
18,978 tons 18 cwt. | 13,470 tons 4 cwt. | _£_28,450 | _£_20,065
_M. Virlet’s Statistical Table of the produce of Iron in Europe._
Quintals.
England (1827) 7,098,000
France (1834) 2,200,000
Russia (1834) 1,150,000
Austria (1829) 850,000
Sweden (1825) 850,000
Prussia 800,000
The Hartz Mountains 600,000
Holland and Belgium 600,000
Elba and Italy 280,000
Piedmont 200,000
Spain 180,000
Norway 150,000
Denmark 135,000
Bavaria 130,000
Saxony 80,000
Poland 75,000
Switzerland 30,000
Savoy 25,000
----------
Total 13,433,000 (equal to about 672,000 tons.)
For additional statistics of iron, see PITCOAL, at the end.
_Bronzing of polished iron._--The barrels of fowling-pieces and rifles
are occasionally bronzed and varnished, to relieve the eye of the
sportsman from the glare of a polished metal, and to protect the surface
from rusting. The liquid used for browning the barrels is made by mixing
nitric acid of specific gravity 1·2, with its own weight of spirit of
nitric ether, of alcohol, and tincture of muriate of iron; and adding to
that mixture, a quantity of sulphate of copper equal in weight to the
nitric acid and ethereous spirit taken together. The sulphate must be
dissolved in water before being added; and the whole being diluted with
about 10 times its weight of water, is to be bottled up for use. This
liquid must be applied by friction with a rag to the clear barrel, which
must then be rubbed with a hard brush; processes to be alternated two or
three times. The barrel should be afterwards dipped in boiling water,
rendered feebly alkaline with carbonate of potash or soda, well dried,
burnished, and heated slightly for receiving several coats of
tin-smith’s lacquer, consisting of a solution of shellac in alcohol,
coloured with dragon’s blood.
ISINGLASS, or Fish-glue, called in Latin _ichthyocolla_, is a whitish,
dry, tough, semi-transparent substance, twisted into different shapes,
often in the form of a lyre, and consisting of membranes rolled
together. Good isinglass is unchangeable in the air, has a leathery
aspect, and a mawkish taste nearly insipid; when steeped in cold water
it swells, softens, and separates in membranous laminæ. At the boiling
heat it dissolves in water, and the solution, on cooling, forms a white
jelly, which is semi-transparent, soluble in weak acids, but is
precipitated from them by alkalies. It is gelatine nearly pure; and if
not brittle, like other glue, this depends on its fibrous and elastic
texture. The whitest and finest is preferred in commerce. Isinglass is
prepared from the air-bladders of sturgeons, and especially the great
sturgeon, the _accipenser huso_; which is fished on the shores of the
Caspian sea, and in the rivers flowing into it, for the sake chiefly of
its swim bladder.
The preparation of isinglass in this part of Russia, and particularly at
Astracan, consists in steeping these bladders in water, removing
carefully their external coat, and the blood which often covers them,
putting them in a hempen bag, squeezing them, softening them between the
hands, and twisting them into small cylinders, which are afterwards bent
into the shape of a lyre. They are ready for the market immediately
after being dried in the sun, and whitened with the fumes of burning
sulphur.
In some districts of Moldavia, another process is followed. The skin,
the stomach, the intestines, and the swim bladder of the sturgeon are
cut in small pieces, steeped in cold water, and then gently boiled. The
jelly thus obtained is spread in thin layers to dry, when it assumes the
appearance of parchment. This being softened in a little water, then
rolled into cylinders, or extended into plates, constitutes an inferior
article.
The swim bladder of the cod and many other fishes, also furnishes a
species of isinglass, but it is much more membranous, and less soluble
than that of the sturgeon.
The properties of isinglass are the same as those of gelatine or pure
glue; and its uses are very numerous. It is employed in considerable
quantities to clarify ale, wine, liqueurs, and coffee. As an article of
food to the luxurious in the preparation of creams and jellies, it is in
great request. Four parts of it convert 100 of water into a tremulous
jelly, which is employed to enrich many soups and sauces. It is used
along with gum as a dressing to give lustre to ribbons and other silk
articles. The makers of artificial pearls employ it to fix the _essence
d’Orient_ on the glass globules which form these pearls, and the Turks
set their precious stones or jewellery by means of isinglass dissolved
in alcohol along with gum ammoniac; a combination which is also employed
in this country to join broken pieces of china and glass, under the name
of diamond cement. That setting preserves its transparency after it
solidifies, if it be well made.
It is by covering taffety or thin silk with a coat of isinglass that
court plaster is made. A solution of isinglass coloured with carmine
forms an excellent injection liquor to the anatomist. M. Rochen has made
another pretty application of isinglass. He plunges into a limpid
solution of it, made by means of a water bath, sheets of wire gauze set
in window or lamp frames, which, when cold, have the appearance of
glass, and answer instead of it for shades and other purposes. If one
dip be not sufficient to make a proper transparent plate of isinglass,
several may be given in succession, allowing each film to harden in the
interval between the dips. The outer surface should be varnished to
protect it from damp air. These panes of gelatine are now generally used
for lamps instead of horn, in the maritime arsenals of France.