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 10s. 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.