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.
COPPER MINES.
Copper (from cuprum, a corruption of cuprium, from the island of Cyprus, whence it was formerly brought) was known at a very remote period; and in the early ages of the world, before iron was extensively in use, was the chief ingredient in domestic utensils and instruments of war. It is abundant; and is found both native and in many ores, the most important of which are the varieties of pyrites, which are sulphurets of copper and iron. The genus copper includes some thirteen species, and each of these contains several varieties.
The purest copper obtained in Europe, is the produce of the mines of the Swedish province of Dalecarlia. The following is a brief description of the principal of these immense and gloomy caverns, all of which boast a high antiquity.
The traveler’s curiosity is first attracted by the hydraulic machines which convey the water to the different quarters, and the power of which is such, that one of the wheels has a diameter of not less than forty-four feet. Another wheel, of proportionate magnitude, is employed to raise the ore from the mine to the surface of the earth, and is admirably constructed. Regular circles are placed on each side, and round these the chain rises, taking a larger or smaller circumference, in proportion to the necessary circle to be made, so as to counterbalance the weight, and consequently the increased motion of the bucket.
Exteriorly, a vast chasm of a tremendous depth presents itself to the view. This being the part of the mine which was first opened, either through the ignorance or neglect of those who had then the management of the works, the excavations so weakened the foundations of the hill, that the whole fell in, leaving a most chaotic scene of precipitated rocks, and a gaping gulf resembling the mouth of a volcano. Great care has been since taken that no such disaster should again occur. Plans and sections are drawn of all the galleries, &c.; and where the prosecution of the works in the same direction might be dangerous, orders are issued for the miners to stop, and an iron crown is fixed on the spot, as a prohibition ever to proceed further. The workmen then explore in a different direction, while every subterraneous excavation is nicely watched.
The traveler passes into the great chasm by a range of wooden steps, which cross, in a variety of directions, the rough masses of fallen rocks, of gravel, and of the ancient machinery. Ere he reaches the entrance of the cavern, he has to descend nearly two hundred feet, and this being accomplished, proceeds horizontally to a considerable distance within. He now loses the pure air of day, and gradually breathes an oppressive vapor, which rolls toward him, in volumes, from the mouths of a hundred caves leading into the main passage. He now feels as if he were inhaling the atmosphere of Tartarus. The Swedish iron mines which have been described, are mere purgatories when compared with this satanic dwelling. The descent is performed entirely by steps laid in the winding rock; and, in following the subterraneous declivity, the traveler reaches the tremendous depths of these truly Stygian dominions.