For a long time iron was only used in its malleable form. The discovery of cast iron was not a prime necessity, since its place was well supplied by bronze. Historians tells us that cast iron was discovered about the time of the invention of gunpowder. It was used for making shot, and afterwards for making the guns by which the shot were projected. The English were the first to adopt them, and tried them against the French in the battle of Crécy, about the middle of the fourteenth century.
Step by step furnaces were constructed, and almost every decade witnessed some kind of improvements in their management. Then came the invention by which steel could be manufactured on a large scale. The rapid increase in the use of iron dates, as before stated, from the general use of mineral coal.
Pages could be covered with details of the uses of iron and steel. The production and consumption of these metals amount to millions of tons annually, yet the demand never exceeds the supply. They are fast replacing timber and stone for many uses, and they are substituted for bronze in ornamental castings. No tools or weapons can be made without them. They constitute parts of nearly all machinery; and turn where we will,—wherever civilized men are to be found,—we shall see iron and steel occupying prominent places.
COUNTRIES THAT PRODUCE IRON.
Deposits of metals are found in all parts of the globe. Great Britain is rich in lead, and tin, and iron, and in some localities gold has been discovered. She furnishes other countries with some of her metals, and those which she does not find in sufficient quantities for her own wants she brings from abroad. Many of the metallic ores of other countries are sent to England to be smelted and reduced. On the continent of Europe there are copper mines, silver mines, iron mines, and mines of nickel, zinc, and tin. Some of the deposits of metallic ores are very great. In one place in Swedish Lapland there is a hill rising out of the swampy ground, where there are veins of iron ore, some of them two hundred feet in thickness. Belgium, in proportion to her size, produces more iron than England. Along the valley of the Rhine and its tributaries there are rich deposits of the various metals, some of them of great extent. Russia is rich in mines; and as we go from European to Asiatic Russia, we find that the richness continues.
France has large supplies of iron, and on a small scale she possesses the other metals. In Spain there is great mineral wealth, and some of the mines of that country have been exploited for thousands of years. The most celebrated quicksilver mine in the world is that of Almaden, situated in Spain; and it has been continually worked for three thousand years. Until the discovery and working of the New Almaden quicksilver mine, in California, the famous mine of Spain controlled the quicksilver market of the globe. In Northern Italy there are many districts rich in metallic ores. Throughout Asia, from the Arctic to the Indian Ocean, there are mines of all the metals, some of them of great richness. Mining industry in that part of the world is still in its infancy, and great discoveries and great progress may be looked for within the next hundred years.
In Africa, as well as in Asia, there are rich mineral deposits, though comparatively little is known about them. The new world is not behind the old in its mineral wealth. Every known mineral substance is found here; and there are evidences that the mines were worked thousands of years before Columbus made his famous voyage across the Atlantic. Some of the largest metallic veins in the world are in America.
Mexico, Peru, and other Spanish settlements on this side of the globe are almost unparalleled in richness. California alone has furnished an immense amount of gold to the hard money circulation of the world, and is destined to furnish still more.
SILVER IN AMERICA.