This metal seems to have been a great favourite with the ancients, and its use is probably of greater antiquity than that of any other. It is mentioned in the Old Testament. Even during the Trojan war, we learn from Homer, that the combatants had no other armour, than what was made of bronze, a compound of copper and tin; and it is asserted, that the Greek and Roman artists of antiquity, executed some of their fine works of sculpture by means of copper instruments; hence, it has been supposed, that the people of those remote ages possessed the secret of rendering this metal as hard as steel.* be found in abundance. At Sandlodge, in Shetland, a copper-mine was wrought in 1803; and, to turn our eyes from the northern to the southern part of our globe, we find that a copper-mine has been recently discovered in New South Wales. Many valuable veins of copper have been wrought in this island. In Cornwall, they frequently accompany the veins of tin, and in Wales, where the greatest quantity is obtained, there is a mountain about a mile in length, yet so extremely rich in copper ore, that may be said chiefly to be composed of it-the greater part being dug out in the manner of an open quarry. Ores of copper are occasionally found in the lead mines in different parts of Scotland, but sometimes they have been met with in such abundance as to constitute the predominant ore. In the sister island, there are extensive copper-mines at Cronebane and Ballymurtagh, in the county of Wicklow,-from the former of which, it is said above 1800 tons of ore were exported in the year 1800. Verdigris is a rust, or oxide of copper, and among the different alloys, we may mention brass, pinchbeck or Princes metal, Dutch gold, bronze, and the metal of which cannon are made, bell-metal, and white copper. U 3 CHAPTER XVI, MALLEABLE METALS CONTINUED. Iron, a most abundantly diffused Metal-May now be said to exist in every form in which metal is found-Useful properties of—different forms in which it is used-substances produced from.-Tin -Lead-Nickel-Zinc-The newly discovered Malleable Metals. "Hence, dusky iron sleeps in dark abodes, -DARWIN. BUT, if the ancients had their favourite metal in copper, so have the moderns theirs in Iron, which, as has been observed, we may justly reckon the most valuable, as being the most useful of all metals, and is, through the wise ordination of our bountiful Creator, not only almost universally diffused, but is one of the 'most abundant of all metals. Indeed, now that the existence of native iron has been established, and placed beyond a doubt, this invaluable metal may be said to exist in every state in which metallic bodies are found to exist,—and, although it has not yet been discovered of any very considerable magnitude in its native, or purest state, we may form some idea of the wonderful extent to which it is spread out in one of its forms, viz. as one of the usual accompaniments of coal. When we consider, in the words of an eminent mineralogist, that, "the best of all iron-stone, which is found in thin strata, and also in detached glebes and nodules in the argillaceous strata which accompany seams of coal, abounds in all parts of Scotland where any strata of coal have been discovered."* In this, and the other forms, in which this metal makes its appearance, it may be said to exist in every soil, and in every kind of rock, in a smaller or greater proportion; and being, as was before observed, so universally diffused, may also be considered as the produc tion of every region of the earth;-Nay, startle not, And as an instance of its diffusion over a particular coal tract, at no great distance from our own doors, the same authority goes on to state, that "this species of iron-stone is found upon both sides of the Frith of Forth, from the east of Fife and opposite, all the way up to Stirling, a length of more than 50 miles; and, in a great many places, it is found quite down to the shore, and within flood-mark. Upon the north side of the Forth, the coal-field, and, of course, the iron-stone field, is generally about 8 miles broad from the shore inland. The iron-stone in this extensive coal-field is very plenty, and very good; and it is all entire, excepting a very little which the Carron Company have picked near the shore, and a considerable quantity which they have taken from Pitfirran, The iron-stone upon the south side of the Forth, is found as abundant, and as good, as upon the north side, with this addition, that, in many places, the coal and iron-stone field upon the south side is more than double the breadth of the other. The greatest part of this south field, reaches from the banks of the Forth all the way to the south side of Ayrshire, where it is more than six times the breadth of that upon the Fife side of the water." "The Mid-Lothian coal and iron-stone field, reaches from the south shore of the Forth, nearly 20 miles up the country towards the southwest; and it is pretty equal in breadth, being every where about twelve or thirteen miles across." gentle reader! iron is not only said to be the ingre dient that gives to chalybeate springs their virtue, but is asserted to form a constituant part of the substance of plants, and to be found in the blood of animals! * The extraction and manufacture of the ores of iron commenced at a very early period in this country; and towards the close of the last century, numerous exten sive establishments have been made in various parts of the kingdom.+ * In the words of Malte Brun, “ Iron is profusely distributed throughout Nature. It enters either as a colouring, or a combining principle, into a great number of mineral substances; it is a stranger neither to vegetables, whose tints it enlivens; nor to animals, upon whom it exerts a salutary influence. As an insulated substance, it is found in almost every part of the ancient continent; it is, however, more common, or, at least, accessible to our researches, in the north temperate zone; particularly towards the northern part of it." What a quantity of iron is contained in the mountains of Scandinavía alone! The mountain of Taberg, to the south of Sweden, presents only one entire mass of this mineral. The north of Asia equally abounds in iron;—the imperfect accounts which we have received of Canada, and the northern parts of the United States, inform us, that these regions are provided with excellent iron. Southern Africa, it would seem, abounds still more in iron. No kind of rock, or earth, is a stranger to it. It is found in granite, in detached masses;-in schist, in a thread-like form ;-in the freestone, in beds ;-it exists in mud, and turf." The ores of iron are met with in great abundance in the county of Cumberland, where there is a band of solid ore 24 feet thick; but the largest iron-works in England are carried on in Colebrooke Dale, in Shropshire—a spot which possesses peculiar advantages, the ore being obtained in abundance from the hills adjacent-the coals from the valley below-and plenty of limestone, an article used in the smelting of the ore, from the quarries in the vicinity-this happy combination of so many substances, all contributing in such an essential France contains also numerous establishments of the kind. Spain has its principal ones, in the provinces of Biscay and Catalonia. Many parts of Germany have been long celebrated for the great abundance and excellent quality of their iron,-but the great superio rity of Swedish iron over all others, in the manufactur ing of steel, seems to have given it a celebrity, which it will not be easy to surpass.* manner to the manufacture of iron, must render Colebrooke dale busy scene. In Scotland there are several considerable establishments; but the most important and extensive of the whole, and, indeed, it may be said, of any in Britain, or in Europe, is that at Carron, in Stirlingshire; where about 1600 workmen were employed in 1817, and, on an average, consumed weekly 800 tons of coal-400 tons of iron-stone and ore, and 100 tons of limestone. This extensive establishment, which astounds the passing traveller by its noise through the day, and lights up, with its blasts, the surrounding country at night, has no less than 5 smelting furnaces, 3 cupolas, 15 air-furnaces, with a steamengine of 90 horse power, besides other machinery driven by water. * The Island of Elba has been long famous for one of the riches iron-mines in the world, the existence of which appears to have been known from the most remote ages of antiquity. The Uralian chain of mountains in Siberia, so rich in other me. tallic ores, contains also valuable iron-mines, from which a great part the iron employed in Russia and other places of Europe is derived; and, although we know little of the produce of South America, as yet, in this respect; there are numerous iron-works, some of them upon an extensive scale in the northern parts of the transatlantic continent. "Mines of this metal," observes a modern, and contemporary writer, are worked in New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. The number of furnaces, forges, and bloomeries, in 1810, was 530; and the value of the iron manufactured annually, was estimated at twelve or fifteen millions of dollars." 66 § Gazetteer of Scotland, Edin. 18mo. 1817. |