■»•*■■ 1^ / ■ *fe r'fciMri Gfatttell Mtttueratttj Hthrarg 3ltt;aca. New ^oth CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 094 207 259 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924094207259 PAVILION AND MODEL OF KIGHTY-TON STKAM I.AMMKR. Schneider if Co., Cremof. (For description, seo page 7.) [l<"iouti8piec.6 to vol. nxj IRON AND STl^lEL EXHIBITS. HON. DANIEL J. MORRELL. 1 P K VOL. 3 I Extract from the OfScial Classification.] FIFTH GROUP.— MINING INDUSTRIES, RAW AND MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS. Class 43. — Mining and Mbtai-hirgt. Collections and specimens of rocks, minerals, ores. Ornamental stones. Hard stones. Refractory substances. Earths and clays. Varions mineral products. Raw STilpliur. Rock salt ; salt from salt springs. Mineral fuel : various kinds of coal, coal-dust, and compressed coal. Asphalt and rock asphalt. Bitumen. Mineral lar. Petroleum, etc. Metals in a, crude state: pig-iron, iron, steel, cast steel, copper, lead, silver, zinc, etc. Alloys. Products of washing and refining precious metals, of gold-beating, etc. Electro-metallurgy: objects gilt, silvered, or coated vrith copper, steel, nickel, etc., by the galvanic process. Products of the working of metals: rough-casting, bells, wrought iron, iron for special purposes, sheet-iron and tin plates, iron plates for casing ships ann construc- tions, etc. Sheet-iron coated with zinc or lead ; copper, lead, and zinc sheets, etc. Manufactured metals: blacksmith's work, wheels and tires, unweldcd pipes, chains, etc. Wire-drawing. Needles, pins, wire ropes, wire work, and wire gauze, perforated sheet-iron. Hardware, edge-tools, ironmongery, copper, sheet-iron, tin ware, etc. (Jther metal manufactures. [The writer desires to acknowledge the valuable assistance of Mr. James M. Swank, the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association, in the collection of the historical and statistical information contained in this report.] REPORT ON THE IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS AT PARIS. The joint resolution of Congress, apprjved December 15, 1877, in relation to the TJni\-ersal Exposition of 1878 at Paris, provided for the appointment by the President of twenty commissioners additional to the Commissioner-Gen- eral, and on the 12th day of February, 1878, I had the honor to be appointed one of these commissioners. The Exposition was opened to the public on the 1st day of May, and was closed on the 10th day of November. A large portion of the intervening time I spent at Paris or in visit- ing such industrial centers as would afford needed informa- tion in the preparation of this report. By arrangement ^jj^'^p™^^^!^^*^" with the Commissioner-General I undertook the consider- pecta^JI 'turiroii tion of the commercial and business aspects of the iron and ™'^g^'<=o' ^d'^""" steel industries as they were represented at the Exposition, and such observations as I may submit in the following pages will be strictly in accordance with this understand- ing, leaving to others the presentation of facts and opinions affecting the purely technical and scientific aspects of these tecimioai*" *'^'' industries. A few preliminary remarks of a general nature will, however, be permitted. In strong contrast with the action of our government in ciSlon^by^^tSi regard to the Philadelphia Exhibition, the French Govern- ^^Tof tleTro'- ment, rightly appreciating the benefits to be derived fromlfg*"'^ Exposi- international displays of industrial products, promptly re- solved that the Exposition should be held, and assumed the expense of its creation and management. The people, thus encouraged and thus directed, labored with a patriotic pride and a concentration of effort worthy of all praise to secure its successi. Every branch of the government and all classes iBterest."^ ''"^'"' of the people realized that the honor, the glory, and the welfare of Prance would be promoted by the Exposition, and there were therefore no serious impediments placed in its way and no jealousies engendered to cast reproach upon the French name. Tlie Exposition was as completely sue- Ex^o'Stion"^ *'"'' cessful as all France desired that it should be, and France 3 4 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT I'ARIS, 1878. is richer to-day, her people are more generally employed, and her fature is brighter than if it had not been held. The part taken by France in supplying contributions to her own Exposition was such as would naturally result from the favorable conditions above mentioned; it was most creditable to her resources and to the skill of her industrial Good exhibits classes. With one exception, the part taken by every other by most oi: tho . , . , ,• • x i - +1 T? progressive "a- progressive industrial nation which participated m tne xux- position was also in the main adequate and satisfying. The The United -jjQited States formed the exception; neither her natural ''o°- resources nor the mechanical skill and achievements or ner people were adequately represented. It will be for others to state all the reasons for this inadequate display; I desire merely to add my testimony in emphasizing the fact that all the nations which made adequate displays of their products at Paris commenced to prepare their exhibits at an early day after the holding of the Exposition was determined upon. France, Great Britain, Sweden, Eussia, Austria, " Italy, Belgium, and the Australian colonies were in the van of preparation ; only tho United States, of all the leading industrial nations of the world, lagged behind. Our dis- Ouioxbibitgood play, although with few exceptions excellent in quality, was "dequateiinquan-uot sufQcieut in extent, and not therefore fully representa- 1 yan, vane y. ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Varied rcsources. It would seem to be demon- strated by our incomplete exhibits at Vienna and Paris that Tho importance we have not Tct fullv awakened to the importance of inter- to our foreign . , . ,' .,,.,.. -rn .i . • -i commerce of a national industrial exhibitions. If the American people ourproduo'ts'atin- were more thoroughly in earnest in this matter the govern- bitions. ' ment would also be. If we would widen the area for the consumption of our agricultural and manufactured products, and if we would increase our commerce, we m ust not sit with folded»hands and wait for customers to come to us, but swiftly as opportunity offers go in search of them. May we not learn wisdom in this matter from that mother country which has taught us so much already? At all the interna- tional exhibitions that have yet been held the products of ar^^aiwa™"^ miy ■^"*^*^ workshops Were Well represented, and upon each ??P9?t' *?*'"> 0^- occasion were second only to the exhibits of the countrv hibltsotthoconn- ,,,,-,..,,. ^■' try where the ex- which had luvited their competition. hibition is held. Approaching the subject of the iron and steel exhibits at iiSatin'^^^d!-'^^™' ^*^® proper at the beginning to say that so compli- orn iron and steel cat ed and expensive are the modern processes for convert- procosses at ex- . . . , . „ , „ „ r^'-^ tibitions. mg irou Ore into partially or wholly finished products that they are practically excluded from all international exhibi- tions ; while, even if exhibited, they could not, for obvious reasons, be shown in operation. Other manufacturing pro- IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 5 cesses, notably such as relate to tlio productiou of textile fabrics, were freely displayed at Paris. Of the machinery . Lack of exiiib- conuected with the manufacture of iron and steel, and the conncoTed wltK designs and models of such machinery, there was compara- of iron and stoei tively little on exhibition to suggest that marvelous mechan- ical and scientific progress which is well known to charac- terize to-day the industrial development of all iron making countries. More perhaps than any other great industry , , , Exhibits *■ " ° ■•' showed the fruits that which embraces the manufacture of iron and steel was of the mannfact- ^_^.. . uro rather than represented at Pans by its fruits ranher than by its methods, tiio niethods. But how numerous, and varied, and wonderful were these fruits ! Of machinery used in other manufacturing indus- tries, and made mainly or wholly of iron and steel, the dis- play was in an economic sense the most imposing feature of the Exposition. Indeed, the presence of labor-saving ma- chinery and its products was the great industrial base, and pillar, and crown of the Exposition, as it had been of other recent international exhibitions. It may here be remarked that on the Continent of Europe, I'ho manufact- ^ ■*- ' uro ot iron and and to a certain extent in Great Britain, the manufacture st^ei -with the ' manufacture of of heavy machinery, railway rolling-stock, steam-engines, heavy machinery . , ' . *^ „ ' -, . ' intheaameestab- milltarj' material, etc., is more generally conducted in con- ushment common nection with the manufacture of iron and steel than in this ™ ™°''"' country. Locomotives, railway cars, and ordnance, for instance, are not manufactured by a single establishment in the United States which makes iron and steel, but in Europe the combination of industries indicated is frequently met. Whether the economical results are satisfactory or not is simply a question of administration ; but the fact is to be noted that the European system of consolidating industries has scarcely an existence in the United States. The genius of our institutions, the varied resources of our country, and its vast extent are influences which encourage individual enterprise and a separation of industries. COUNTRIES WHICH PEODUCB THE MOST IRON „i,i„i^ °°p™S AND STEEL. SdirZf' '''^^ ■ The leading iron and steel producing countries of the world are as follows, in the order of their prominence : (1) Great Britain. (2) United States. (3) Germany. (4) France. (5) Belgium. (6) Austria-Hungary. (7) Russia. (8) Sweden. These countries produce more than 98.5 per cent, of the world's annual increase of iron and steel. All were repre- sented at the Paris Exposition except Germany. All other UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. countries unitedly produce less than 1.5 per cent, of the an- nual increase. The iron resources of most of these coun- tries were, however, represented at Paris. The following table of the total annual production of pig-iron and cast- ings from furnaces and of steel is compiled from the latest statistical data accessible. The tons used are English tons, of 2,240 pounds. statistics of the production of pin'-iron and atecl. 1 Cafit and pig iron. j Steel. Country. Tear. Prodnction, tons of 2,240 pounds. Per cent, of! Vear. total. ! i Prodpction, tons of 2,240 pounds. Per cent, of total. 1878 1878 1876 1878 1876 1876 1875 1876 1877 6, 300, 000 2, 301, 215 1, 816, 672 1,417,073 562, 086 443, 680 420, 035 346, 955 200, 000 43.63 16.67 13.16 10.20 4.07 3.21 3.04 2.51 1.45 1878 1878 1876 1R"8 1877 1876 1875 1876 1877 1, 100, 000 733, 000 384, 159 281, 801 100, 000 113, 152 12, 720 23, 692 20, 000 39.70 United States 26.53 Germany, includinffGraud Uuohy of Luxemburg. .. France Belgium AustriarHungary 13.87 10.17 3.01 4.08 .46 .86 .72 Total 13,807,725 100. 00 2, 770, 524 100.00 PRANCE. Eemartabie By far the finest exhibit of iron and steel and their of iixinand steel, products ever made by France was made at her own Expo- sition in 1878. Her exhibit of iron and steel proper was also greatly superior in size and variety to that made at the same, or at any previous international exhibition by any other country. It excited the astonishment and elicited the admiration of all who thoughtfully examined it, for few who looked upon it had before realized how largely French skill and enterp^se had been enlisted in the manufacture of the more hnished forms of iron and steel. In the manufacture of crude iron, castings, bar-iron, iron and steel rails, and some other heavy products, the world had known, at least since the Paris Exposition of 1867, that France was largely engaged, and that in their skillful and economical produc- tion she was not behind any other nation ; but at the Ex- Great increase position of 1878 shc showed that in the manufacture o*" the and improve- -i i ^ n ■ -. nient since 1867. most advanced forms of iron and steel aud many of the I)roducts derived from them she had been enterprising and successful beyond all expectation. At Vienna, in 1873, and at Philadelphia, iu 1876, France made a very poor display of her iron and steel resources and capabilities. For this the destructive war from which she had but recently emerged was doubtless the principal cause. But in 1878 she came grandly into line with other iron and steel producing nations IRON AND STKEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 7 of the first rank, her steel exhibit being especially notice- '^"^''""- able and surprising. Of the various exhibits made by the iron and steel makers of France, that of Schneider «& Co., of Creusot, was the J°l;°«^^«';'^co., most conspicuous and the most complete. It was closely followed by the exhibit of the Terre Noii'e Company, and it Torre Noire. in turn by the exhibit of the Saint-Chamond Company, samt-chamoad. Each of these exhibits was displayed in a pavilion erected in the immediate vicinity of (he main Exposition building, that of Schneider & Co. being the largest special building attached to tne Exposition. In the Creusot exhibit the object which first attracted the creusot. visitor's attention, at the entrance to the pavilion, was the wooden model of the immense 80-ton steam-hammer finished steam-hammor. at Creusot in 1877.* This hammer is the largest in the world, and is said to possess more than three times the power of the celebrated 50-ton Krupp hammer at Essen. A hundred- ton forging may be turned with ease upon its anvil by means of its four powerful cranes. The large sum of $500,000 is said to have been the cost of this hammer and its accessories and of the building erected for it at Creusot. Scarcely less wonderful as a metallurgical monster was the Siemens-Mar- ,. siamens-Mar- tin steel ingot, cast by the same company in April, 1878, and weighing 120 metrical tons, a wooden model of which was placed on exhibition. By the side of this ingot stood another wonder — a massive armor plate, 13 feet 10 inches Armor pw.c long, 8 feet 6 inches wide, 2 feet 7 inches thick, and weigh- ing 65 metric tons. This plate was intended for a ship's turret. Somewhat in the same line as the objects above noticed was a marine engine of 2,640 horse-power, with Marine engine. three upright cylinders, one of 5.49 feet and each of the others of 6.10 feet in diameter. Eight boilers were provided to supply the steam. The weight of the engine was 290 metric tons, and that of engine and boilers was 480 tons. There was also exhibited an exceptionally large cast-steel shaft for a screw-propeller, for a French naval vessel. This sorew-propei- ler sUaft forging was 60 feet 4 inches long and 17 inches in diameter, and weighed 44,651 pounds, or about 20 tons. There were many other exhibits in the Creusot pavilion which indicated great facility in the manufacture of heavy machinery and warlike material for use on land or sea. There were also locomotives, iron and steel rails, plates, sheets, and wire, steel tires, iron bars, angles, and beams, and many other iron and steel products — all of good quality. A model of a modified Danks puddling machine was also exhibited, Danicapnddier. * See frontispiece. 8 UliriVEESAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. '"'^'™- with various products. Tliis modification orercomes diffi- culties in machine puddling heretofore experienced in Eng- land and the United States, and it practically dephosphorizes the iron worked in it. It represents a step forward. Two creusot. of thesc inacMnes are regularly at work at Oreusot, giving good results, each of them producing 20 tons iu 24 hours. A circular steel plate, about 90 inches in diameter, attracted Models and attention. Models and drawings of bridges, engines, mines, rawmgs. worMugmeu's houses, etc., and of the town of Oreusot itself, were liberally distributed throughout the building, as were also samples of the ores, coal, and refractory materials in The finest iron use at Crcusot. The whole display was most imposing, and ever made. was the flnest Single exhibit of iron and steel ever made at an international exhibition. The works of Schneider & Co. are mainly situated at ^^worksatcreu Oreusot, in the department of the Sa6ne-et-Loire, where a Bessemer plant of 6 eight-ton converters, a Siemens-Mar- tin plant (both commenced ia 1869), blast furnaces, plate mills, gun factory, mines, e.tc, are located ; but their loco- motive, boUer, bridge-bmlding, shipbuilding, and marine and at Chalons- works are sltuatcd at the neighboring town of Chalons, on sur-Sa6ne. ° " ' the river Sa6ne. There are also coal and ore mines, brick works, etc., elsewhere. The ground occupied by the fur- naces, rolling mills, steel works, constructing shops, and other buildings used by the company at Creusot and Chalons Area occupied covcrs 60 acrcs ; and the total area occupied by the works, dwellings of workmen, and railroads at the works is 1,068 EaUway and acres. The uumbcr of miles of railroad operated is 188, rolling-stock. upon which 27 locomotives and 1,518 cars are used. In all departments of the company's works th?re are in use 281 EnErines iind engines other than locomotives, 58 steam-hammers, and tools ' . ' 1,050 steam-machine tools. In the last fiscal year there Production of wcro produccd 549,000 metric tons of coal, 155,000 tons of pig-iron, 126,000 tons of wrought iron and steel ; and 25,000 ton s of iron and steel products in the constructing shops. In the same year 400,000 tons of iron ore were consumed in 13 blast furnaces. These furnaces are from 72 to 82 feet high, and are supplied with Whitwell and Cowper fire-brick stoves and with immense blowing engines. AU the Bessemer ir(fti is run direct from the blast furnaces to the converters. , In recent years the average annual production of steel raOs has Production of bccu 50,000 tous 1 of iroH rails, 20,000 tous I andoflocomo- rails and locomo- . ' ' ' ' ' ^^v^^..luv> lives. tives 100. The total sales of the company amounted to $16,000,000 in the fiscal year 1874-'75, and to $11,600,000 in the fiscal year 1877-'78. During the past ten years the aggre- Saios. gate sales have amounted to $105,000,000. The company lEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. y employs 15,000 persons. Its nominal capital is 27,000,000 "p"^™- francs, or $5,211,000. The works at Creusot were founded crcusot. in 1781, but they did not begin to assume any of their pres- ent importance untU 1836, when they passed into the hands of Messrs. Schneider Brothers & Co. The Terre IsToire exhibit, although not so large as that of Torre Noiie. Creusot, was more consecutive and instructive, in showing instructivo con- grades of steel and the results of using metalloids. It com- tfo™.*"" ''^^^^^' prised an interesting and very fuU collection of ores, coal, pig-iron, ferro-manganese, and spiegeleisen ; bent amd frac- Materials and tured bars ; polished bars and rails ; hammered, rolled, and fractured samples of various kinds of steel; cast-iron pipes of various diameters ; beams, some of w^hich were 68 feet long; galvanized iron; chains; locomotive axles; steel ingots ; solid steel castings, etc. The bent and fractured specimens of iron and steel showed the quality of these metals to be excellent. There was also exhibited a model in wood of the immense blowing engine of the Bessemer Blowing en- plant of the company at Bess§ges, and a fine drawing of the ^"'^°' large blowing engine of the blast furnaces at Tamaris ; also models, drawings, and photographs of much other ma- chinery, including photographs of the large plate train, just Plate train. completed, which will roll a plate 36.08 feet long, 8.2 feet wide, and 3.9 inches thick. But the feature of the Terre Koire exhibit which attracted most attention was the dis- play of solid steel castings, made by a process ijeculiar to soiidBteeicaat- Terre Noire, but a modification of the ordinary Siemens- ™^^' Martin process. Cannon and projectiles are the principal cannon, etc. articles made by this process, which produces a true steel free from blow-holes. The process has been briefly described to consist in the use of a silicide of manganese and iron, the silicon preventing blow-holes by decomposing the oxide of carbon which is in solution and tends to escape during solidi- fication, "while the manganese reduces the remaining silica and the oxide of iron and prevents a further production of gases by the reaction of the oxide on the carbon. About 200 tons of castings are produced monthly by this process. The works of the Terre ISoire Company are greatly scat- w;orka of Terre tered, the principal branch, however, being at Terre Noire, in the department of the Sa6ne-et-Loire. The extensive operations of the present company had their origin in the purchase of the iron mine of La Voulte, in 1810. In 1862 the erection of a Bessemer plant was commenced at Terre Noire, and in 1868 a Siemens-Martin plant was established Bessemer and at the same place. A Bessemer and a Siemens-Martin plant piaSt °^ ' ^™'™ were established at Bess^ges in 1868. The company owns 10 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. ™^'™- 19 blast furnaces and all the usual appliances of an advanced and comprehensive iron and steel establishment. It has 15 Pbnr^"*area, Sicmens-Martin furnaces, 8 Bessemer converters, 84 pud- raUway's. ' ^ling and 65 reheating furnaces, 12 steam-hammers, and 28 roll trains for iron and steel. Its buildings cover 28 acres ; it operates, with ten locomotives, 76 miles of railroad con- nected with its various works ; and it employs 7,881 persons. Two of the Siemens-Martin furnaces have a nominal capacitj^ of 15 tons each, and have miide heats of 22 tons each. Bessemer prac- In the Bcsscmer practice of the Terre Noire Company Noire." ^"^ spicgeldsen is melted in a Ponsard furnace, which requires 25 pounds of coal to melt 100 pounds of metal. One furnace ser\'es four converters, but the latter, which are on the ground floor, are small and convert only 4 tons at a heat. At Terre JSToire the metal is charged direct from the blast furnace into the Bessemer converter. At some of the blast furnaces of the company Siemens-Cowper stoves arc used. The company is noted for its production in commercial Higb-srade quantities of high-grade ferro-manganese in the blast fur- ferro-mangancse. rr^ • nace. The highest it has made contains 85 per cent, of manganese, 6.7 per cent, of carbon, and 8 per cent, of iron. Ferro-manganese of from 71 to 75 per cent, of manganese is made from ores of 36 to 40 per cent, of manganese, and with about 2.75 tons of coke to the ton of product, the blast being about 715° C. An average daily production of 11 to 12 tons is obtained in a furnace which would produce 42 tons of roiTo-siUoium. Bessemcr pig-iron in the same time. Ferro-silicium is also manufactured at Terre Noire in the blast furnace, the com- position of two samples being as follows : (1) Iron, 68.50 ; manganese, 20 ; carbon, 1.50 ; silicinm, 10. (2) Iron, 76.77 ; manganese, 14; carbon, 1.60; silicium, 7.50. The Siemena- tin piS™^'^™' Martin plant at Terre Noire is very complete and elaborate. The cost at these works of a metric ton of Siemens-Martin steel, made by the "pig and scrap" process, is given as fol- lows: Materials used in the charge, $21.80; coal, $1.94; labor, $4.10 ; total, $27.84. In 1877 the Terre Noire Com- pany produced 106,000 metric tons of coal, 200,000 tons of of iron ore, 158,000 tons of pig-iron and spiegeleisen, and 147,600 tons of cast and wrought iron and steel. * saint-chamond. The paviliou occupicd by the enterprising company of iron and steel manufacturers at Saint-Chamond, also in the department of the Sa6ne-et-Loire, was well filled with specimens of cannon and projectiles ; railroad material and marine appliances ; iron and steel beams, bars, plates, and sheets; steel tires and springs; pig-iron, spiegeleisen, iron m^itorwork.™^ ores, ctc. The company makes a specialty of railroad and IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL 11 marine work. Several locomotives and cars and a large ^^/^cij- collection of polished and fractured iron and steel rails Siunt-chamona. ■were exhibited; also car wheels of wrought iron with steel tires. Of the marine articles on exhibition several armor plates of great thickness were most conspicuous. Some of Armor plates. these were rolled much thicker at one edge than at the other, the thinner part to go under the water. The frag- ment of an iron armor plate thus rolled was shown, one edge of which was 14 inches thick and the other 9 inches; several indentations showed that, notwithstanding its thick- ness, it had been almost perforated by projectiles hurled against it. A model of the rolls by which these plates were produced was exhibited. The display of steel cannon stoei cami.m and cast- steel cannon balls was large, the tube of one can- ™ ^ *■ non weighing almost 7 metric tons. A cast-steel ingot, stceiingotsaud weighing 40 metric tons; a steel crank-axle, weighing 3^°'""' tons; a shii)'s keel of wrought iron, 49 feet long, and weigh- ing 5,170 pounds; and several l.irge cast-steel plates for various purposes, were especially noticeable. Cast-steel beams, steel disks for circular saws, thin sheets of crucible steel, bent, twisted, and fractured bars of iron and steel, and many other specimens completed a very interesting col- lection of iron and steel products. Of the models shown Models of inr there was one of a twenty- ton Pernot lurnace in use at the works. The steel made at Saint-Charaond is made in Sie- mens-Maitin-Pernot furnaces. Iron is also puddled in Per- not furnaces. The works produce beams, springs, tires, cannon, rails, armor and other plates, and merchant iron and steel. Steel beams are a specialty, and are made up to two feet in width by a peculiar universal train. The company which operates the extensive works at Saint- ,^|'a'|^,i „*™; Chamoiidhas a capital of $2,600,000, employs from 5,000 "factores. to 0,000 workmen, and manufactures from 40,000 to 45,000 tons of iron and steel annually. Its works ijroper are in five divisions, and in addition it has seven blast furnaces — four cold-blast charcoal in Corsica and three hot-blast coke near Saint-Chamond. In the main building of the Exposition and in the an- otter riencu ,.,.,, -, , ,. ,-, ■ exhibits. nexes there were exhibited the products ot many other iron and steel establishments of France, a majority of all these estabhshments in the country being represented. Speci- mens of pig-iron and iron ores from all parts of France and adjacent sources of supply were shown. Oue of the largest armor plates at the Exposition was ex- Mairei Broth- hibited by Marrel Brothers; it was 13.94 feet long, 5,24 feet Armor piates. 12 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PAEIS, 1878. gBAMcu. wide. 2.34 feet thick, and weighed 38 metric tons. It was made of puddled iron. ^MarseiiiesCom- Tjjjg Marseilles Company exhibited specimens of spiegel- eisen and ferro-manganese from its Saint Louis blast fur- naces, and also exhibited ores from Italy, Spain, and Algeria. Denain and The Dcnain and Anzin Company presented a very impos- ADzin Company. t. u t. */ a ing column of iron and steel rails and other iron and steel products, includiag iron made in a revolving puddling fur- nace of the Crampton pattern. Champagne The Champagne Company exhibited a large collection of iron ores, and of pig-iron made with both charcoal and coke. Hoitzer & Co. Jacob Holtzcr & Co. exhibited chrome pig-iron and steel, the latter showing a very flue fracture. This firm also ex- hibited a very large and complete assortment of steel bars of all sizes, as well as steel castings, tools, cannon, and raw materials. oompagnie de The Gompagnie de VHorme showed samples of wrought iron tempered in sulphuric acid to increase its tensile strength. of^A^zin °™^'"'^ ^^® ^^^^ Company of Anzin, the largest mining company in Prance, exhibited a fine model of its mines, at which are employed about 15,000 persons. This company owns about 70,000 acres of land, and produces about 2,000,000 tons of coal annually. Engines and Enqincs and ■maoliinerv. machinery. *^ *^ steam-enginee. The display made by Prance of steam-engines and loco- motives was the largest in the Exposition, and showed to great advantage. Many of the engines were in motion, and in ease of movement, smoothness of finish, and adaptation to the uses to wjiich they were applied they compared favor- ably with the best engines in use in the United States. I was especially pleased to see two Corliss engines of Prench manufacture in operation, each of about 50 horse-power. The largest engine in the Exposition building was a Prench engine of 700 horse-power. The display of pumping ma- Beet-angar ma- cMncry was large, as was also that of machinery for the ^'^' manufacture of beet sugar, which machinerj' we have not Mining maohin- yet had occasiou to make in our own country. In mining *^^' machinery the Prench department was rich, and it was ap- parent that in the working of coal mines especially the Prench had made great progress, and have probably no su- Agriouiturai periors. Of agricultural machinery the Prench display was machinery. exceedingly creditable. Although Great Britain and the United States each surpass Pranco in this field of invention, IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 13 it must be conceded that she is rapidly adopting their best con- '"'^"™- ceptions, and a field trial of competing agricultural machinery Machinery. during the summer, which I witnessed, fully attested this fact. France, indeed, manifests wonderful progress in the luick- ^^^^^i^^^ ™|^j" ness with which she perceives and the readiness with which «ig° mcohanioai ^ ideas. she accepts foreign mechanical ideas. Long ago Nasmyth, Nasmyth. the English inventor of the steam-hammer, found that Frenchmen could perceive its great advantages and possi- bilities when his own countrymen could not. Neilson's hot- Neiison. blast, invented in Scotland in 1828, was used in France in 1832 ; the manufacture of Bessemer steel, invented in Eng- land in 1857, was introduced into France in 1859 at Sireuil. The Whitwell stoves are in more general use in France than WMtweii. in England. The most recent exhibition of this progress- ive mechanical spirit is, perhaps, shown in the introduction upon at least two French railroads of the Westinghouse westmghouso. air-hrake, an American invention. In the substitution of steel for iron, now rapidly taking place in many countries, France is not behind any of her contemporaries. Tools and hardicare. TooU and hard- ware. The French display of machine tools, wood-working ma chinery, textile machinery, gas and water pipe, general cast ings, cooking ranges, saws, and edge tools, and fine cutlery was in the main praiseworthy, and in some respects unsur- passed in quality, as it was unequaled in extent and variety. English exhibitors of competing articles frankly admitted the excellence of these exhibits, and with regard to some of them they also admitted that France would hereafter fully supply her own markets, and in part supply the markets of her Continental neighbors. Iron and steel statistics. stlScT'' '*"' A pamphlet lies before me which contains a list of several hundred blast furnaces and iron and steel rolling mills in France. It is noticeable that more than one-half of the roll- roul'ngmui^'^th in g mills are connected with blast furnaces; and it is also ^i™""™^™^- worthy of remark that the iron and steel industries of France are widely distributed, showing an equally wide distribution ti,^'of ilon^and of the raw materials of manufacture and great facility in ^**^^"'''"^*"^^' procuring those of neighboring countries. Her own large supply of native ores is supplemented by the abundant sup- French ores. ply of foreign ores of extraordinary richness which are found Ores of Elba, near at hand in Elba, Spain, and Algeria ; while Belgium and'o-'ermmy™' and Germany may be drawn upon for ores of comparatively 14 UNIVEESAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. ^BAscvi. inferior quality. The substitution of Bessemer steel for iron has largely decreased the mining of native ores in France, and increased the use of Spanisli and Mediterranean ores. produclnf'^m'.In 1877 the production of the former was about 2,000,000 portations. ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ importation of the latter was 976,631 tons. In 1878 the importation was 932,284 tons. Prance exported 79,113 tons of ore in 1877, and 79,530 tons in 1878. Produotionand The auuual production of coal in France is about 17,000,000 consumption or ^ n ^ i.t^ coal in ivance. tous, the annual consumption about 23,000,000 tons, ana the annual exportation to neighboring countries about 800,000 tons, leaving about 7,000,000 tons to be imported. This de- iiciency is supplied partly from Belgium and partly from England and Westphalia. In 187G Belgium furnished 50 per cent, of the whole importation, England 36 per cent., Artificial fuel, and Westphalia 14 per cent. About 700,000 tons of artificial fuel, or briquets, are annually manufactured in France from the refuse of coal mines. The production of coal in France Coal measures, jjas doubled since 1860. The coal measures are principally found in the departments of Pas-de-Calais, 'Not6, Loire, and Sa6ne-et-Loire. Production of The productiou of pig or cast iron in France amounted to p.g.iron. 112,500 metric tons in 1819, to 266,361 tons in 1830, to 347,773 tons in 1840, to 415,653 tons in 1850, to 898,353 tons in 1860, and to 1,260,348 tons in 1866. During the years 1874 to 1877 the production was annually about 1,400,000 tons. The ex- act figures for 1878 are not authoritatively published, but the ai)proximate production for the year has been placed at furaace?*"' "^1,417,073 toiis, showiug a slight increase. In 1861 there were 472 blast furnaces in Prance, of which 282 used char- coal, 113 coke, and 77 mixed charcoal and coke. In 1872 the total number of furnaces had decreased to 270, although the production of the year was much greater than that of 1861, the substitution of coke for charcoal and the use of larger and better furnaces accounting for the decrease in the whole number. Of the 270 furnaces in 1872, only 89 used char- coal, and 46 a mixed fuel ; the remaining 135 used coke. The Production of annual production of charcoal pig-iron is now less than charcoal pig-iron. . . 100,000 tous. It IS still customary in some parts of France to make rough castings direct from the blast furnace (classed as pig in the above statistics), and in the Pyrenees iron is still made by primitive processes. Manufacture The manufacture of iron rails in Prance began about 1840, of iron rails m " ' France. and lu 1850 the production was only 23,087 metric tons. In 1860 it was 121,348 tons, and in 1869 it was 216,628 tons. In 1872 it had fallen to 129,151 tons ; in 1875 to 118,959 tons; IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 15 in 1876 to 77,420 tons ; in 1877 to 73,103 tons ; and in 1878 ""^''cg - to 53,884 tons. The production of merchant iron (not including plates Merchant imu. and sheets) amounted to 149,^ ° ' ' ■*- & Co., galvanized their galvanized sheet-iron, including a sheet 16 feet long, sheet-iron, with eight 3-inch corrugations, and of 24 Birmingham wire guage, claimed to be the largest sheet of the kind ever rolled. Other specimens of galvanized iron sheets were exhibited in the British section ; also tin and terne plates, galvanized Tin and teme and other wire, and a long list of minor iron and steel pro- -wire. ducts. The iron and steel industries of Scotland and Wales were iron and steei very meagerly represented. In Scotland there are 22 roll- Snd ana waies"' ing mills, 345 puddling furnaces, and 155 blast furnaces. In aU Wales and Monmouthshire there are over 20 rolling mills, over 800 puddling furnaces, and 174 blast furnaces. The great iron ship-building firms on the Clyde, the Tyne, Ship-baiuiing 3 XI, mi J • r^.^ • ^ -a '',,' firms not repro. and the Thames made no sign. Of iron bridges, or thesentea. parts composing them, there was no display worthy of special mention. Of the excellent coal and coke of the United Kingdom the display was ample. 22 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. GREAT liKiTAm. MochmeTy, etc. Machinery. But what Great Britain lacked in iron and steel exhibits she made up in all kinds of machinery. Her display of hibit. "* " ^^ agricultural machinery was very large, the best she ever made, but its merits were stoutly contested by French and macMnea"^*"'^''^-^™®^^''^^ exMbitors. Of mowcrs, reapers, thrashers, cul- tivators, plows, and the long line of agricultural machines and implements now regarded as essential to progressive agriculture, the British section contained a large and ex- cellent assortment. A prominent feature of the British steam-plows, agricultural machinery exhibit was the steam-plow, which has not yet been brought into use in either Prance or Amer- ica, except experimentally, although largely employed in England. The introduction of this great labor-saving ma- chine upon our Western prairies may be presumed to be among the possibilities of the near future, as may also the introduction upon American farms of another feature of Beet-sugar in- European agriculture, the beet sugar industry. In the British section there was a display of stationary, portable, steam-engines, locomotive, fire, and marine engines that was almost be- Gaiioway&son. wildering in its extent and variety. Galloway & Son, of Manchester, exhibited a 300-horse-power engine which attracted much attention. It had two cylinders, one high and the other low pressure. The workmanship was excellent. chS^CT^"''" ™*^ ^^ steam-pumps, hydraulic cranes, and other hydraulic machinery, portable forges, steam-hammers, wood-working Machine tools, machinery, and machine tools generally, the display was Appleby Bro- also large. Two steam-cranes, exhibited by Messrs. Appleby steam-cranes. Brothers, dcscrve special mention. The exhibit of textile Textilemachm- . ' * . ery. machinery was magmncent and unequaled. It has alreadiy been remarked that in the nature of things it is impossible to exhibit at an international exhibition many of the processes of iron and steel manufacture. In the British section there was, therefore, but little to sug- gest the methods by which the greatest iron and steel pro- ducing country in the world has attained its pre-eminence. whitweii stoves. A modcl and drawings of the Whitwell stoves were ex- hibited by the Messrs. Whitwell. A^Sn.^''^^"''' Messrs. Brown, Bayley, & Dixon exhibited a design of biasHpiiaratas*' Coopcr's patent apphance for utilizing the heat from Besse- mer converters, by carrying the flame through a stack or chimney into a stove containing a series of pipes, through which the blast for melting pig-iron is forced. Charles Wood. Charles Wood, of Middlesborough, exhibited models^of Furnace slag, jjig machine for the utilization of blast-furnace slag. IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 23 Francis H. Lloyd, of Weduesbury, showed samples of his gbeat sitiTAiy. patent open spray tweers for blast furnaces. Lioyd^™"'" ^' Professor Barff exhibited specimens of wrought iron made Prof. Barff. impervious to rust by his coating of black oxide. In exhibits of new or curious uses for iron and steel the patent iron railway sleeper of Charles Wood, and the patent charies wood, elastic embossed railway sleeper of P. & W. MacLellan, of p- & w. nac- . . . „ . Lellan. Railway Glasgow, may be mentioned. The superiority oi wire over sieepors. hemj)en rope for ship's cables and ship's rigging was shown in the exhibit of a wire rope by the side of a hempen one of wire rope. double the size, but of less strength. Railway car wheels ^^^ wheels. with wooden and others with paper centers were shown ; the latter are not much in use in Great Britain, or in any part of Europe, but the former are extensively used on the London, Brighton and South Coast Eailroad. Another noticeable exhibit was that of iron water-pipes galvanized Galvanized water-pipes. Upon the mside. Tin, Tm. The British display of tin and terne plates and their pro- Tm-piato maa- ■*■ ^^ ■*■ ufacture scarcely ducts was, as might have been expected, large and credit- "^?*^ g^. t"^" able. As the manufacture of these plates is strictly a branch of the iron industry, and a very extensive branch of the British iron industry, the fact may here be noted that it has scarcely an existence in the United States, the second in rank among iron-producing countries. Steel constructions. ^. S'eel construe tions. The adaptation of steel to ship-building was not shown in steel in sWp- ,T-...i -ij-i ./. . construction. the British section by the presentation oi comparative or other tests made by the British admiralty or the British Lloyd's, although experiments on a large scale, favorable to steel, had been made by both these agencies prior to the opening of the Exposition. These experiments related to the plating of the hulls of vessels and the general substi- tution in their frame- work and interior construction of steel where iron is now used. As these and earlier experiments have already resulted in the building of two steel vessels for the British Government and in contracts for the build- ing of other vessels, it is to be regretted that no record was made at Paris of the reasons that have prompted action which may lead to a revolution in the construction of both na%'al and merchant vessels, ^ot were the bridge-building steel in bridge ° ^ budding. qualities of steel fuUy illustrated at Paris by Great Britain, although her engineers have made numerous experiments in its use for this purpose. A monograph, prepared by W. 24 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. GBEAT BRITAIN. Parksr, esq., chief engineer-surveyor of Lloyd's Eegister, "w. Parker, showing the use which has been made of steel for marine boilers, was circulated at the Exposition. Progress in Great Britain is making great progress in the utilization utilization of oojro ,, .. steeL of stccl for all purposes to which it is adapted, the prefer- ence being for Bessemer and Siemens-Martin steel because BoUers. of their cheapness. Steel boilers for stationary and loco- Car wheels, motivc engines are largely manufactured. Steel car wheels have alreadj'' been mentioned. The Sheffield cutlers have Bessemer steel Commenced to use Bessemer steel in the manufacture of orea ery. gcissors and Other cutlcry. In some instances steel rail ends are used for this purpose, and in others steel of a desired quality is specially manufactured. In all railway appli- ances steel made by the Bessemer and the Siemens-Martin processes is rapidly displacing iron in Great Britain, as it is on the Continent. Iron, however, has found new friends in those inventors who have suggested its use in the construc- manent ^wa ^'^of tiou of the so-called permanent way of railroads, and vari- raiiways. qus systcms of this uew permanent way are now in daily use on the Continent. In Great Britain one or two of them have been used experimentally, and a commencement has been made in shipping iron for the construction of the per- manent way of an Indian railroad. Iron, steel, and Iron, stcel, and coal statistics. coal statistics. The story of Great Britain's wonderful achievements in the manufacture of iron and steel is best told in the statis- tics of their production; and, in this connection, the statis- tics of her coal production should not be overlooked, for it is to the existence of her immense coal deposits tliat her prominence in the manufacture of iron and steel is mainly Mateofironindue. In 1731^ ouc hundred and forty-four years ago, the total make of pig-iron in Great Britain was only 17,000 In 1854. English tons. In 1854, the epoch of the Crimean war, a quarter of a century ago, it had steadily increased to In 1871. 3,069,838 tons, and in 1871, seventeen years after 1854, this product was more than doubled, the production in that year inis72. being 6,627,179 tons. In 1872 there was an increase to In 1877. 6,741,929 tons, the highest product yet attained. In 1877 the production was 6,608,664 tons, v.iiich was somewhat less than that of 1871. To fully realize the magnitude of these figures, comparison of them should be made with the fig- ures representing the world's total production of pig-iron World's pro- in 1877. This total production was a fraction less than duction of pig- ■*■ iron in 1877. 14,000,000 tons ; tho production of pig-iron by Great Britain in that year was, therefore, almost one-half of that total IRON AND SXEEI. EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 25 But Great Britain's progress in the manufacture of steel qbeatebitais. has been much more rapid than the development of her steeimanufact- pig-iron industry. At the period of the Crimean war her i" 1^54. annual production of all kinds of steel was only about 50,000 tons, but immediately after the close of that war the Bessemer process was invented, and in 1878 no less than Production by 850,000 tons of steel were made by it alone in Great Britain, in il?"'''^'''''"*^'' In 1856 Dr. C. W. Siemens and his brother Frederick in- Siemens Bro- vented the Siemens regenerative gas furnace, and in 1864 it'egenerative it was successfully applied to the production of steel by the Martin process. In 1878 there were produced in Great Britain by the Siemens-Martin process and its near relative, si6men8''-*Martm the Siemens process, 174,000 tons of steel. The total pro- process in i878. duction of steel in Great Britain in 1878 is supposed to au^Son'^nf aS have been 1,100,000 tons, which was nearly 40 per cent, of"'^*''*- the world's production of about 2,700,000 tons in that year. 4^^?,^^^'^ p™ In producing her enormous annual yield of pig-iron Great Britain has mainly relied upon her own supplies of iron ore. In 1877 she mined 16,692,802 tons of ore, and imported ^'^^^i* "^ 1,142,308 tons, principally from Spain and Algeria, for use in her Bessemer steel works. In the same year she ex- tracted 415,000 tons of "burnt ore" from imported cupreous I'oreign "res. pyrites, principally obtained in Spain. She thus smelted in 1877 a total of 18,250,110 tons of iron ore, from which were obtained 6,608,664 tons of pig-iron. Only two dis- tricts in Great Britain — Northwest Lancashire and Cumber- land — can supply large quantities of ore suitable for-g^^cessary for Bessemer steel. The importation of foreign ores for Besse- o^as. mer purposes is absolutely necessary. The production of coal in Great Britain, keeping pace ^P*'?!' ™*i with that of pig-iron, has more than doubled since the pe- riod of the Crimean war. In 1854 it was 64,661,401 tons, and ini854. in 1875, twenty-one years afterwards, it was 131,867,105 i^^s's. tons. This product was increased in the following year to 134,125,166 tons, and in 1877 it was further increased to ^l»^^■ 134,610,763 tons. The world's production of coal in 1877 ^ worlds pro- ' ' ^ auction ot coal in has been placed at about 285,000,000 tons ; so that Great 1877. Britain produces almost one-half of this product. It is stated that the largest coal field in England, with the great- est quantity of unworked coal, is the Midland, which ex- fieid!^™* "°*^ tends from the town of Nottingham to Leeds, and is nearly 70 mUes in length. In the building of iron steam and sailing vessels Great ^™° vessels. Britain undoubtedly leads all other countries combined. The immense quantities of iron and steel and their manu- factured products which are annually exported from Great 26 GRE AT BRIT AiK. Britalii to othor countries will be seen in the following sum- mary. In 1872 the maximum of yearly exports of iron and British iron and steel and their manufactures was attained, when a total of steel mannfaot- 3^332^752 tous was exported. From 1872 to 1876 the expor- tation of these products gradually declined in quantity to 2,224,470 tons ; but in 1877 a slight increase to 2,344,651 tons took place, which was, however, not maintained in ports^lKs^isvl: 1878, when 2,299,223 tons were exported. The value of British iron and steel exports has steadily declined from £37,731,239 in 1873 to £18,393,974 in 1878. Coal exporta- The exportation of coal and coke from Great Britain to other countries gradually increased in late years until 1876, when a maximum exportation of 16,299,077 tons was attained. In 1877 the quantity sent abroad fell to 15,358,828 tons. In 1860 the exports amounted to 7,412,000. This quantity was more than doubled in 1876. About one-third of the total British production of coal is used in the home iron and steel industries. ir^and'steef °^ '^^^ importation of iron and steel into Great Britain is annually increasing. The value of the importations in 1877 reached £1,943,622. The imports of coal into Great Britain are so small as not to justify the quotation of exact figures. Railways. There were 17,109 miles of railroad in Great Britain at the beginning of 1878. GERMAMT. GEEMAJMT. statistics establish the fact that Germany is entitled to a place in the front rank of iron and steel producing countries, af "the^'^fepost ^^* "•'°® ®^ ^^^ industries were represented at the Paris tion. Exposition, and nothing could therefore be learned within its gates of the characteristics and present condition of her iron and steel manufactures. It would not be proper, how- ever, if any mention of these were entirely omitted from this report, and I accordingly present below such information concerning them as could be gleaned by personal observa- tion and by reference to offtcial or other reputable publica- tions. Since the war with France and the acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine, the German Empire, including for the purposes of this report the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, has greatly Increased pro- increased its annual production of iron and steel, the pav- daction of iron , » ,, , ,-,,.■, ., ' ' and steel. ment of the large French indemnity serving to stimulate all German industries, and Alsace and Lorraine contributing about 20 blast furnaces and several large rolling mills, steel works, and founderies. But Germany had made great pro- gress in the development of her iron resources prior to the IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 27 war witli France. She had shared the general activity germamy. caused by the ushering in of the age of steam and the age of railroads, each of which created a greatly increased de- mand for iron and its products. In 1830 Germany produced iron production only about 100,000 metric tons of pig-iron, and it was not until 1848 that this quantity was doubled, when 205,342 iiii848. tons were produced. In 1862 the production reached 524,591 i" 1802. tons, which was more than doubled six years later, in 18G8, when 1,200,188 tons were produced. In 1869, the year pre- ceding the beginning of the war with France, the produc- tion was 1,356,965 tons. In 1870 and 1871 it was practically stationary, but in 1872, after the accession of the French 1111872. provinces, it jumped to 1,927,061 tons, and in 1873 it reached a maximum of 2,174,058 tons; adding castings from the blast furnace, the production in the last year was 2,240,575 ini877. tons. The production of pig-iron declined from 1873 to 1876, in which latter year it was 1,801,457 tons ; inclading 44,888 tons of castings from the blast furnace, it was 1,846,345 tons. These statistics show more rapid progress in the Rapid progress, building up of the German iron industry than has been made in the United States. In 1848 the latter country produced ^Production m ■■ ^ United States m about 800,000 English tons of pig-iron ; and in 1873 a maxi- 1848 and t873. mum of 2,560,962 tons was reached. The increase of pro- duction in the United States from 1848 to 1873 (from 800,000 to 2,560,962 tons) was at a ratio more than trebled bv Ger- Greater relative ' '' increase in Ger- many in the same period (205,342 to 2,240,575 tons). As many. Germany has usually imported more pig-iron than she has exported, and as the accession of Alsace and Lorraine gave to her only about 230,000 tons of pig-iron annually, the greater progress of Germany from 1848 to 1873, as compared with the progress of the United States, is an interesting fact, and is creditable to the enterprise and skill of the Ger- man people and to the natural resources of the empire. The growth of the pig-iron branch of the German iron iron and steel trade down to 1873 was fully equaled in rapidity by other ™^° "^^^' branches of iron manufacture and by the manufacture of steel. In 1848 there were within the limits of the present Foundries in 1848 empire 109 foundries for iron castings, employing 5,112 workmen, and in 1875 the number had increased to 874, employing 42,134 workmen. The production of these fouii- Production of ^ iron castings. dries increased from 131,929 metric tons m 1862 to 524,137 tons in 1873, but declined to 436,104 tons in 1876. The quantity of steel of all kinds produced in 1848 was 9,024 Production of metric tons; in 1862 it was 40,916 tons; in 1876, when the maximum was attained, it was 390,434 tons. The total production of the foundries, rolling mills, and steel works 28 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. GBRMANv. of Germany was 205,133 metric tons in 1848; 1,076,476 tons Production of in 1868: 2,054,980 tons in 1874; and 1,835,224 tons in 1876. iron and steel j J ? 7 ? 7 ^p'^d f .The production of iron ore in Germany in 1848 was 693,725 ore. tons; in 1873 it was 6,177,576 tons; and in 1875 it was 4,730,553 tons. Coal and lignite. The production of coal and lignite in Germany was 5,800,985 metric tons in 1848, and 49,550,462 tons in 1876. The highest recorded production of the Dnited States was 47,513,235 English tons in 1875. Of the total production of mineral fuel by Germany in 1876, there were 38,454,428 tons of bituminous coal and 11,096,034 tons of lignite. of^Geimany'^'^ The forcgoing statistics show that the German iron, steel, iron'™'dco^''°^^°*l ^^^^ industries have been almost wholly developed during the past thirty years, and that the iron industry proper reached the culmination of its prosperity in 1873. Germany is today the third in rank among iron-making and steel-making nations. Great Britain and the United States alone outranking her, while she probably ranks next to Great Britain as a coal-producing country. Ores and coal. OveS and COol. A study of the resources possessed by Germany for the manufacture of iron and steel shows that they are both ex- Abundant. tcnsivc and varied. Iron ore and coal are abundant, and the quality of each favorably compares with that of Kke actuai^j^d^ refai products of Great Britain and Prance. The coal, which is *"" easily mined, is equal to English and Welsh coal for gen- erating steam, and the most of it yields good coke for the blast furnace. It is superior to that of Prance. The French people deserve great credit for producing good iron with Quality of ores. pQor coal. The Ore is of all varieties, and no difficulty is experienced in working it, except that which is caused by the presence of too much phosphorus in some varieties, ren- dering them unsuitable for Bessemer steel. There are com- mercial difficulties, however, which consist in the general tira^'of*TOai^md Separation of the coal and ore supplies, and in the remote- ore deposits. ness of both from centers of consumption and from the sea- Coai. coast. The coal deposits are found mainly in Silesia and Saxony, bordering on Austria, and in Westphalia and Ehenish Prussia, bordering on Holland and Belgium. The Ores. ore mines are found in the same provinces and in others lying mainly upon the interior boundary line of Germany, including Bavaria, WUrtemberg, Alsace, Lorraine, and Lux- emburg ; but wherever found they are not usually associated with the coal deposits. Eailroad and canal transportation, IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOREELL. 29 at greater or less expense, is thus rendered necessary to gbiimaky. bring the raw materials together in the blast furnace and to carry pig-iron to founderies and rolling mills. But the location of the coal and iron ore at points remote from the , Coai and ore deposits. sea-coast, and from each other, results in a still greater dis- advantage to both the coal and iron industries of Germany, by making them, in a very large degree, the prey of foreign competition, water transportation for British coal and iron Difficulties and ' ^ expense of trana- being much cheaper to German seaports and to cities upon portation. navigable rivers which flow into the North Sea or the Baltic Sea than railroad or canal transportation to the same mar- kets for the products of German mines and iron works. For the same reason these products are largely debarred from foreign markets into which they would otherwise find a ready entrance; and, for the same reason, also, the cost of foreign ores for most of the Bessemer establishments of Germany, which are in the interior, is greatly increased beyond the cost of similar ores to British Bessemer steel manufacturers. The German iron trade at present labors under stLU another difBculty, in the removal, on the 1st liemovaiof German import of January, 1877, of all import duties on iron and steel, duties oniron and The government is, however, giving close attention to the needs of the iron and coal industries. The use of native coal by the German navy is encouraged ; the cheapening of inland transportation and the increase of transportation facilities are also encouraged; and the re-imposition of. ProbaWere- ° ' '^ imposition. duties on foreign iron and steel is certain to be decreed at an early day. Furnaces. Famaoes. The number of blast furnaces in Germany in 1876 was,, statistics of ^ blast f amaces. 463, of which 297 were in blast and 166 were out of blast. Of the whole number of furnaces 338 were in Prussia, and of these 172 were in blast. The consumption of raw mate- rials in the production of a ton of pig-iron in Germany ranges from 2.5 to 2.8 tons of ore, from 2.8 to 3.2 tons of coal or coke, and from 1 to 1.5 tons of limestone. Many of the furnaces of Germany possess all the approved modern appliances, while comparatively few are wholly antiquated in style and naked in equipment. At Hof, in Bavaria, there ho^ in Bavaria. are four furnaces owned by one company, each of which is 57^ feet high, 19 feet in diameter, and supplied with four Whitwell stoves. In 1874 two furnaces, 61 feet high, and having jointly a daily capacity of 70 to 80 tons, were put in blast at Mezieres-le-Metz, in Alsace. These furnaces were , Mezjeres-ie Metz, in Alsace. provided with all modern improvements, and have Oowper- 30 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. GERMANY, giemcns hot-air stoves. Two out of four furnaces of Berge- Phoenix Com- Borbeck, belonging to the Phoenix Company at Laar, pro- duced 27,982 tons of pig-iron in 1875, or a daily average of 76§ tons. To produce this quantity of pig-iron there were Proportions of required 59,575J tons of ore, 39,151 tons of coke, and 27,365 hmeatone^'in the tons of limestone. Better results than these have been Frm"''"*""' ''^'obtained at other furnaces in Germany, but the above figures I find to have been deemed worthy of prominent mention. There is observable a vast amount of enterprise and skill in the management of the blast furnaces of Ger- Hoerdo Iron many. One of the coke furnaces of the Hoerde Iron Works Worts. "' was continuously in blast from July 3, 1855, to May 29, 1874, or almost nineteen years. German rolling mUls and steel works are also mainly projected on a liberal and progressive Krupp's Steel scalc. Krupp's Steel Works, at Essen, ia Ehenish Prussia, Works. are well known to be the largest in the world. A recent publication enumerates 16 German iron and steel companies, each of which had either absorbed over 4,000,000 marks, or , capitHi invested I j^^QQQ^QQQ^ Qj. jjad^becn Organized with a capital stock of Konig and this amouut. One of these, the Konig and Laura Hiitte, had a capital of 27,000,000 marks, or $6,750,000; another, the Union "'"^"'°°'^ Dortmund Union, 41,400,000 marks, or over $10,000,000 ; an- Donersmark- other, the DouersmarkhtLte, 18,000,000 marks, or $4,500,000; Imte. ' 111 1111 piioenis. another, the Phoenix, 16,200,000 marks, or $4,000,000 ; two Bo^humer verin. othcrs, the Hocrdc and the Bochumer Yerein, had 15,000,000 Preussische marks each, or $3,750,000; and yet two others, the Preus- westpiiaiisohe sische Company ofDusseldorfand the Westphalische Union, ^°"'°' had over 10,000,000 marks each, or over $2,500,000. These references show the large, not to say extravagant, scale on which many of the iron and steel works of Germany have been projected. ^.^^stociprodno- . Steel producUou. Germany early embarked a large amount of capital in the manufacture of Bessemer steel, although from the first the unwelcome fact was only too manifest that most of the ore suitable for its production would have to be imported, at least for some time. This disadvantage is now, however, not so great as formerly, domestic ores being mixed ito a larger extent with foreign ores in the manufacture of Bes- Besseraer steel semcr pig. The flrst Besscmer steel works in Germany were built about 1865, and in 1876 there were no less than 19 such establishments. Of these, 14 were in Prussia, 1 in Saxony, 2 in Bavaria, and 2 in Alsace and Lorraine. These 19 establish- ments contained 78 converters, of which 18 were embraced in Herr Krupp's works at Essen. Three additional con- IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOEEELL. 31 verters, or a total of 81, were enumerated in 1877. Only 39 converters were at work in that year, and some of them not steadily. In apparent contradiction of the praise just bestowed on the iron and steel metallurgy of G-ermany, ^.^^^^^J^p™";- figures have been produced to show that the average yield of German converters when at work is only between one- third and one-fourth that of converters in the United States. This is certainly not a creditable showing for Germany, but Superior Bes- . . , , ° ' . semer practice it may be said in extenuation that the Bessemer practice in the united of the United States is not equaled by that of any other country in the world. Even Great Britain falls far behind it. With 114 converters, a majority of which may be pre- sumed to have been active, that country produced in 1878 comparative ' *' * production per only 850,000 tons of ingots ; while the United States in the converter of Eng- same year, with 22 converters, not all of which were active, united states. produced exactly 653,773 English tons of ingots. Germany has made creditable progress in the introduction of the Sie- mens regenerative furnace and the Siemens-Martin process. The total production of all kinds of steel in Germany has ^^^*^^ steef Tn already been given for comparative years, the production <^«™™'^'™i8''^- for 1876 being 390,434 metrical tons. The exact quantity of each kind of steel which entered into this total is not at hand, but the proportion of Bessemer steel, as well as the extent to which it is displacing iron in Germany, may be inferred from the following statistics of the production of iron and steel rails in the years 1871 to 1876 : Tear. Iron rails. Steel rails. Total. 1871 Metric tons. 320,619 320, 996 385,601 364, 978 227, 976 126,288 Metric ton^. 128,406 179, 092 186, 643 237, 894 241, 605 263, 746 Metric tons. 449, 025 500, 088 572,244 1872 1873 1874 1875 602, 872 469 481 1876 380, 034 To illustrate the value of the accession to German iron„-*^dvantage3 to Gremiany of the resources and manufactures resulting from the acquisition ^jquiaitlon or of Alsace and Lorraine, the following statistics relating to raine. their largest iron-making establishment are given as I find them in a foreign journal. They relate to the works of the Messrs. De Wendel. "Their works at Hayange have been DeWendeiiron in the possession of the family ever since the year 1705. Those at Moyeuvre were started by them in 1825, while the works at Stiring Wendel were commenced in 1846. During the year 1877 these combined works produced 467,000 tons of iron ore; 322,000 tons of coal; 145,000 tons of pig-iron; 87,000 tons of puddled bars; 33,500 tons of merchant bars; •works. Production. 32 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. g"""^"^- 8,500 tons of sheet iron ; 26,700 tons of rails and sleepers ; w?rkl^™*°^''^°° 2,000 tons of small iron work for railways and mines ; 2,500 tons of iron wire; 1,400 tons of French nails; and 8,000 tons of general castings. It was stated that this production is considerably below that of the preceding year." The Messrs. De Wendel have in all 11 blast furnaces. At Moyeuvre were rolled the first rails for the first French rail- way. Both pig and bar iron are said to be produced by the Economy of Messrs. De Wendel at a lower cost than is possible at any production. other works on the Continent. Although the Messrs. De Wendel do not make steel, owing to the large quantity of phosphorus in their iron ores, they nevertheless have in use mfchanicai ™£ ^-^ the modem appliances for the manufacture of iron, in- "iiors. eluding the Bicheroux and the Siemens furnaces and Lemud's mechanical puddlers, no iron being puddled by hand. at eS.^ """^'"^ '^^® cast-steel manufactory at Essen has existed since the year 1810. It has been operated by the i)resent owner, Alfred Krupp, since 1826, and since 1848 for his sole account. Workmen. The number of workmen at the close of 1877 amounted to Area. 8,500. The works occupy about 1,000 acres, of which about 187 acres are under roof. There are in these works 1,648 gine°™Btenm ma^ ^•^1"!^°'^*^ ; ^^^ stcam-boilcrs ; 77 steam-hammers, the largest chinery. of an weighing 50 tons ; 18 trains of rolls ; 294 steam-en- gines, aggregating 11,000 horse-power, one of the largest Machine tools, having 1,000 horsc-powcr ; and 1 ,063 machine tools. When all existing facilities are employed the works can produce Productive in 24 hours 2,700 rails, which will lay llj^ English miles of track ; 350 ties ; 150 locomotive and car axles ; 180 car wheels; 1,000 railroad springs; 1,500 grenades, etc. In one month there can be produced 304 field guns and guns du'ieaT847-77.™' °^ ^^^S® caliber. From 1847 to 1877 more than 15,000 guns were produced at these works. The daily supply of coal and'oo^e. "' "''"'^ ^^^ ^^^^ required is 1,800 tons. In immediate connection with the cast-steel works are 35.J miles of railway, 24 loco- tei^'^^is' ™d motives, 747 cars, 80 horses, and 37^ miles of telegraph line, with 44 telegraph stations. At the various mines of Workmen at Hcrr, Krupp there were employed 5,300 workmen in addi- tion to those already enumerated. These mines embrace 4 Mines, home coal miucs and 562 iron-ore mines, including ore mines near and foreign. -,..... f~, . Bilbao, lu Spain. At the coal mines are 33 steam-boilers and 48 steam-engines, and at the iron mines are 30 steam- boilers, 23 steam-engines, and 2 locomotives. Four large steamers, owned by Herr Krupp, each of 1,700 tons burden, te'Snsporttag^^sides leased steamers, are engaged in the transportation Spanish ores, ^f Spanish ores to his furnaces on the Ehine. Another steamer, of 1,000 tons burden, is being constructed. Tlie lEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOREELL. 33 mines in Spain which are operated by Herr Krupp can qermamy. deliver 200,000 tons of ore annually. In addition to the Krup^'s works. cast-steel works and the ore and coal mines, Herr Krupp operates 14 blast furnaces, at which 700 workmen are em- Blastfurnaces ployed. Ten of these furnaces are of recent construction, each of which can produce an average daily product of 45 tons of pig-iron. At these furnaces are 71 steam-boilers and 48 steam-engines. Herr Krupp also owns and operates at Sayner 2 small blast furnaces for the manufacture ofworksatsayner spiegeleisen, and other auxiliary iron enterprises. The Bochum Company, at Bochura, in Westphalia, man- Booiium com- nfactures crucible and Bessemer steel on a large scale ; also steel castings and forgings, tires, axles, steel cannon, pig- iron, etc. it mines its owu coal and iron ore, and makes its own spiegeleisen. The Bessemer plant embraces 7 convert- Bessemer plant. ers. Oast-steel bells, made of crucible steel, have long Cast-ateei beiis. formed an interesting specialty of the works of this com pany. Another specialty is the castinj; of steel in molds by the method invented by Jacob Meier, its technical direc- Meier's proucs« ^ ^ ' of casting steel m tor, and which remained for many years the exclusive prop- molds. erty of the company. The process of casting steel in ibrms for use has been perfected and largely practiced in Ger- many, which country may also be said to have given the greatest impetus to the use of cast steel as a substitute for iron axles and tires upon railways. Werner, at Carlswerk, wemev's oast- is claimed to have been the first to make cast-steel axles of good quality, and Krupp invented weldless cast-steel tires. Knipp's wew- Germany has been very prominent in the substitution of tires. iron for wood in the building of cars for railroads, in the iron raUway constru(;tion of permanent way for railroads, and in the construction of i^ublic buildings and dwellings, telegraph poles, props for mines, etc. The Messrs. De Wendel are running two trains of rolls constantly on iron railway sleep- iron railway rt 1 slfispGrs. ers, and have produced many thousand tons of them. Machinery, tools, cutlery, etc. tools, ^tit^et^: ' In the manufacture of machinery, machine tools, cutlery, edge tools, hardware, common and fine castings, and mis- cellaneous iron and steel products Germany showed at Vi- enna in 1873 that her people had not neglected the cultiva- tion of the rare mechanical aptitudes which they are known to possess. In some specialties, as the manufacfture of wire ws™ and acis- _ „ ' , . sois. and scissors, German manufacturers have no superiors. Westphalian wire has a world-wide reputation. In West- phalia are also manufactured for domestic and foreign mar- kets large quantities of anvils, axes, agricultural imple 3 P E ^VOL 3 34 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PAKIS, 1S78. SEBMAMY. ments, tools, chains, etc. At Berlin are some of the most Works at Bev- extcnsivc manufactories of machine tools, locomotives and Im. other engines, agricultural machinery, and beet-sugar ma- chinery in the world. Germany is a large exporter of xextiiomachin- machine tools. In the manufacture of textile machinery, as of textiles themselves, Germany occupies an advanced po- sition, and to its perfection she has contributed many ia- Locomotives. veutions of her own. In the building of locomotives she has achieved great distinction, and in the supply of neigh- boring Continental countries she has met with much success. In twelve locomotive works in Germany over 1,000 locomo- tives have been built annually. At the large locomotive Albert Borsig. works of Albert Borsig (recently deceased), at Berlin, 1,031 locomotives were manufactured in the six years prior to April, 1873, of which 300 were sent to Eussia. This large establishment and an auxiliary establishment in Up- per Silesia, under the same ownership, manufacture the pig- iron, rolled iron, steel, boiler plate, axles, etc., required in the construction of locomotives, and besides supply large quuiitities of these articles to the German market. Siemens- steei works in Martin stccl is largely made at the works in Upper Silesia. Upper Silesia. c * * ^ The number of workmen employed at these latter works in 1876 was 3,500, and the number of steam-engines was 45, representing 4,400 horse-power. The works at Berlin are of corresponding magnitude. trad?*""™ ™" ^^ German iron trade. Schneider s re- M. Henri Schneider, the head of the great firm of Schnei- alnnaii iron in- der & Go., at Crcusot, in France, is credited with the fol- dustty. lowing declaration before a government legislative commis- sion, in February, 1878, concerning the German iron trade : " There are a number of articles in wMcli Germany competes with us with greater effect and is a more dangerous rival than England. The German makers are our chief competitors, and I attribute their formid- ablo development to several causes. In the first place, their industry is Germany s ad- based on excellent natural conditions. Germany possesses verv con- ■■■vantages of min- eral wealth, fa- siderable mineral ■wealth, developed under healthy conditions, quite ■tioiMof develro- ''^^'^P**'°'^®°*^y "^ ^ '^^ speculations which of late years have increased ,.ment, the production. In certain provinces, as, for instance, Nassau^ and near Siegen, there arc special kinds of ore producing a certain quality of iron under most advantageous conditions. Germany has now, too, in Lorraine, the finest deposits in the world for making iron cheaply. I thiuk that ordinary pig-iron can be made cheaper at the present time in Lorraine and Luxemburg than in any place in the world. For iron ■ tMid cheaj) sea- ores, imported by German makers from Spain for their important make ■rtS of trans- of steel, they enjoy very advantageous sea-carriage rates, and from sea- portation. ports the forwarding rates into the interior are remarkably low." IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOEEELL. 35 This is high praise from an industrial rival, but it is no- gb bmaot. ticeable that English makers of iron and steel speak slight- ingly of "dear and bad" German iron made with ore and coal that are found at inconvenient distances, the latter al- leged to be of poor quality, and the former largely phos- phoriferous. But M. Schneider would hardly express his BrmSf "'"^'"'and dread of Grerman com])etition in French markets if he had I'jepcii opinions of G-erman iron. nothing to be afraid of; and it is just possible that English manufacturers would have a higher respect for Germany's ability to supply herself with good iron and steel, at fair prices to consumers, if she were not so good a customer for Cleveland and Scotch pig-iron and English bars. To Ger- English oxpoit ^ ^ o of iron and steel many and Holland (the latter almost wholly in transit for to Germany. Germany) Great Britain annually, during 1875, 1876, and 1877, exported over half a million tons of iron and steel. Against the revenue policy which would continue these large importations German ironmasters and their idle work- ingmen not unnaturally protest, and they ask that they shall be protected by adequate duties against the advantages possessed by British ironmasters, namely, " the sea for their roadwaj', cheap shipping, cheap machinery, cheap coal, and Argnments in the command of cheap capital." They allege that if ade- tion to German quate protection had been afforded them in late years, thednstnos.' excessive importations of iron and steel from Great Britain would not have been possible, and that their own industries and all other German industries would have measurably prospered. The anomaly is here presented of France dreading the French feax of appiehended competition in her markets of German iron and ''™™ "^ ^^' steel, and of Germany protesting against the competition, already formidable and oppressive, of British iron and steel in German markets. We have here also illustrated one phase of industrial competition from which the United States is practically free, the contiguity or proximity of the territory of an industrial rival. Germany has undoubtedly ^eS'SSst I^- suffered greatly from British competition, which was ren- ish competition. dered possible by reason of the advantages stated and the repeal two years ago of German duties on iron and steel; while Germany herself, by reason of her acquisition of the iron-making districts of Alsace and Lorraine, and for the other reasons assigned by M. Schneider, occupies a threat- ening industrial attitude toward France. It seems clear Probable result ^ were free trade that, if trade between these three countries were absolutely aUowed between- p n tt • • 1 ^ -, T -w~i -M • the three nationsv free from all restrictions, the German and the French iron and steel industries would both be injured, and those of Great Britain only would be benefited. 36 Iron and Bteel 'Statistics. UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. Iron and steel statistics. The following table will show the imports and exports of iron and steel and iron ore into and from Germany in 1876 and 1877 : 1877. 1876. Imports. Exports. Imports. Exports. Metrictons. 526,708 14, 225 6,622 49, 270 76, 034 36, 423 7,798 18, 280 4,083 3,181 3,092 4,618 603 328, 184 Metric Urns. 344, 019 19, 915 16, 145 118,443 225, 630 85, 431 4,174 21, 208 1,645 31, 791 165 5,970 1,537 804, 037 Metric tons. 571, 134 12, 520 3,946 35, 291 684 9,130 2,136 4,748 3,740 2,742 1,483 2,410 679 197, 537 Metric tons. 289,417 16,783 Steel - - 17, 792 Castinss and common hardware . . Eails 84,109 133,484 51, 176 Anglo-iron 663 11,543 Tin plate 441 15, 801 Anchors, cables, etc 273 1,616 1,328 670, 882 AU of the leading articles in the table show an increase in importations in 1877 over 1876, except pig-iron, and in this the decline was slight. Bax-iron increased from 9,130 to 36,423 tons ; angle-iron from 2,136 to 7,798 tons ; and plates and sheets from 4,748 to 18,280 tons. The heavy imports of rails in 1877 were largely in transit for Russia. The large quantity of iron ore exported does not indicate a condition of prosperity for German ironmasters, who would have pre- ferred to export it as manufactured iron. Imports of TOni, The imports of coal, coke, and lignite into Germany in many. 1877 amounted to 4,750,943 metric tons, and the exports amounted to 5,370,692 tons. The coal and coke imported were principally obtained from Great Britain ; the exports of coal, coke, and lignite were almost wholly to neighboring Continental countries. Greatextent of Germany has more miles of railroad than any other coun- railways in G,er- _,..._, many. try except the United States, exceeding even Great Britain, amounting at the beginning of 1878 to 18,828 miles. BELQIDM. BELGIUM. The iron and steel of this small but wonderfully busy country were well represented at the Paris Exposition, again illustrating the achievements of Belgian enterprise, skilly and industry in overcoming great natural obstacles. Bel- ^Abundance of gium has an abundance of coal, but it ^ow contains but little Sanrcity of ore. good iron Ore. Owing to this scarcity she is largely an im- porter of iron ore and of. pig-iron. These she converts into IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOERELL. 37 manufactured iron and steel, for which she iinds her chie f eei^ium- market abroad. Belgium, more than any other country, sus- tains an iron industry that is essentially reproductive, and^ ^Eeproductive it sustains it too by selling its products to other countries, and to some of the countries from which she derives the raw materials of manufacture. Belgium is, therefore, a work- ^^k^S^' " shop rather than a mine ; a producer rather than a consum- er. So long as she can manufacture iron and steel cheaper than other countries she will find a market for them in coun- ti'ies which have no industries of their own, or do not pro- tect those that they have. These conditions of success are not invested with the element of permanence, for countries that now take Belgian iron may learn to make their own iron or to protect their iron manufacturers who are now distanced by Belgian competition. But, dismissing the future, and having regard only to the present situation, it must be said that the Belgian iron and steel industries are to-day more Bdgian'Kon in- generally employed than those of many other iron and steel "lustrieB. pi'oducing countries. Those of Wales are perhaps the least employed. Wales was practically absent from Paris, but inactivity oi Belgium was present in force. JSTot many years ago Wales ^oi& """ regarded the Belgian iron industry with indifi'erence. There is something amazing in the comparative prosperity Causes of Bei- of Belgian iron and steel industries, with their spare natural resources, at a time when the same industries of more favored countries are experiencing more or less depression. Its causes may be found in cheap labor, long hours, the techni- cal education of workingmen, strict economy in administra- Economy in ad- tion, attention to the minutest details, and the use of the most approved labor-saving machinery. The population of Belgium is very dense (6,000,000 in 12,000 square miles), and . '^^^^^ popuia- the country is a hive of industry; there is no room for drones. Every man has his work to do, and he must be con- tent with low wages, for high wages would soon end all em-, ^i**'™' "*''*■ ployment, by destroying the ability of Belgium to compete in foreign markets. Strikes are, therefore, exceedingly rare, but when they do occur they soon terminate, for the govern- ment wiU not tolerate them. Personal economy is essential omy ™'""'^ *™°' to existence. The labor of women and children is utilized. Railroads through its own territory, favorably situated sea- ports, and a trading spirit handed down from the Middle •^"**'^™^ Ages, aid in securing foreign purchasers for Belgian manu- factures. It is thus that Belgium maintains most of her iron and steel works in operation. She utilizes all her resources ; she is industrious and frugal, and she neglects none of her opportonities. Much of the distress now existing in other 38 UNIVEKSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. BELGIUM. countries might be obviated by the practice of the same virtues, aud it would not involve the lowering of wages to the Belgian standard. l™n ™d 8'«oi Iron and steel exhibits. exni bits . As was the case at Vienna, the principal exhibit of Bel- Joim cockeriu giau iron and steel at Paris was made by the John Gockerill ociety. Society, of tieraing, five miles from Lifege. It comprised specimens of pig-irou, bar -iron, rails, beams, locomotive and boiler plates, tires, axles, forgiugs, castings, mining ma- iron, .machm-ci^inery, locomotivcs, car wheels and other railroad appli- ery, engines, &c. *' ' ' -*^ ■■■ ances, and various other products. A 40-ton eight-wheeled freight locomotive ; a 300 horse- j)ower pumping engine ; a 500 horse-power rolling-mill engine ; two sets of rolls, one of which had rolled 10,500 tons of rails ; and two rails, each 180 feet long, one of which had been twisted cold into four spirals, were among the noticeable features of this most interesting exhibit, which was especially rich in heavy ma- chinery. Specimens of the Bessemer steel manufactured by this company embraced razors, knives, swords, bayonets, tools of all kinds, screws, wire, plates, and bars. Origin of the ^^^^ works of the John Gockerill Society were established works. jj^ 1817, by John Gockerill, an Englishman by birth, but a Belgian citizen, and were at first wholly employed in the construction of steam-engines ; but in 1823 the erection of a coke blast furnace was commenced, which was blown in in Their progress. 1826. It was the first ou the Gontinent. Until 1830 it was the only furnace of its kind in Belgium. Forges and a boiler shop were built in 1823 and 1824, a puddling mill in 1826, and a foundery in 1828. From 1830 to 1 834 the works were closed, owing to political troubles. In 1835 the first locomotive anfl the first rails were made. In 1836 a second coke blast furnace was commenced, and in this and the fol- lowing year other extensions .were made. In 1838 John Gockerill became embarrassed, and in 1840 he died. In 1842 the works passed into the hands of the John Gockerill Society, and have since been greatly extended. The first Bessemer works. Bcssemcr stccl works in Belgium were erected by this coja- pany in 1862. Large purchases of iron-ore mines and coal lands and collieries have been made by it from time to time. Spanish ores. It is a large owner of iron-ore mines in Spain. The works now embrace 7 blast furnaces, with two more in course of erection; 2 large foundries; a large iron-rolling mill; a Present plant. Bessemer steel plant, with 8 converters, each of 7 tons ca- pacity, a rolling mill, etc. ; a hammer mill for large forgings; a shop for small forgings ; constructing shops for the manu- IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 39 facture of locomotives, marine and other engines, and other_ machinery ; boiler, bridge, and ship iron works, etc., etc. soSy.^""^^"'' At Hoboken, near Antwerp, the company owns and oper- ates an extensive ship-yard, at which 410 steamships, trans- ports, monitors, and armored vessels have been built. It owns several vessels that are engaged in the transportation of iron ore. Its nominal capital stock is $3,000,000. It c^p'tai- now employs SjSSO workmen at all its enterprises, to whom if pays $2,000,000 annually as wages. Its annual sales saies. amount to about $8,000,000. It has in use 253 engines, and its daily consumption of fuel is about 1,100 tons. The an- ruei. nual capacity of the comjjany is equal to the production of Production. 400,000 tons of coal ; 150,000 tons of native ore ; 170,000 tons of foreign ore ; 100,000 tons of pig-iron ; 6,000 tons of cast- ings ; 25,000 tons of girders, iron plates, and bar-iron ; 1,000 tons of steel plates ; 100,000 tons of steel ra,ils, ba.rs, and tires ; 1,500 tons of steel ordnance, car wheels, locomotive wheels, etc. ; 8,000 tons of steam-engines and mechanical apparatus ; 10,000 tons of bridges, boilers, and structural iron ; and 14 ocean or river vessels. The company has fre- quently rolled 365 tons of rails in 24 hours. The number of '^aUs, looomo- . tives, and en- locomotives annually built is about 100 ; of steam-engines, gmes- 70; and of machines of all liinds, 100. Jn the fiscal year 1877-78 the greatest activity prevailed in the Bessemer steel works, which produced 83,000 metric tons of steel, a large increase upon 65,000 tons in 1876-'77. The company also made 57,000 tons ot rails in 1877-'78, an increase upon 45,000 tons in 1876-'77. The works at Seraing cover 220 acres, and -^™''- at Hoboken 22 acres. Such is a representative Belgian iron and steel enterprise. Other iron and steel exhibits in the Belgian section, bv Exhibits of the ° ' "^ Belgian corapa- the Angleur, Bsperance, Ougree, Sclessin, Providence, nies. Couillet, Chateliueau, and other companies, were scarcely less interesting than that of the Cockerill Company. Thev i™" ^3^ ™n ^ r ^ '' constructions, embraced iron and steel rails, plate and sheet iron, bar-iron, beams, and girders, pig-iron, iron ores, and Bessemer and Siemens-Martiu steel in various forms. The display of beams, girders, and joists was very large, some of the speci- mens being of exceptional lengths and novel sections. The company at Angleur exhibited fine Bessemer steel castings. The sheet-iron exhibited by the Esp^rance Company was in Sheet-iron. all respects excellent. The ironmasters of the Charleroi district contributed a consolidated exhibit of beams, girders, rails, wire, sheets, pig-iron, etc., which was very attractive. There was a good display of cast-iron pipes. Locomotives 40 UNIVEliSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. ™'-°'™- and railway cars from the shops of the Compagnie Beige of Brussels, and several other companies were among the prominent exhibits; and it may be mentioned that the build- loTOmotiTOa^'S™^ of steam-engines, locomotives, and other railway rolling sto^^r ex'iSf. stock for export is a leading branch of Belgian industry, ^^•|^^^ Belgian the citics of Brussels, Seraing, Lifege, CouiUet, Tubize, and others being engaged in their manufacture. The display of tires, axles, locomotive springs, and other railway ap- pliances was good. Mining machinery was another leading feature of the Belgian exhibit. A noticeable display of ma- chine tools, engines, steam-pumps, hydraulic presses, beet- caii, Haiot & sugar machinery, etc., was made by Gail, Halot, & Co., of Pumps and ma- Brussels. Machine tools were quite numerous in the Bel- onine-tools. gian section, and these and the heavy machmery were Iron Tvire usuallj excellent. The display of iron wire, especially of gauges below No. 20, was large and creditable, and several machines were exhibited which make wire nails and tacks. But the Belgian display of general hardware, fine cutlery, small castings, edge and other tools, and agricultural ma- chinery was neither large nor impressive. The Belgian iron and steel industries appear to have been developed most in the direction of rolUng-mill products and lieavy machinery. The bar-iron of Belgium has long been celebrated for its Compressed excellence. There were creditable displays of coke and com- pressed fuel. The latter was a prominent feature of the Belgian exhibit, and its manufacture in Belgium is so ex- tensive as to have justified this prominence. Coal mining in Belgium dates from the twelfth century. hiS™y*md^8t^ Iron and steel history and statistics. tistics. The Belgian iron industry is of very great antiquity, dating from about the beginning of the Ohristian era. It appears to have never ceased to exist from that time until the present. At first the most primitive processes were Early history, employed, and afterwards blast furnaces and refinery forges. There was a charcoal furnace in operation at Dames, near Furnaces. jSTamur, in 1340. At the close of the fifteenth century leather bellows were in use for driving blast furnaces in the district of liihge. In 1560 Belgium had 35 blast furnaces and 85 Sputting mill, forges. In 1693 a " Splitting mill" is mentioned. Down to 1800 the furnaces were octagonal in form and only about 15 feet high; in that year circular furnaces were introduced; they were built 25 feet high, and the remaikable product of three tons a day was realized. (Jharcoal becoming very scarce, John Cookerill was successful in 1826 in introducing the use of coke in the blast furnace. In 1830 the coke fur- IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 41 nace in Belgium that would yield 2,000 tons of pig-iron in helgium. a year was doing well. The puddling of iron and the use of grooved rolls were introduced into Belgium from Great gi™^'"^^'^f]J: Britain soon after the battle of "Waterloo restored peace to 5"stry. Belgium and to Europe, the iirst puddling furnace in the kingdom having been erected in 1821. Belgian iron-mas- ters have not been slow to observe and to utilize the im- provements of other countries. In 1872 the Danks puddling i^ankapuddier. furnace was introduced by the Soci6t6 Anonyme of Sclessin, and about the same time Lauth's three-high plate roUs were Lauth's threo- Mgh rolls. adopted by the Ougr6e and Esperance companies. Steel was first made in Belgium in 1753, but its manufac- .History of Bei- *=* ' gian steel m- ture was never largely developed until 18G2, when the first austry. Bessemer steel works in the kingdom were established. Just ]>rior to that event, in the year 1860, Belgium iirodnced only 3,172 tons of steel, part of which was crucible steel and part what is termed German steel. A year ago there were but three Belgian works engaged in the manufacture of steel by casting : The Cockerill Company, with 8 Bessemer ^"^^^^ ^°'°" converters; Eossius, Pastor, & Co., at Angleur, with 4 ^Eossms, Pastor Bessemer converters; and the Sclessin Company, at Tilleur, soiesam Com- with a Siemens-Martin plant. Since then the Ponsard fur- I'onsard lu;- nace has been introduced by the Soci6t6 de Thy-le-Chateau society of Th.\- for the production of steel rails. The Ougr6e Company is "ougie6 cum- also erecting a gas furnace, with the view of making steel ^'^^' by the open-hearth process. The statistics of the Belgian iron, steel, and coal Indus- ^statisii(is of ^ ' ' ^Belgian iron, tries are very full and complete. There are about 70 blast steel, ana coaiin- ■*- dustry. furnaces in the kingdom, 56 being the largest number that were ever in blast in one year. Only 26 were in blast in 1877, a fact due mainly to the increasing scarcity of native ore, but partly to foreign competition, and partly to the un- suitableness of domestic ores for Bessemer steel. The pig- iron branch of the Belgian iron trade is therefore only moderately prosperous. The production of pig-iron in re- pigjron. cent years has been as follows : 1850, 144,452 metric tons ; 1860, 319,943 tons; 1870, 565,234 tons ; 1872, when the maxi- mum was reached, 655,565 tons; 1876, 571,267 tons, the de- cline being gradual from 1872. The production of wrought iron, bar-iron, blooms, plates, iron rails, etc., was 61,970 metric tons in 1850; 200,596 tons in 1860; 491,563 tons in 1870 ; 510,920 tons in 1874, when the maximum was reached ; and 416,714 tons in 1876. In 1877 and 1878 there was an improved foreign demand for the products of Belgian roll- ing mills, and ijroduction was slightly increased. In 1875 Belgium produced 20,440 metric tons of chains, cables, an- Wrouglxt iron. 42 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. BELGIUM. chors, nails, etc., and in 1876 the production of castings was steel"''""*'™ "^80,759 tons. The production of steel was 3,172 metric tons in 1860; 9,563 tons in 1870; and 75,258 tons in 1876. Of the production in 1876, 71,758 tons were Bessemer steel, of which 65,000 tons were rolled into rails. The production of Bessemer bteel exceeded 100,000 tons in 1877. In the fiscal year 1877-'78 the John Cockerill works alone produced 83,000 tons of Bessemer steel. The production of steel in Belgium is steadily increasing. The production of iron ore has rapidly declined from 1,018,231 metric tons in 1865 to 269,200 tons in 1876. *!<>ai- The production of coal in Belgium steadily increased from 3,929,962 metric tons in 1840 to 15,778,401 tons in 1873, when the maximum was attained. There was a decline in 1874, a slight recovery in 1875, and a decline to 14,329,578 tons in 1876. To this may be added the production in the ei'^^f *' ™"'' ®^™® ^^^^ °^ about 300,000 tons of artificial mineral fuel, or briquets, which has since been increased to about 500,000 tons annually. tnportsandex- ^hc Belgian iniports and exports of iron ore, pig-iron, manufactured iron, and steel for 1878 were as follows : Iron ore, imports, chiefly from the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, 833,922 metric tons ; exports, chiefly re-exports to France, 239,728 tons. Pig-iron, imports, chiefly from England, Ger- many, and the Grand Duchy, 210,353 tons; exports, 5,362 Iron and steel, tons. Manufactured iron, imports, 8,575 tons; exports, 191,062 tons. i>fails and wrought-iron sundries, imports, 3,409 tons ; exports, 26,444 tons. Castings, imports, 2,030 tons; exports, 10,509 tons. Steel, imports, 4,992 tons; ex- ports, 30,816 tons. These figures show a total of 229,299 tons of imports and 270,193 tons of exports. Belgium's ex- ports of maclfinery are large. Of the exports of iron and steel in 1878 no less than 58,282 metric tons were sent to Great Britain, of which over 49,000 tons were merchant iron and the remainder was nails, rails, etc. The Belgian exports of rails have greatly declined since 1874, but the other iron and steel exports have been well maintained. ^"^- The imports of coal and coke into Belgium in 18J6 amounted to 832,296 tons, Great Britain being the principal contributor, and Germany supplying a large part of the re- mainder. The exports in the same year were 4,399,605 tons, almost wholly to France. ■^""gaby.""'" AUSTRIA-HXINGAEY. Americans do not usually associate the Austrian Empire with the manufacture of iron and steel on a large scale, and lEON AND STKEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 43 yet these are among its most important productions, and austbia-hun- the industries devoted to them have an honorable rank in comparison with like industries of other countries. Austria The sixth (in which I include Hungary) is the sixth among iron and gte™°pTOduo^g steel producing countries, and she occupies no mean place '"'™*™^- as a manufacturer of machinery. As a manufacturer of textiles, glass ware, and other light products of skilled in- dustry, as a manufacturer of beet-sugar, and as the liberal promoter of an extensive railway system, she occupies a position of well-deserved prominence. With internal and external peace, and perseverance in the tolerant and con ciliatory policy which now characterizes the administration of her affairs, Austria may be expected to become within the next ten years one of the very first among industrial nations. That she has not been generally recognized in our Misconception , -1. 1 J? i • 1 • a.1 1 i- i' * of the productive country as a possible future rival m the production ol iron powerof Austna- and steel is mainly due to our lack of commercial inter- ™sary. course with her people, but parti j', also, to the almost total absence of Austrian iron and steel products at the Phila- delphia Exhibition in 1870. When it was held, the interest in international exhibitions of her iron and steel producers and of many other Austrian manufacturers apijeared to have been exhausted by their splendid contributions to the Vienna Exposition in 1873. But Austria grandly rallied in Large and in- teresting display. 1878 from her lethargy in 1876, and her whole display at Paris was exceedingly interesting, her iron and steel ex- hibits being especially large and varied. Iron and steel exhibits. JhZtr^ ^'"' The principal Austrian exhibitors of if-on and steel and of railwav material at Paris were the Austrian and Hungarian Austrian and _ •', ^ , t 1 ^ It -, t -, Hungarian State State Eailway Companies, closely followed, however, byEaiiway com- other large companies. It is a peculiarity of the iron ando^afexhibito™ steel and coal industries of the empire that the government railroad comiDanies are extensively engaged in their develop- ment and at widely separated localities ; and it is also a peculiarity of these industries that the companies which were organized expresslj' and solely to engage in theu' de- velopment have their enterprises as greatly scattered as scattered enter- those of the railroad companies. These results have largely grown out of a spirit of speculation which was rife in Aus- tria a few years ago, many of the speculations proving to ^^„fP^^„'j[}J^J| be disastrous. The financial stringency which occurred in ty stringency of Austria early in 1873 was the beginning of the period of world-wide depression, the end of which we have not yet seen. Large stock companies were organized to absorb and 44 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. AnBTEiA-HUN- Qpcrate various consolidated small enterprises. Most of these inflated organizations still remain in existence, but Organization of ponsoiidated their stock lias greatlv contracted in value. They have Bmall enterpn- o ./ */ ^ ses. served a useful purpose in stimulating the development ot Austrian mineral resources, and in relieving the empire of dependence upon other countries for iron and steel and things made from them. Austrian ex- The exhibit of iron and steel and their products which was hibit of iron and ■*■ stsei. made by Austria embraced the same classes of heavy articles that were exhibited by France, G-reat Britain, and Belgium : Iron and iron Piff-iron of various grades : iron and steel rails ; Bessemer production. '^ 07 7 . and Siemens-Martin steel ; spiegeleisen ; crucible, puddled, and cemented steel; rolled iron for building purposes ; plates and sheets ; axles and tires ; locomotives and other railway requisites ; chilled car- wheels ; tubes and pipes ; iron per- manent way for railroads ; a general assortment of heavy and light machinery, etc., etc. Joined to these were sam- FueiB and ores, pjgg ^f faelg and iron ores. Much of the pig-iron was made with charcoal, and was excellent in quality, being specially Locomotives, adapted to the manufacture of steel. The locomotives were among the finest in the Exposition. About 1840, when Aus- Adoption of tria began to build railroads, she adopted the American loco- American model. ® ' ^ motive as a model, and the Austrian locomotives of to-day are very similar to those of the United States. Railroad Ganz&co. crossings of chilled iron were exhibited by Ganz & Co., of Buda-Pesth, who also exhibited a flue collection of chilled Chilled oar- car-wheels of American style, one of which had run 329,400 wheels. "^ ' ' miles and another 380,000 miles. It is stated that chilled car-wheels have been used on the Emperor Ferdinand Rail- way, in Northern Austria, since 1855, and have ever since increased in number, so that now, with 10,000 freight cars, 23,140 such Wheels (21,696 from Ganz & Co. and 1,444 from s/l°woikt"'''^''^ Count Andrassy's works at Dernoe) are in use. Projectiles made of chilled cast iron were also exhibited by Ganz & Co. Permanentway. ^wo stylcs of iron permanent way were exhibited, several systems of which have been introduced upon Austrian and Sugar maohin- Hungarian railroads. Of sugar-making machinery there was a large display, but of agricultural machinery and im- plements the display was greatly inferior to that of France, Great Britain, or the United States. The exhibit of wood- working machinery was small. Stationary and portable steam engine». engines Were numerous in the Austrian and Hungarian sec- i^r'itoo?^^iates' ^'^^^^- Boilers made of Bessemer-steel plates were exhibited by the Emperor Ferdinand Railway Company, and good boiler plates of Bessemer steel were exhibited by the Hun- Annor-piatos. garlan State Railway Company, Steel armor-plates were IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 45 exhibited by J. Braun's Sohne, of Schondorf. The exhibit austria-huh- of wire, ■wire rope, and wire work of all kinds was very ex- -yireand-riTe- tensive. Austria vies with Westphalia in the manufacture ™pe. of products of this class. Car and carriage springs were springs. shown in profusion, as were railway appliances generally. A locomotive fire-box, made of Siemens-Martin steel, with arched and corrugated sides and top, was a prominent ob- ject. Tools. Tools. Bench tools. Safes. Miners' tools. Files. Saws. Franz Wertheim & Co. and John Weiss & Sous exhibited fine collections of bench tools. The former firm also ex- hibited fire and burglar proof safes. Miners' tools were exhibited by Mahler & Eschenbacher. J. Braun's Sohne exhibited files. The Eiseu and Stahlgewerkschaft, of Eibis- wald, exhibited a number of circular and band-saws. The display of cutlery was meager, and very inferior to that made by Austria at Vienna. Like Belgium, the Austrian display of iron and steel and their products at Paris was notably rich in heavy articles and heavy machinery. It was Machinery, not seriously deficient in small wares, the manufacture of which requires delicate manipulation or the application of delicate machinery, but they did not form one of its promi- nent features. Distribution of the iron industry. Distribution of the iron industry in Austria-Hun- gary. The manufacture of iron and steel in the Austrian Empire is distributed over a large part of its territory, which may be divided into three grand divisions. The most prominent of these is in the southwestern part of the empire, and embraces Styria, Carinthia, and the remaining provinces of the Austrian Alps. This district is remarkably rich in iron ores of superior quality, principally spathic, this variety being practically free from impurities, and well adapted to the production of steel, in which it is now largely employed. The spathic ores of Austria and Hungary have long been spatMo ores, celebrated as among the best steel-producing ores in the world. In Styria and Carinthia are situated the two famous iron mountains, Erzberg and Hiittenberg, which were worked by the Eomans and by the Celts two thousand years ago. In late years the Erzberg has yielded 175,000 tons of iron ore annually. Iron has been made in these Alpine provinces in furnaces of various forms of construction since the eighth century. Until the present century charcoal was the only fuel that was used, both in the furnaces and in refinery forges, but now wood, brown coal or lignite, and coke are also used. Lignite of excellent quality is found in Styria, The iron moun- tains of Erzbet-o and Hiittenberg. T'uel used for- merly, and now. 46 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. AUBTKiA-HUN- aod It is used with satisfactorv results in blast furnaces and GAET. — — puddling furnaces. Extensive deposits of lignite, which have not yet been developed, are found on the line of the Peat. railroad from Vienna to Trieste. Peat is also largely used in Styrian puddling furnaces, partly in the ordinary way and partly in connection with Siemens regenerative furnaces. Coal. True bituminous and anthracite coals are found in the Al- pine provinces, but not in appreciable quantities. • N. w. division The next most important division is in the northwestern of the empire. ^ Bohemia, etc. part of the empire, and embraces Bohemia, Moravia, and Ancient iron- Austrian Silesia. Iron was made in Bohemia long before ^°' ^^' the beginning of the Christian era. In some portions of this district there is good coal in large quantities, which makes an excellent coke for blast-furnaces, but in others coal is scarce or impure, and lignite and wood are used. Lignite is abundant, and of good quality. Bohemia pro- coaiamd lignite, duces more than one-half of all the coal and lignite mined Iron ores. in the empire. The iron ores of this division are not gen- erally so pure as those of the Alpine provinces, but included in them are some rich deposits of magnetic, specular, spathic, and red and brown hematites. Many of the ores are manganiferous. Much of the iron of this district is well adapted to foundry purposes, and it has been custom- ary to make large and small castings direct from the blast Fonndries. furnace. Cupola foundries, some with hot-blast, are, how- ever, common, and usually well employed. Until quite re- cently charcoal has been the only fuel used in this district, and it is still largely consumed in blast-furnaces and in a Biomaries. fsw blomarics or refinery forges. Blomaries were only a few years ago very numerous in this district, Bohemia alone having 110 in 1865, which converted into wrought-iron a large part o/ the product of 28 blast-furnaces; now, how- Pnddiing far- ever, puddling furnaces are numerous, in 1871 there being 116 in Bohemia and 70 in Moravia and Silesia. The third division into which the Austrian iron industrj' is territorially divided embraces the extensive provinces Carpathian lying wholly or in part in the Carpathian mountains — Hun- mountains re- ■' " "^ ^ '■ gion. gary, Galicia, Buckowma, Transylvania, and others. This division, like the one last named, has a variety of orfls, a large proportion of them being of good quality. The de- velopment of large deposits which are known to exist in G-alicia and elsewhere has scarcely been commenced, while Primitive fur- othcrs havc been worked for centuries. The primitive wolf nacesandmodern . , , /. -. . • xi • j- j. • j. n processes. fumaces are still to be found in use m this district, as well as bloomaries; but charcoal and coke furnaces, rolling-mills, and yet more modern processes are numerous. Charcoal is IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSI ONEE MOEEELL. 47 I the principal fuel used in the blast furnaces. Coal is scarce, "^^^^y ""'''" but lignite is abundant. The first puddling furnace in Austria was built at Witko- ai,d'loi?e"''St witz, in Moravia, in 1826, and at the same place the first f^.™''™^ in Ana- coke blast-furnace in the empire was built in 1838. From these two events may be dated the beginning of the mod- ern iron industry of Austria. The first coke furnace in the Alpine provinces was erected at Prewald, in Carinthia, in 1870; the first puddling furnace in Carinthia was erected in 1828. G-erman steel made in Styria and Carinthia was cariJtwan steef celebrated for its excellence fifty years ago, when the an- nual production was about 15,000 tons, a part of which found its way to American markets. These provinces have also, for many years, made crucible steel of excellent qual- cmcibio steel. ity. Puddled steel has been made in Austria since 1835, Puddieastcei. but in large quantities only since 1852. It was at one time largely used for rails. It is still made in small quantities. The first Bessemer steel works in Austria were commenced Bessemer steel. at Turrach, in Upper Styria, in 1862; there are now 13 works in the empire, with 32 converters. These works are located in various provinces, but principally in Styria. At most of the works the pig-iron is run direct from the blast furn£|jce into the converter. At the works at Eeschicza, in Hungary, there are three converters, each of 9 tons capa- city ; the annual production of the works is, however, only about 9,000 tons. Spiegel eisen is manufactured at sev- Spiegeieisen. eral places in Austria; ferro-manganese is also manufact- Ferro - mangar ured in blast-furnaces in the province of Carniola, and prob- ably elsewhere. Siemens furnaces have been used in Aus- Siemens fur- naee. tria since 1858, when they were introduced at Kapfenberg in connection with the manufacture of cast steel. In 1867 the Siemens-Martin process was introduced at the same ,. Siemens - Mar- ^ tm process. place, but the manufacture of steel by this process has never been greatly extended in Austria, the earlier processes and the Bessemer process being in greater favor. The manu- facture of tin-plate has been thoroughly established at sev- Tin-piate. eral places. As has already been intimated, there are many strong companies engaged in the manufacture of iron and steel in Austria and Hungary, and their enterprises have been pro- jected on a scale worthy of more prominent iron and steel making countries. Iron and steel statistics. iron ana steel statistics. The whole number of blast-furnaces in the Austrian Em- pire in 1876 was 279, of which 166 were in blast and 113 48 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PAEIS, 1878. *™gaky''"'' ^®^® ^'^^ °^ blast. The production of pig-iron and castings -:, 7— —r from the blast furnace in 1840 was 144,352 metric tons: in Iron and steel ' ' statistics. 1850 it was 223,045 tons; in 1860 it was 348,798 tons; in 1870 it was 452,244 tons; in 1873, when the maximum was attained, it was 594,980 tons ; in 1876 it was 450,933 tons. These figures show a more gradual increase in the produc- tion of pig-iron than has been the experience of some other countries, and they also show a smaller proportionate de- crease in production since the culminating point was reached in 1873. The present blast-furnace practice of Austria and Hungary is perhaps presented in its most favorable aspect in the record made In 1873 by two Buttgenbach coke-fur- Biast-fumacesnaces erected by the Innerberger Company at Schwechat, of the Innerber- '' o j. .. ; ger Company, near Vienna. They are each 60 feet high, 18 feet diameter at the boshes, 12 feet diameter at the top, and 7 feet across the hearth. There are two blowing engines, each of 360 horse-power. In 1873 each furnace made 50 tons of pig-iron daily Irom 112 J tons of Styrian spathic ore, 7^ to 12J tons of limestone, and 62J tons of coke. Eaii-miiis. At the closc of 1877 there were 17 rail-mills in the empire The course of the raU manufacture since 1870 is seen in the following table : Statistics of rail mannfacture. Year. Iron rails. Steel rails. Total. 1870 - Metric tons. 89, 790 90, 463 80, 556 80, 742 54, 797 40, 155 23, 819 18, 645 Metric toTis. 17, 307 23, 199 38, 009 60, 327 67, 1G9 61. 345 64, 491 79, 0G5 Metric toTis. 1871 113 662 1872 124 565 1873 131, 069 111, 960 101, .500 87, 310 97, 710 1874 .■ 1875 1876 1877 These figures indicate the same tendentsy to substitute steel rails. ytecl rails for iron rails that is observable in other countries. The growth of the Bessemer steel industry in Austria has, however, been very slow. In 1864, when the first works went into operation, the production was 306 metric tons; six years later, in 1870, it amounted to only 20,722 tons, with 6 works in operation ; in 1874 it reached 96,958 l^ns, with 9 works in operation Since that year the production has twice fallen slightly below 90,000 tons ; but in 1877 there was an increase to 97,470 tons, with l-'J works and 32 con verters in existence, and 11 works and 28 converters in Bessemer prao- operation. The exceedingly small output of so many works and converters is in part accounted for by the small size of the converters, which are generally of from 2J to 3 tons capacity. IRON AND STEEIi EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRKLL. 49 Coal. Imports of iron and steel. The production of iron ore in the Austrian Empire AusTuiA-iroN- ■^ '- GABY. amounted to 573,079 metric tons in 1851, and in 1873 it amounted to 1,588,256 tons, the increase in the mean time being gradual. From 1873 to 1876 there was a steady de- iron ore out- cline in production, the ligures for the latter year being ^"' 902j421 tons. The production of coal in Austria and Hungary, the min ing of whicli dates from the middle of the sixteenth century, amounted to only 94,607 metric tons in 1819, and to only 944,323 tons in 1850. In 1855 there was an increase to 2,101,050 tons; in 1865 to 5,069,303 tons; in 1870 to 8,355,944 tons ; and in 1876, when the maximum was reached, to 13,362,586 tons, of which 5,564,331 tons were pit coal and 7,798,255 tons were lignite. The imports of iron and steel into the Austrian Empire have undergone as great a change in late years as have similar imports into our own country since 1873. From 1866 to 1872 the imports of pig and scrap iron increased from 131,351 metric tons to 219,078 tons, but in 1876 the imports were only 38,057 tons From 1868 to 1870 the imports of rails rose from 54,218 tons to 116,813 tons, but have since steadily fallen to 805 tons in 1876. The imports of bar-iron have fallen from 27,880 tons in 1872 to 1,458 tons in 1876. The imports of hardware and machinery have fallen from 64,551 tons in 1872 to 20,363 tons in 1876. The imports of steel have fallen from 1,127 tons in 1871 to 880 tons in 1876. The exports of iron and steel from Austria have increased Exports. in recent years until in many particulars they now exceed the imports. In 1875 the exports of rails amounted to 10,774 metric tons, but fell in 1876 to 4,325 tons. In 1875 the exports of pig and scrap iron reached to 10,727 tons, but fell in 1876 to 7,317 tons. The exports of bar-iron amounted to 7,056 tons in 1875, and to 8,304 tons in 1876. The exports of hardware and machinery reached to 26,886 tons in 1874, but fell to 19,926 tons in 1876. The exports of sti^el of all descriptions have not greatly varied from 4,000 tons annually from 1866 to 1876. The imports of iron ore have always been inconsiderable, imports of ore. the largest quantity having been reached in 1872, when 15,675 metric tons were imported, since which year there has been a steady decline to 2,429 tons in 1876. The exports of iron ore appear to have been highest in 1875, when the quantity amounted to 52,817 tons ; in 1876 there were 38,169 tons sent out of the country. Since 1865 the imports and exports of coal into and out imports aaci of Austria have both grown steadily, owing mainly to the 4 P E- -YOL 3 50 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PAEIS, 1878. AusTBiAHUK- completlon of railway communicatioQS with neighboring GAKT. countries, but the exports have increased the most. In that Coal impons year the imports were 366,488 metric tons, and the exports "' " were 385,662 tons. In 1876 the impoi and the exports were 3,734,862 tons. and exports. ^^^^ 385,662 tons. In 1876 the imports were 1,574,575 tons, The foregoing statistics and other references appear to establish conclusively the fact that Austria is possessed of Abiutyof Aus- Sufficient resources to enable her to supply her own iron and o^'wS'^ ""^ steel wants, and the further fact that she is now supplying them. Recent information leads to the conclusion that the government of the empire will pursue a revenue policy that will tend at least to confirm Austrian iron and steel manu- facturers in the possession of the home market. KUSbfA. RUSSIA. The seventh in Russiaraulis Seventh among iron-producing countries, and Iiu"^ng^ '™""oun- lier exhibit of iron and steel products at Paris was worthy *"'''• of her rank. Although the iron industry of Russia is not of recent origin, having existed long before the days of Peter the Great, two centuries ago, it ha.s not been charac- terized by a progressive spirit nor by notable activity until Enconragement within tho past fcw years. The present Emperor, Alexan- by Alexander u. ^^^ jj^ ^xas givcn to it greater encouragement and a greater impetus than any one of his predecessors. This he has done by a variety of measures, including a protective tariff, boun- ties to special manufactures, and the extension of railroad communications. It will be a long time, however, before all the widely-separated parts of his vast empire will be joined together with iron bands, as the United States is now joined, and in the mean time it is too much to expect that Russia, wise as her ruler is, and enterprising as her ruling classes are, will be able to fully utilize her scattered mineral re- Abundaaco of sources. She is not wanting in iron ore nor in fuel to smelt •ore and fuel. ^^ ^^^ ^^ refine the iron obtained from it ; but she is largely Lack of trans- wanting, because of the vastness of her territory, in the ,poi a ion. means necessary to bring the fuel to the ore and the iron to a market. It is, therefore, all the more to her credit that she has made even limited progress in the development of her iron resources, and that her iron and steel makers were enabled to make the fine display they did at Paris. The Russian ironand steel exhibit was one of the most valuable and most interesting in the Exposition. It was mainly com- ■cbarceai iron, poscd of articlcs which charcoal and not mineral fuel had produced, a fact suggestive of immense possibilities, for if such progress could be made witJi a fuel which has never IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 51 yet fully developed the iron resources of a single countrj'^, rubsu. not even excepting Sweden, what may not be possible when her extensive deposits of mineral fuel come generally into use as an addition to the vast quantities of charcoal which Prospective de- the boundless Eussian forests are yet capable of supplying when they shall be penetrated by Russian railroads? Iron and steel exhibits. iron ana steel exhibits. The principal exhibitor in the iron and steel department of the Eussian section was Prince Demidoff, whose exten- Prince Demi- sive works in the Ural Mountains, where he owns a million and a half acres of forests and mineral lands, have long been noted. He is a large manufacturer of pig-iron, finished iron, and Bessemer and other steel. The Eussian Govern- ment works and several private companies were also well represented. The entire exhibit embraced samples of mag- AdmiraUo ex- , ^, . n J. T • X. J hibitoforea.iron, netic and other iron ores of extraordinary richness andanti manufac- purity; fine samples of charcoal pig- iron; and a full assort- steeL ment of bar-iron, sheet-iron, plates, rods, iron wire, axles, tires, car- wheels, iron and steel rails, Bessemer and Siemens-Mar- tin steel, crucible and puddled steel, projectiles, swords, chains, etc. Prince Demidoff showed Bessemer-steel boiler Eaiis and 1 T -iT-i -I'l^/* plates of Bussc- plates 01 excellent quality; also Bessemer-steel rails doieetmcrojidsiemens- long, and another steel rail 50 feet long, which had been twisted cold ; also plates and rods of Siemens-Martin steel, some of which had been bent and broken to show their quality; also a disk o the same kind of steel, £ of an inch thick, and 7 feet 5 inches in diameter. The same exhibitor also showed a variety of steel tools, scythes, swords, etc. Several kinds of steel, all of excellent quality, were shown by several exhibitors, with fine effect. The Imperial Tech- .1™?^™! Tcch- '' ' -^ nical School of nical School of Moscow made a good display of tools, as Moscow. did also a few other exhibitors. The display of cutlery was not large, but it was remark- cutiery. ably good, and indicated not only the possession by Eussia of the best of steel, but the possession also of the best of skill in its manipulation. The knives, forks, scissors, and swords exhibited were not surpassed in excellence by any similar display. Hackman & Co., a Finnish firm of Wiborg, were promi- Hackman & co. nent among the Eussian cutlery exhibitors. In their works they employ 90 men. In machine and other castings the Eussian section was castings. not far behind the best of its competitors, but in heavy ma- chinery, agricultural implements, and railroad appliances it was deficient in extent and variety. The Industrial Society 52 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PAEI8, 1S78. KUBsiA. of Varsovie exhibited a collection of car couplings, car springs, and •wrouglit-iron car wheels. A few steam-engines of creditable workmanship were exhibited, as were detached parts of engines, well made and exquisitely polished. Much Exiiibit of In- of the engine work was produced by the pupils at the In- dustrial societies , . , °, , „,, '■ ,^-X,, -■ and soiioois. dustnal Schools of Moscow and St. Petersburg. LUpop, Eau, & Messrs. Lilpop, Eau, & Loewenstein, of Varsovie, exhib- Loewenatera. a. j. 7 / / Beot-sugar ma- ited bcct-sugar machinery. cliinery. Coal. Specimens of the bituminous and anthracite coal of Eus- sia were exhibited, the former of various quaUties, and the latter said to analyze 90 per cent, of carbon. Iron and steel Iron and steel industries. industries. The iron and steel industries of Eussia may be said to have the whole empire for their home, for they are found in Eegions of many parts of it — in the TJral Mountains in the east, ia the ac ivi y. Donetz Mountains in the south, in the vicinity of Moscow in the center, in Poland and neighboring territory in the west, and in Olonetz and Finland and at St. Petersburg in the north. The Ural Mountains produce more than half of the pig-iron annually made in Eussia, and a large part of the finished products. At and near St. Petersburg is dis- played the greatest localized activity in the production ot raUs, plates, steel, and some other finished products. Bes- Bessemer semcr steel is now made sticcessfuUy at three or four estab- and open-hcartn steel. lishments in the empire, and open-hearth steel is made at many places in Siemens-Martin and Pernot furnaces. Cru- crucibic, pud- ciblc and puddled steel of good qualitv have long been made. died, and chrome ox.. o steel. Chrome steel, from native ores, is made at the Obouchoff Steel Works, near St. Petersburg. Siemens regenerative Spiegeieisen. furnaccs are common. Spiegeleisen is successfully made in Finland sftid in the Ural Mountains. Eussian ores are of various qualities, magnetic, specular, brown and red hema- tites, etc. Some ores are taken from the bottom of bogs and lakes, and they are found in quantities which are prac- quaiit^"^ "'^^ tically inexhaustible. No other country in Europe is better supplied with good ores than Eussia, not even Sweden and Magnetic ore. Spain. The magnetic mountain of Blagodat, in thg Ural Mountains, is one of the richest and most remarkable iron- ore deposits in the world. It has been worked for 140 years. Koi°Si.7"''' "' -^^ Kolpino, near St. Petersburg, on the railroad leading to Moscow, extensive works have recently been erected for the manufacture of boiler and ship plates, armor jilates, beams, angles, bars, and other iron for use in the govern- ment ship-yards and in the construction of government buildings. IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 53 At Alexaiidrovsky,.near St. Petersburg, are situated the Obouchoif Steel Works, at which heavy steel guns are manu- ■^g^^""'^''*^^"^"' factured from crucible cast steel. Ingots of steel weighing 40 tons and ujjwards have been cast at these works, each 40-ton ingot requiring the use of 1,200 crucibles. An 80-ton gun was made here a few years ago, the ingot for the breech- block of which weighed nearly 50 tons, and was hammered into shape under a 50-ton hammer. Most of the crucibles are heated with imported coke, but Siemens gas farnaces supply heat to others. A Bessemer converter, of 5 tons capacity, has been in use for several years. These works , Pinut ana pro- make weldless tires, wheels, axles, shafts, boiler plates, etc., for Russian railroads, all of Bessemer or open-hearth steel. They were established about twenty years ago, and now employ 2,500 men. 2,500 workmen. Near St. Petersburg is the largest rail-making establish- ment in Russia, the Poutiloff' Works, which produces annu- Poutiioflf raii- ' ' ^ mill. ally about 16,000 tons of rails and 4,000 tons of steel tires and other finished products. At these works Bessemer converters have been in use for several years and a large Siemens steel plant has been erected. There are connected i'i='"t- with tuese works four charcoal-furnaces and a rolling-mill in Finland. On the l!reva, five miles from St. Petersburg, is a large plate and merchant bar-mill and a ship-building yard, owned by the Russian Engineering and Mining Company, with a cai)i- -^'f "'mi oMm tal of about $5,000,000. This company built the " Grand ins co™pany. , ' ' i. *j Ironworks and Admiral" a few years ago, the engines for which were sup- sup-yara. plied by a St. Petersburg firm. The armor plates for the Russian imperial frigate, the "Duke of Edinburgh," were, however, made at the Motala Works, in Sweden. At Briansk, on the Orel-Witebsk Railway, a large mill itaii-miiioiBri- for re-rolling iron rails, and for the manufacture of iron bridge work, was started in June, 1874. The Imperial Gun Foundry at Perm, in the Ural Mount ^imperial Gun ' Foundi'vatPerm. ains, is an extensive establishment, which has long been engaged in the manufacture of cannon and projectiles, musket barrels, and other warlike material. It has recently been greatly enlarged. Steel has long been manufactured here in crucibles, and a Pernot furnace is now in use. At Kama the Jiefif's Arms Factory is employed in the JjoffArmsFac- •' .' t J toryatKama. manufacture of needle-guns, and crucible-steel is here made with Siemens gas-furnaces, charcoal being used as fuel. , At the Mjni-Salda Iron Works of Prince Demidoff a verv NyniSaidairon " "' Works ot Prince complete Bessemer plant was added in 1875. The con- nemidoflr. verters are of 5 tons capacity, and the metal is run into 54 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. uiissiA. them direct from blast-furnaces specially constructed for this purpose. A new rolling mill, with a 350 horse-power steam-engine, has been added to the one previously in use. The machinery for these improvements was largely manu- Nini-Tasuii. facturcd tit Nijni-Tagull, where some of Prince Demidoff's works are located, and where a Siemens-Martin plant has recently been erected, with a capacity of 32 tons of steel daily. Spicgeh-isen is made at Taguil. New Russia Co. The Ncw Eussia Company, founded by Mr. John Hughes, owns blast-furnaces and rail-mills in Donetz Valley, South- ern Eussia. A Siemens-Martin steel plant has recently been erected at these works, and the Eussian Government has lately given the company orders for steel rails aggregating 43,225 tons. In Southeastern Eussia are located the various iron enter- vyksounsky Co. jjrises of the Vyksouusky Company, an English organiza- tion, which possesses four hundred thousand acres of forests and mineral lands, and carries on the iron manufacture in many of its branches, making pig-iron, bar-iron, tires, hoops, plates, sheets, telegraph and other wire, nails, steam-engines, and other heavy machinery. The works of this company are greatly scattered. Poiiak works At Huta Bankowa, in Eussian Poland, are four blastfur- nt Huta BaD ' ' kowa. naces and a rolling-mill, which are reported to have passed into the hands of a French company that proposes to add a steel plant, with which it expects to make steel rails, tires, axles, and other railway material. Nijni-KoTgorod. In the Nijui-lSTovgorod district new iron works were es- .jonooskopf & tablished in 1875, by Jouooskopf & Mendeleieff, consisting of a blast furnace, 42 feet high, blown with a horizontal en- gine, puddling and reheating furnaces, and a train of mer- chant rolls.* In April, 1876, a new establishment for the manufacture of wrought-iron pipes was started at St. Petersburg. The great central market for the sale of iron in Eussia is Nijni- Novgorod. Ownersiiip of Many of the iron and steel works of Eussia are owned works. in whole or m part and directly or indirectly managed by the government. Some of the enterprises already men- tioned are thus owned and controlled. A few others may be mentioned, some of great antiquity. In the district of Blagodat, in the province of Perm, are Blast- furnaces situated the Kushwinsk blast-fumaces, commenced in 1735; Biasodat. thc Verkhni-Turlusk furnaces, which date from 1737; the Baranchinsk fmiiaces, which date from 1743; thc Mjni- Turinsk iron works, founded in 1766, and whitsh produce IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 65 annually about 2,200 tons of bar and sheet iron and boiler ""^slv. plate; and the Serebranskii works, established in J-'i'^l, ^j^^™^:^"^'^^ ™ which make about 800 tons of finished iron, 1,000 tons ofEiagodat. puddled iron, and 650 tons of steel annually. The Sere- branskii works are driven by ten water-wheels, and have four Siemens furnaces and three trains of rolls. At the Knase-Michailovski Works, in the mining district KnnseMiohaii- „ r^i • /. i-T/. • • ^ ovski Works. of Zlatoust, province of Ufa, is a very extensive manufac- tory of cannon and small-arms, founded in 1771, which in- Cannon .md eludes a steel department of large and varied capacity. The Satkinsk Works, in the same district, established ins-atkinauwoika 1756, produce pig-iron. The Watkinskii Works, founded in 1759, annually make ,„ watkinskii ' ' " Works. about 1,000 tons of wrought iron, 100 tons of chains, 1,000 tons of rails, and 500 tons of steel. 'The Kamskii Works, in the province of Perm, founded iu Kumsku works. 1862, annually produce about 500 tons of armor plates, and other heavy iron tor ship-building purposes, and employ 850 workmen. In Olonetz and Finland are the Alexandrovskii Works, Aiexandrovski Works. founded in 1772, which constitute a gun and projectile foundry; the Koncheoserkii furnace, dating from 1707; the Suojarvi furnace, owned by the government since 1856; and the Valaasminskii furnace. These furnaces use lake or bog ore, as do most of the Finnish furnaces. At Slawkaw, in Eussian Poland, are government works siawkaw, Po which produce sheet-iron ; and at Panki, also in Poland, is ™ ' a government blast furnace. In addition to the various iron and steel enterprises here enumerated, there are other extensive works in the TJral Mountains, in Finland, and elsewhere, but sufiftcient details have been given to show the progress that Russia has made in the introduction of modern processes of iron and steel manufacture. Her pig-iron was eagerly purchased by En- gland and other countries two centuries ago, because of its exceptional excellence, and lier sheet-iron, made by a process sheot-iron. peculiarly her own, has long challenged the admiration of the world. Iron and steel statistics. staSicT'' ^^"^ The accessible statistics of the iron and steel industries of Russia do not come down to a later period than 1875. In j^ ^^^ that year there were produced 426,896 metric tons of pig- iron and furnace castings, from 913,607 tons of iron ore; 243,126 tons of bar-iron, rails, etc.; 60,693 tons of plates and sheets; and 12,9ii8 tons of steel. The quantity of iron ore mined iu 1875 amounted to 1,063,831 tons. In 1866 the 66 UNIVERSAL KX POSITION AT PARIS, 1878. »"S8iA. production of iron ore was 581,771 tons. lu 1830 the pro- iron.^and steel (juction of the blast furnaces amounted to 183,10-4 tons; in 1860, to 297,937 tons; and in 1870, to 359,989 tons. In 1860 the production of wrought iron was 183,735 tons, and in 1870 it was 251,582 tons. In 1860 the production of steel was 1,051 tons, and in 1870 it was 8,788 tons. The produc tion of iron ore, pig-iron and castings, wrought iron, and steel, respectively, was greater in 1875 than in any preced- liim-ioes in jng year. In 1873 there were in Russia 245 blast furnaces, 522 puddling-furnaces, 700 reheating-fumaces, 20 puddling and reheating-furnaces, 840 refinery furnaces, 472 steel fur- lu 1870. naces, 191 cupolas, and 88 air-melting furnaces. In 1876 the number of blast-furnaces in Finland was 21. In this district and in other portions of Eussia the furnaces are small, and at nearly all of them water-power is used. With Survival of Scarcely an exception, charcoal is used as fuel. A great pnmi ive me - ^^^^ ^^ .^^^ ^^ ^^^j^ refined in Russia in Catalan forges and Charcoal fuel, blomarics, and by other primitive methods. The fuel used is charcoal, and power is obtained from the mountain streams. coai-miningdis- Tjie mining of coal in Russia is mainly confined to the districts of Donetz, Vistula, and Moscow, although coal is found in several other localities. The Donetz district is in the Donetz Mountains in Southern Russia, and is one of the most extensive in Europe; it contains both anthracite and bituminous coal, much of it of good quality. The Moscow district is in Central Russia, and the Vistula district is in Outpnt. Russian Poland. The total production of all the coal fields of Russia was 437,625 metric tons in 1867, and 1,709,269 tons in 1875. Of the production in 1875, the Donetz dis- trict yielded. 842,558 tons ; the Moscow district, 387,538 tons; and the VistuJ^a district, 407,935 tons. The methods employed in the mining of Russian coal are not usually the best that sci- ence and economy would suggest, but that great progress is being made in its development is shown in the greatly in- creased production from 1867 to 1875. Incomplete statistics for 1876 show a production in that year approximating 2,000,000 metric tons. The coal in the neighborhood of Moscow is largely lignite, but of good quality. * Imports of iron The imports of iron and steel and of machinery into Rus- *"' ^^"^ ' sia are large, indicating that if there has been overpro- duction of these products in other countries, there has cer- tainly been none in this. In 1875 there were imported, princiTpally from Great Britain, 57,464 metric tons of pig- iron, 87,705 tons of bar-iron, 58,126 tons of iron raUs, 111,554 tons of steel rails, 31,031 tons of hoops, sheets, etc., IRON AND STEEL HXTIIBITS; COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 57 3,813 tons of plates, and 19,638 tons of steel. Since 1875, " "s"*. however, the iron and steel industries of Russia have been greatly stimulated, and the imports of 1875 have not been imports of iroD maintained, although still large, owing to the pressing exi- ' gencies created by the war of 1877-'78 with Turkey. In 1878 four iron vessels and forty locomotives were purchased Amorioau uou -r^ . . „ _,,. , i-T, ToeselB, locomo- in the United States. This country has also supplied large tivea, and agii- quantities of agricultural implements to Eussia, but Great ments. Britain has been an active competitor in this field. The imports of coal into Eussia amounted to 1,497,214 metric tons in 1876, Great Britain, Germany, and Austria supply- ing all. Vhe Finnish furnaces are partly supplied with ore from Sweden. If the published statistics of Russian exports are correct, Exports. the exports of iron amounted to 14,062 metric tons in 1876, and to 1,145 tons in 1877, while the exports of steel amounted to 7 L tons in 1876. The exports of coal in 1876 amounted to only 565 tons. SWEDEN. SWEDEN. This most interesting country made a splendid display at Paris of its iron and steel resources, as it has done at all re- cent international exliibitions. No better iron is made in the ^^^<> bottor iron than Swedish. world than is made by Sweden, with native ores and char- coal fuel; and, having to rely mainly upon other countries to consume what she produces, she would have been faithless to her own interests if she had not exhibited samples of this iron upon every suitable occasion. But she has not been satisfied merely to exhibit these samples ; she has arranged vainaWe ex- them with the utmost taste and care, giving them a really artistic embellishment, which has not, however, imparted to them a gaudy and offensive prominence ; and, to still further heighten the effect and add to the value of their display, she has distanced BjU her rivals in the enterprise and tact she has shown in printing and circulating, in many languages, information cir- exhaustive descriptions of her metallurgical resources, of the methods employed in their utilization, of the capacity of her manufacturing establishments, and of the character of their products. No American who visited the Philadelphia Ex- j^jp;™*™"*' ™' hibition can forget the Swedish iron and steel exhibit or the great work of Professor Akerman, which was freely dis- Prof. Aterman. tributed, " On the State of the Iron Industry in Sweden." At Paris similar taste and similar enterprise were displayed. The Swedish iron and steel exhibit was, in every respect, magnificent. The display of Swedish machinery and tools Maohmea. and cutlery was also very creditable, but it was not large. The machinery display was not so large as that of Belgium, 58 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. SWEDES. which is a much smaller country and lacks Sweden's metal- lurgical resources. Iron and steel J^O,j ^^^^ gfggl exJliUtS. uxlubits. The Swedish iron and steel exhibit comprised all the raw materials and finished products the country produces. pa^v'^^ores, kon^ '^^^'^ well-kuowu Motala Company was the principal ex- ™on anTS "' bibitor. There were many specimens of the rich magnetic, specular, hematite, and other ores of the country ; specimens of ijig-iron, speigeleisen, bar-iron, rods, wire, billets, aad nails ; Bessemer, crucible, and Siemens-Martin steel; steel and iron plates ; wrought-iron car wheels, etc. . Some of the specimens were twisted, bent, and fractured to show their Swedish Iron quality. The Swedish Iron Board showed Bessemer and Board. Platca, ^ •' engines, and mor Sicmens-Martin plates and also iron plates, all of which had clime tools. ^ ^ ' been subjected to comparative tests which established the superiority of those made of steel. In machinery there were various woodworking machines of ordinary excellence ; a Bessemer steel marine boiler ; a couple of vertical engines, and a few other good engines. der '^ saw-S' J- & J- O. Bolinder, of Stockholm, exhibited saw-mill ma- toois, atoTOs, etc! chinery, circular saws, and a large collection of stoves and furnaces. The display of agricultural implements and ma chinery was neither large nor noteworthy ; but a better dis- play could not, perhaps, have been justly expected, as Swe- den is not greatly favored in its agricultural capabilities. The articles exhibited were not, as a rule, light and graceful and "handy," like their American rivals. In tools generally Sweden showed to better advantage. Cutlery. and in knives, razors, scissors, and other cutlery there was a small but creditable display. Of railw&y appliances the display was small, and not spe- cially remarkable. swe°diXSo?ri °' I* ^'^ ^ f^ii' criticism of the entire Swedish exhibit of iron and steel to say that the quality of the articles shown was not excelled in the Exposition, and that in extent and vari- ety they were excelled only by Great Britain, France, and Belgium; and it is also a fair criticism of the machipery. tools, and other iron and steel articles exhibited to say that they indicated that Sweden has not made the same progrejs Zuiutaetarea'^'' iu the reproductive arts associated with the iron and steel manufacture that has been made by Great Britai n, the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria. A stran ger cannot well understand why a people so intelligent and skillful as the Swedes, and possessed of their resources, should have so generally limited their energies to the pro- lEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOREELL. 59 duction of crude or half- manufactured iron and steel pro- swedek. ducts, excellent and unsurpassed as they are. Iron and steel production. iron and stcei production. The principal iron-ore deposits of Sweden are found in the district, lying immediately north of Lakes Wenner and oro districts. Wetter, and northwest of Stockholm. Here are located a majority of the blast furnaces and finished iron and steel establishments of Sweden. The ores found in this district are principally magnetic. Iron ore is, however, found in Magnetic ores. almost all parts of the kingdom, and in Lapland there are immense deposits of magnetic ore which have remained practically undeveloped because there has been no great scarcity of good ore elsewhere in Sweden. The rock or mountain ores of Sweden are almost free from phosphorus, Mountain ores and mM.ny of them are rich in manganese. They are there- fore well adapted to the production of Bessemer steel, in the mantifacture of which Sweden was the first country in the world to win complete success, but in which she has not recently borne a prominent part. The pig-iron intended to be converted into Bessemer steel is produced in charcoal furnaces, and from them is run direct, without exception^ into the converters, which are of from 2 to 4 tons capacity. The ore and the fuel both being of the best quality, the steel produced is in every respect superior. I am reminded superior Bea- *■ o ± r aemor steel. by Professor Akerman that at the Paris Exposition of 1867 Sweden exhibited the finest razors and similar wares of Bes- semer steel, and that in the manufacture of cutlery in Swe- CutieryofBea- den this metal is now almost exclusively employed. At the Bessemer steel works powerful blowing engines are used, and with one exception (Sandviken) they are all driven by water-power. The early converters are^all stationary, but a majority of the Bessemer works have movable converters. Some of the ores used in the production of Bessemer steel are so rich in manganese that the addition of spiegeleisen mangaLsT'' ™ in the converter is not necessary. This is also prominently the case with the Altenberg spathic ores, which are used in the manufacture of pig-iron by the Neuberg work in Styria, in Austria, and from which the celebrated Neuberc: Besse- Nouberg Beaac- . raor steel. mer steel is obtained. Such spiegeleisen and ferro-manga- nese as are needed in the manufacture of Swedish steel are easily produced. The magnetic and specular ores of Sweden, called mount- Mountain orea. ain ores, are appropriated to the production of wrought iron and steel, and the ores found in the lakes and bogs, which are chiefly obtained in one province (Sm^land), are mainly 60 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. ^'^^o^^- used in the production of foundry iron. The latter ores con- CP8B, Biast.fnmaces. tain phosphorus. The blast-furnaces of Sweden were built about 30 feet high until within the last few years ; modern furnaces are from 40 to 55 feet high, and from 7 to lOJ feet wide at the boshes. Pine and spruce charcoal is almost ex- rmi. clusively used as fuel in the blast furnaces, wood and brush- wood being sometimes mixed with it, and occasionally a little coke. It need scarcely be added that the Swedish method of preparing ores for the furnace and the subsequent treat- ment of them are painstaking in the extreme, securing great ods^wlth raoS- excellence and uniformity of product. The production of the lenoe and uni- furnaccs ranges from 30 to 120 tons a week. Almost with- lormity of pro- *=" duct. out exception blast is supplied by water-power. Wrought Koflning hearths, jjqq jg usually Obtained by refining pig-iron in Lancashire hearths, and subsequently hammering or rolling the blooms. Lnncashrrepro- The Lancashire process was introduced from England about 1830 by Gustaf Ekman, a distinguished Swedish iron-master. r.E.TIf'^'^""'^ The Pranche-Comt6 process, which is a modification of the process* * ' Lancashire process, is used at some of the smaller works, Walloon pro- and at Still othcr works, in Dannemora, the Walloon pro- as. ' 7 r cess is used. Other refining hearths may yet be found in Sweden, but are not much used. All these are but modifl- cataian forges, catious of the Ordinary bloomary process. Catalan forges, for the reduction of ore directly to wrought iron, have been abandoned in Sweden, but the other methods, just mentioned, which have been generally superseded by pud- dling furnaces in other iron-making countries, are stiU pop- ular with the Swedes. In the Lancashire, Franche-Comt6, and Walloon process charcoal is the only fuel that is used. Puddling is done at only a few works, chiefly with imported coal, but air dried ]une wood is used at two works, and at Motala and'Surahammar regenerative gas-furnaces for peat have been successfully introduced. diS^™d craSbie Grerman steel has long been made in Sweden, and small Bteei. quantities are still made. Puddled steel is made at two works. The manufacture of steel in crucibles by the TJeha- tius method is in operation at Wikmanshy ttan ; crucible cast steel is also made at Osterby, in a Siemens Lunden furnace, with wood as fuel. Since 1868 the open-heartb process has been in use at Munkfors, where the works of the Uddeholni Company are located, and since that year other works have adopted it. A Pernot furnace has been erected at Boxholm. In 1876 there were 19 Bessemer works in Sweden, but soitk.i of them were not then at work, and the producing capacity of nearly all of them was small. The primitive methods of iron manufacture which have IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONEE MOERELL. 61 been mentioned have become deeply rooted in the affections bwedex. of the Swedish people, and partly to this preference, partly jj^-^^^j*^" '™" to the absence of mineral fuel for the generation of steam cesses. and for other purposes, partly to the absence of restrictive duties on foreign iron and steel and iron and steel products, and partly also to the scarcity of .capital and the insufficiency of railroad and canal transportation, may be attributed. the slow progress made by Sweden in increasing the production of her iron, which was famous for its excellence before a oeShnL^"^*"'' pound of iron was made in the United States, and even be- fore prophecy had foretold for England her marvelous career in supplying the world's demand for iron and steel. These primitive methods are so generally adhered to to-day that, siow'prolress of even if the other influences named were essentially modified, ateei industr*"" the production of iron and steel in Sweden would not in- crease very rapidly. A few large-coke furnaces, supplied with fire-brick hot-blast stoves and powerful blowing engines, would double the production of pig-iron, but they will not soon be built, although coke might easily be obtained from England or Germany. One Bessemer establishment such as we have in the United States would double the production of Bessemer steel, but the Swedes liave no present use for it. Quality, not quantity, is their motto, and it is a good qj^ntity*^' "°* one ; but they might have both if they would. They ought, at least, to have supplied their own iron and steel wants, which, remarkable as it ma5- seem, they have not done for many years. The works of the Motala Company are the most important ,. Motaij est»b- in Sweden. They comprise five distinct establishments : (1) The works at Motala ; (2) the Motala ship-yard at Korr- koping ; (3) the Lindholmen ship-yard and machine-shops ; (4) the Nykoping works; (5) the Bangbro iron and steel works. Plates, bars, tires, gun-bands, railway-wheels, loco- ''° * motives, castings, and Bessemer and Siemens Martin steel are among the products of the various works. The Motala is a limited company, with 800 shares, the aggregate par value of all of which is about $1,100,000. In 1874 there were paid by this company for labor and materials about $2,000,000, exclusive of the Bangbro works. Other large works are those of the Fagersta, Sandviken, Surahammar, and Uddeholm companies. Very fe\y iron rails are ma^e in Sweden, and still fewer Rails, steel rails.. There is but litt;le local demand for, the latter, and they cannot be manufactured so cheaply as to permit of their exportation. The iron rails used are chiefly imported, the Swedes preferring to put their good iron into other forms 62 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. jswEDEN^^^ and buy " cheap " British and Belgian iron rails, upon which Questionable they imposc uo duty. It may be safely assumed that so long po icy. ^^ ^^^^ policy is continued neither the iron nor the steel rail trade of Sweden will prosper. Before 1870 no rails of any kind were made in Sweden. Wrought-iron railway-wheels, railroad-axles of steel and, iron, steel tires, nails, wire, and other iron and steel products are manufactured in small quan- tities ; but here again production and jirosperity are less than would exist if import duties were higher than they are. Importation of In the manufacture of locomotives andraUroad cars Sweden railway supplies. , , , , does not supply her own wants. Cnal. Coal. In the southwestern part of Sweden, opposite "The Sound," in a district of country of which Helsingborg is the princi- pal town, is found the only coal deposit thus far discovered in the kingdom. The coal is of an inferior quality, and the annual product has never amounted to 100,000 metric tons; it was 92,352 tons in 1876. It seems probable that Sweden will never greatly increase this product, but British and German coal are so near at hand that the absence of native coal is not a serious drawback to those industries on or near the sea-coast which require mineral fiiel in the production of steam, or are otherwise best promoted by its use. The im- BriS'^amd™er^ ports of coal and coke are annually increasing. In 1855 they man coals. amountcd to Only 135,652 metric tons; in 1876 they had reached to 946,092 tons, Great Britain supplying almost the entire quantity. Since 1876 Germany has made a deter- mined effort to supply the Scandinavian countries and Rus- sia with her Westphalian coal. st^SicT'^ ^^"^ • Iron and steel statistics. Ore production. The productiou of iron ores in Sweden was 417,337 metric tons in 1860, of which 395,111 tons were mountain ores, and 22,226 tons were lake and bog ores. In 1874 the production was 926,825 tons, when the maximum was reached, of which only 4,300 tons were lake and bog ores. In 1876 the pro- duction of mountain ores feU to 787,461 tons, while that of lake and bog ores increased to 9,000 tons. The exports of Swedish ores are mainly to Finland, amounting to 25,310 metric tons in 1874, and in 1876 to 14,920 tons. The im- ports of iron ore are only nominal, amounting in 1874 to •only 191 metric tons, probably from Norway. Blast-furnaces. In 1875 there were 325 blast furnaces in Sweden, of which 224 were in blast and 101 were out of blast. In 1876 there were 205 in blast, which produced 344,834 metric tons of IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 63 Wronght-iron and steel. Ini]5ort8 of iron and iron manu- factures : Valun. pig-iron. The production of pig-iron in 1860 was 179,897 6^"°^' metric tons ; in 1870 it was 293,253 tons ; and in 1873 it was Pig-^n. 339,685 tons. The production of castings from the blast- iiirnace has increased since 1860, when it was 5,237 metric tuns ; in 1876 7,788 tons were produced. In 1875 there were produced 17,331 tons of castings in 61 foundries ; 189,845 castings. tons of wrought iron w6re produced with 770 furnaces and fires in 33 works ; and 21,385 tons of Bessemer, open-hearth, and other steel were produced in 33 steel works, of which 19,370 tons were Bessemer steel. The total production of Products in iron rails in 1875 was 2,893 tons ; of plates and sheets, 9,077 tons ; of wire and nails, 8,313 tons ; of tools, 1,847 tons ; of " other hardware," 16,110 tons. The imports of iron and steel, machinery, tools, and cut- lery into Sweden, principally from Great Britain, aggregated 88,355 metric tons in 1875, of which 55,099 tons were rails, and 17,924 tons were pig-iron. The total value of the im- ports was £1,628,386, of which £824,938 represented "ma- chines and tools," not including steam-engines and edge- tools. In 1875 the imports of iron and steel amounted to 65,893 tons, of which rails formed just one-half. The ex- Exports: ports of iron and steel, etc., from Sweden in 1875 amounted to 204,752 metric tons, of which 106,393 tons were bar-iron ; 48,742 tons were pig-iron ; 12,439 tons were blooms ; 20,049 tons were hoop, bulb, and "other iron;" and 6,273 tons were " raw steel." The value of the exports was £2,512,549. '^aine. In 1876 only 174,862 tons were exported. It is plain that Sweden does not derive the benefits from her valuable iron resources that she might. She imports almost half as much iron and steel and their products as she exports, and pays for the articles she imports more than half the money she receives for her exports. Greater diversification of her me- Needsof Sweden chanical industries, greater persistence in those for which she possesses special facilities, a wider acceptance of modern metallurgical methods, an increase of her 2,500 miles of rail- road to at least 5,000 miles, and a protective tariff are the great needs of the iron and steel industries of Sweden. UNITED STATES. UKITED STATES. The United States is the last to be mentioned of the eig-ht second iurank ° of iron and s^^«i- countries named in a preceding table which produce more producing than ninety-eight and a half per cent, of all the iron and ™^" more than ninety-nine per cent, of all the steel made in the world; but it is the second in rank among these countries. teel- conn 64 UNIVEESAL EXPOSITION AT PAKIS, 1878. U NITED STATES. AbsencB of exhibits at Paris. piay™'or''JJ^r ''ro- "^^ ^^^ heen already stated, the whole display made by ducts'^* ""<' p™- the United States at Paris was inadequate and not fairly representative of the industrial resources and progress of our country. This remark is especially applicable to the display of iron and steel and their products. The great rolling-mills and steel works of the country literally made no sign of their capabilities, and our equally great blast-fnr- naces and machine shops were scarcely represented, and our cutlery and tool manufactories but partially. It is not merely a familiar rhetorical i)leasautry to say that the pro- ducts of a,ll these establishments were conspicuous by their absence, for their presence in force had been expected, and The promise of with reason. The Philadelphia Exhibition had taught the not reidLed^ world that the United States had developed unsurpassed ^*™' enterprise, and skill, and resources in the production of all kinds of iron and steel, and machinery, cutlery, and tools, and surely it was not to have been expected that the manu- facturers of these products would so generally ignore another world's fair two years later. To be more specific, it may be The products frankly stated that absolutely nothing was exhibited by the works"and Iron- various Steel works of the country, nor by the rail, bar, plate, mils not oxmb- gjjgg^^ hoop, and Wire mills. Not a rail, nor a bar of iron, nor an ingot of steel of American manufacture was on exhi- bition, and only a few kegs of cut nails. The large loco- ono locomo- motive works of the United States were represented by one ensme.""" ™' locomotivc ; the manufacturers of steam fire-engines sent only one engine; the manufacturers of machine tools sent almost nothing; there was but one exhibit of pig-iron and but two or three exhibits of iron ores ; no American railway freight car was on exhibition ; there was but one exhibit of Few ores, coal, American anthracite coal, and none whatever of our un- equaled Connellsville coke. Of bituminous or semi-bitu- minous coal from the great coal basins of the country, West and stoves. Virginia made the only display. We sent but few stoves, although we make the neatest, cheapest, and best stoves in the world. An unpleasant subject may be dismissed with nit'°of deT'eni'il'' *^^® Summary statement that a great opportunity to deepen tiio impression the good impression made at Philadelphia by our iron and tenniai Bxhibi- steel manufacturers, and by our manufacturers of heavy machinery, and of cutlery and tools, and to reap the fruits of that impression, was almost "wholly lost at Paris — lost because our own government delayed too long the accept- ance of the invitation by the French Government to partici- . pate in the Exposition, and because when the invitation was accepted sufficient money was not appro])riated to lEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 65 enable manuiactuiers to make a proper display of tlieir "m"'ed btates. products. Iron and steel exhibits. The Barnum Eichardson Company, of 'Lime Eock, Conn., aijsonco ^^^"^ made a very fine exhibit of Salisbury iron ores, charcoal pig-iron, and chilled car wheels. Samples of the pig-iron and some of the car wheels were broken to show their qual- ity. Some of the Salisbury wheels of exceptional excel- lence have made the following mileage record on the Lake of^"''*s'aH3burv Shore and Michigan Southern Eailroad : 4 wheels averaged "heels. 185,049 miles; 2 averaged 220,528 miles; 2 others averaged 198,967 miles; 3 averaged 189,397 miles; 6 averaged 175,203 miles ; and 4 averaged 168,979 miles. The Lobdell Car Wheel Company, of Wilmington, Del., Louaeii car also made a very creditable display of chilled car wheels, and of chilled- iron rolls for calendering paper and for other manufacturing purposes. The company also submitted printed statements showing the amount of service per- formed by some of the wheels of its manufacture. One wheel had been twenty-flve years in service on the New York and Erie Eailroad, and is supposed to have run a mill- ion miles; other wheels had been in use on the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Eailroad over twenty years, but their mileage is not known. From 50,000 to 80,000 miles is ^^^^j'-g^se aistiuctivei.v ^ J. i ./ jjg^ processes. resting place in the invention of new processes m the manu- facture of iron and steel, and iron and steel makers every- where appear to have reached the conclusion that in the im- provement of present processes and in an extension of the use of iron and steel are they to find problems worthy of their attention in the future. Of the whole display of iron and steel products at Paris, wuoie display and of machinery applied to the manufacture of iron and ' ™'™ steel or to other manufacturing purposes, I cannot speak in terms of sufilcient praise. The display of iron and steel products has never been equaled at a world's fair, while the display of machinery generally has only been equaled by that made at Philadelphia. The Philadelphia exhibit of ma- CompurLsuQ of chinery was more extensive and more varied than that of exiiibits'at piul- Paris, audit possessed an additional advantage in being more ^ ''^ ''' generally in motion. But the Paris Exposition demon and p.-uis, ists. strated more fully than the Philadelphia Exhibition, or any previous international exhibition, the efficiency of machinery in all industrial enterprises, the efforts of every progressive nation to obtain the best machinery for its own service, and the necessity imposed upon all, by their active competition with one another, to adopt every new device and improve- ment which tends to increase, perfect, and cheapen pro- ducts. Eeferring particularly to the iron and steel exhibits, and to the explanatory and supplementary information which I have presented concerning them, it is clearly demonstrated that modern processes and modern machinery for the manu- Modem pio- facture of these products are now in general use in all lead- oWnery in use in ing iron and steel making countries, and that the skill nee- and steeiSfailins countries. 88 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT TARIS, 1878. o/uiT^yoHam ^ssary to^apply them is rapidly being equalized. No nation Ko nations HOW has a monopoly of the manufacture of any kind of iron hiivo monopoly i'ij?j.i j*.l.i ly i* in any i:md of or any kind of steel, or of the use of any machinery neces- "es" "' oi""" 'Sa^ sary to their production. Some countries will, of course, uhiiiery. continue to display greater enterprise than others in the utilization of their resources for the manufacture of iron and steel, but none of the leading nations of the world will lag behind because they have not become practically familiar with the best methods adapted to this utilization. Closely allied to this subject is another fact with which the observant visitor at Paris could not fail to be impressed, and which has been prominently illustrated in this report — Gonci a distii- f Jig general distribution of good iron ores in all countries, uutionot iron ore o o 7 .and (»ai and the equally general distribution of mineral fuel to smelt them. Countries that were once supposed to contain but little good iron ore are found to possess large and practically inexhaustible deposits of the best of ores, and countries that were not known to possess coal deposits of any magnitude or of good quality are found to possess almost boundless Sweden and (jg^rbonlferous resources. Sweden and Italy are the only Italy: ricn more, ^ , *^ poof in coal. two of the leading countries of the world that are at once rich in iron ores and poor in mineral fuel. Russia, xVustria, and Germany have more and better coal than has been gen- Abuudanco of crally conceded to them. If Spain, Portugal, Turkey, India, dtod!" '^''™'"°' China, Japan, and Australia shall ever attempt the manu- facture of iron in large quantities, their progress will not be impeded because of a deficiency of domestic coal. Even iu countries where native coal is not of the best quality for noutrii'ilin" bad ®™'^^*^°^ ^^''^ ^^^^ ^^ rcfiuing iron, the methods now gen- oflbcts of "poor erally in use for removing impurities or for making iron and steel with gas will be found to neutralize very largely this inferiority! A fact of much significance connected with the natural distribution of iron ores was perhaps more fully illustrated at Paris than at any previous international exhibition. Owing to the marvelous increase in the production of Bes- ;m"d™nZ'^iS s<5™6r stecl in late years, the manganiferous and non-phos- Si^smta°Ai"e"iT P^^*^^^^®™'^® ^^^^ ^^ Spain, Algeria, and Italy have been fui'fo^'Be semei' ^^^goly drawu upou for supplies to Bessemer vrorks iu coun- jmctice. tries rich in other varieties of ores. These Bessemer ores were liberally exhibited at Paris, and they served to mark and to emphasize the great dependence of the Bessemer steel industries of Great Britain, Franco, Germany, and Belgium upon foreign sources of ore supply, and the virtual equalization of the cost of Bessemer ores to all these coun- tries. IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 89 But ii fact of still greater general significaiice was '^^^^^- JS^'^Ultlum trated at Paris in the large and varied collection of Bes- semer products which was there exhibited. AH the leading iron-making countries exhibited Bessemer steel, and in almost every form in which other kinds of steel and all kinds of iron have heretofore been used. The revolution which the Bessemer process has wrought in the iron trade iia^''\7''™,';r,i"t " a was made strikingly manifest in a survey of the contribu- ?'^™\"/;j?" '" """ tions of European countries, but to an American who re- membered the wonderful development of the Bessemer industry in his own country, which sent no Bessemer prod- ucts to Paris, these contributions were more impressive and more suggestive than they could be to any European. It is a trite saying that the age of steel has come, and that ..^o°<,f st^/^f ™* the manufacture of iron is giving place to that of steel, but the Paris Exposition showed that the progress made during the past two or three years in the manufacture of Bessemer steel, and open-hearth steel as well, is so great, that statis- Open henrth tics fail to give any proper conception of its magnitude. The London "Times" remarks that "the Bessemer process The Bessemer has ruined the manufactured-iron trade;" but it has done of "the manufact more than this — it has distributed among many countries ™°''"^™" *''''"'''■ the manufacture of Bessemer steel, and thus enabled them to supply more fully their own metallurgical wants and the metallurgical wants of other countries, in lieu of their own previous partial dependence upon Great Britain for both la enabling . ,, T Ti -1 .TT -. other countries iron and steel products. It has thus aided not only to ruin to become inde the manufactured-iron trade of all countries, but to ruin Britain. that of Great Britain particularly, and it has placed a limit upon the Bessemer steel industry of Great Britain itself. Here is a new revolution, or a new revelation, in connection with the world's iron industry which was reserved for Paris to make clearly manifest through the abundant proofs there furnished of the wide distribution of the Bessemer process wide distribu- and the wide substitution of Bessemer products for those of seSer process^ iron and other steel processes. And what has been said of ^''it™'^pToduots the Bessemer process and of the injury it has inflicted upon ^"^ "™' the British iron trade is applicable also in a large degree to the Siemens-Martin process and its modifications. sicmens-Mai-tan With one exception, the Paris Exposition did not furnish process. any valuable suggestions of new uses for iron. This excep- tion relates to the introduction of various systems of iron permanent way for railroads, in place of the wooden cross- iron permanent ties and stringers which are now generally in use. One of ^"'^^ these systems, Hilf 's, has been adopted on nearly a thousand hui 's sj .stem. miles of railway in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and other 90 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PAEIS, 1878. spMiaj/Mteres countries. Both the stringers and the cross-ties are of of the Exposition. ~ ■ wrought iron. Other systems, at least one of which substi- tutes steel for iron, are modifications of the Hilf system. It seems not improbable that one or two of these systems will become popular and even necessary in countries which do not possess an abundance of timber, but at present many wSf" ar™Sb9ti' objections are made to their adoption. It is alleged that tat'o wiicio fuel the first cost of an iron permanent way, cheap as iron has become, is much greater than one of wood, and that it is liable to corrode, and is more rigid than wood. I did not notice at Paris nor in my travels that much progress had (■nrs!^™° ''''"'™'' been made in the substitution of iron for wood in the con- struction of railway cars. Concerning some other uses to which iron has been adapted within a comparatively recent period, I learned that iron is every year coming into more general use in Europe as a substitute for wood in the con- brid™s'""ienc?s struction of buildings and parts of buildings, in the con- '■''=■ " ' ' struction of bridges, in telegraph poles, in mining operations, and in fencing. I would not discourage the hope that the use of iron for all of the purposes which have been men- tioned will increase Irom year to year, but this increase must be gradual in all countries, and in our own country the gen- eral introduction of an iron permanent way must be long delayed. TimKTaTfnei"^^''^ ^ product of cconomic interest and of rapidly increasing economic value was represented at Paris in numerous ex- hibits of compressed miiieral fuel, or briquets, composed chiefly of inferior coal or coal waste, to which is added coal- tar as a cement. France, Belgium, Germany, and even Great Britain manufacture this new fuel, France obtaining part of her supply of the raw material from Wales, and finding a'market for the sale of a portion of the manufact- BrUfueta fur lo- urcd product iu Italy, where it is used as fuel for locomo- tives. Machines for the manufacture of this fuel were also exhibited at Paris, much space being occupied by them in the French section. As has already been remarked, France j^^^Pjo'ioctio" "f annually produces about 700,000 tons of briquets and Bel- gium about 500,000 tons ; Germany and Great Britain, re- spectively, manufacture smaller quantities. Its increased production in Europe is assured. At present it is mainly ^^ American prao-^^gg^ tj^qxx steamships Biud in locomotives. In this country a successful attempt to manufacture compressed fuel from anthracite coal dust has been made on a large scale at Fort Ewen,near Eondout, N. Y., and today the enterprise is firmly established, the fuel, which is in large lumps, being supplied P™' to steamships and locomotives. Mr. E. P. Loiseau, an Ameri- Loiseau's CCS3. IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOREELL. 91 can gentleman, has recently perfected machinery for the of^l'^^y^niim economical manufacture of the same kind of fuel in smaller lumps, for general use. The possibilities of the compressed- compieascd fuci. fuel manufacture are large and important, and do not lie wholly outside of the manufacture of iron and steel, but in this country the abundance and cheapness of good coal will long operate as an impediment to the utilization of the dust which has accumulated or may accumulate in the vicinity of our coal mines. It may be added that General Manager J. E. Wootten, of the Philadelphia and Beading Eailroad wootten'ssrato ' J. . c? jQj. ijurniiiji coal Company, has invented a grate for locomotive and station- iiust, ary engines by which anthra.cite coal dust can be success- fully and economically used as fuel. Several of these grates are in use by the company. The only American locomotive shown on tbo exhibited at Paris was built and sent by this company and loMiins'^iOTMmo^ was furnished with one of these grates, by which it can i^e '^™ '" ''''''■"'■ operated with either coal dust or lump coal, without any change iu the grate or iire-box. It was successfuly tested on several French railroads, and has since been taken to useamrranoo . '' . ^ . . ana Italy. Switzerland, where it has given great satisfaction m the use of the fuel of that country. Prom Switzerland it is to be taken to Italy. During my stay in Paris it was my good fortune to be present at a meeting in that city of the Iron and Steel Insti- inititate^'rcfroat tnte of Great Britain. This body is composed of several Britain. hundred of the leading metallurgists of the world, a ma- jority being iron and steel manufacturers of England, Scot- land, and Wales. At its meetings, which are held at least twice a year, are discussed scientific questions of the great- Discussions, est importance to all iron and steel manufacturers, and to these discussions may be justly attributed much of the prog- ress that has been made in the manufacture of iron and steel in all countries since the establishment of the Institute in 1869. Such men as Bessemer, Samuelson, the Duke of Dev- . Leading minds ' in tlio progresa of onshire,BelI, Whitwell, Snelus,Mushet, Siemens, Menelaus, the steel indus- Adamson, Akerman, Tunner, Wedding, Gruner, Jordan, Schneider, Fritz, and Holley have placed iron and steel manufacturers everywhere under heavy obligations to them for freely giving to the world the results of their patient studies and laborious experiments in connection with the work of blast furnaces, rolling mills, and steel works. At the Paris meeting there was an unusually large attendance m^tera^o"/ the of the members of the Institute, and the papers read were '°''**''*''™''"'™- of an instructive and valuable character. I earnestly com- mend to my countrymen who are engaged in the manufact- ure of iron and steel the example of the Iron and Steel In- 92 UNIVERSAL EXPO.SITION AT PARIS, 1878. speeiaifeatares ^lHjx-^Q of Great Britain. All proper agencies which now of tlie Jjlxposition. • i. a. r^ exist for the acquisition and dissemination of information necessary to the continued scientific development of our iron and steel industries should be strengthened and per- fected. In these industries, at home as well as abroad, sci- ence rules the day and the hour; old methods have passed or are rapidly passing away, and the utmost economy, skill, Our uced of and technical knowledge are essential to success. Much as diasemination of wc have already learned — much as we have ourselves in- m orma ion. yeuted — I assurc American manufacturers of iron and steel that we can yet learn from our fellow craftsmen in other countries, and that we must learn from them if we would equal all of their best achievements. Cause, of to CAUSES OP THE UNIVERSAL BDSmESS DEPEES- general bunness ^-ktvt depression. SIO!N. Leaving the Paris Exposition, I now turn to a considera- tion of the present condition of the European iron and steel industries. First, however, it is proper that some notice should be taken of the present industrial condition of all countries which arc largely devoted to manufactures. That the manufacturing industries of leading European countries, as well as of the United States, have been de- pressed for many years is news to no reader of this report. This depression has had various causes,*some immediate and others remote, and it has not had its beginning at the same time in all countries ; but, whatever its causes, and whether early or late its beginning, it has reached all man- EuropehasBuf-ufacturing countries, and through its influence upon them tiTeiy than the it has atfcctcd the prosperity of the whole world. Europe, being more exclusively devoted to manufactures than the Reasons. Uuitcd S'^atcs, and having a dense population, has suffered the most from this depression ; the United States, being mainly an agricultural country, with a population widely distributed, and with manufactures which have been built up for the supply of the home market rather than the for- eign market, and have been protected at home from unlim- ited foreign competition, has suffered the least, and is the first country to begin to recover from its effects. Query: as to The inquiry is natuially suggested Mhether the universal the causes of the , • i i , , , , universal de- depression has been created by the numerous wars of the pression. ^^^^ ^^^ ycars, particularly by the civil war iu the United E.uensivewars. States from 1861 to 1865, the war between Prussia and Austria in 1866, the war between Germany and Prance in 1870 and 1871, and the war between Eussia and Turkey in 1877 and 1878. Undoubtedly these wars Influenced unfa- lEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOKEELL. 93 vorably the manufacturing industries of many countiies, Causes of the by first partially arresting their healthy activity and after- iiopremivm. wards unduly stimulating their development. In the United States, Austria, and Germany this forcing of manufacturing activity was accomxilished largely through the influence of an increase in the currency, itself a result of war; but neither the recent wars, nor the inflation of the currency which ac- companied some of them, will sufficiently account for the depression and distress with which the civilized world is to- day so familiar. Pirst among additional causes may unquestionably bCj^j^^^^^'^ ^^ placed the influence of machinery in cheapening and ihcreas- cheapening ana ^ ^ p ^ increasing mana- ing manufactured products. By means of the mechanical faotnred pro- inventions of the past twenty years, manufacturing nations have attained a productive capacity in excess of the con- sumptive capacity of both civilized and half-civilized na- tions. This is true of manufactures of cotton, silk, and woolen goods ; and it is especially true of manufactures of iron and steel, in which must be included all railway appli- ances. This development of manufacturing facilities would have taken place if there had been no wars, for the inven- tion of the steam-engine, of railroads, and of the magnetic telegraph, and the discovery of gold in California and Aus- tralia, gave such an impetus to the world's progress that improvements in labor-saving machinery, for the supply of new wants and to meet new conditions of civilization, were certain to follow. ISext among the causes of world-wide depression must be thl^™em°nl for placed the slackening of the demand for nevv^ railroads. '^'"^'^^"^y^- For a period of about ten years prior to 1873 all of the leading countries of the world and many of the second and third rate countries were actively engaged in building rail- roads, to afford means of communication between the sev- eral parts of their territories or to develop their latent resources. Many countries which were rich in enterprise but poor in ready money were assisted by the money-lenders of other countries to build these roads. While this work was in jprogress many branches of manufactures and of mechanical and engineering construction were liberally drawn upon for materials and labor, and to meet this demand the erection and equipment of new iron and steel works, locomotive works, car works, and minor industrial estab- lishments were rendered necessarj". In 1873 and imme- diately succeeding years it was found that as many of these railroads had been constructed as were required by the necessities of the countries building them, or as they were 94 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. aemrai"bmimss *^^^® *^ P'"^^ ^^^^ ^^ could borrow money to pay for, and with depression. the total OF partial cessation of the demand for new rail- roads a check was at once given to all the industries which had been built up or enlarged in expectation of a continn- cheok to railway ance of this demand. Millions of capital were found to enterprise. jj^ve been unprofltably invested ; armies of skilled and un- skilled workingmen were thrown out of employment ; and small industries, dependent upon the prosperity of the greater industries which had been abnorma;lly stimulated, either perished outright or were able to maintain only a sickly existence. Eaiiway statis- The railway statistics of Great Britain, Germany, and the United States are suflciently illustrative of the stimulating influence upon the iron trade and related industries of the fever for building new railroads that has existed in late years, and of the depressing effect of the subsidence of this way'^^miteape^in fever. From 1855 to 1873 the railway mileage of Great Sss-isTsf "s^tT" '' Britain increased from 8,335 miles to 16,082 miles, or almost doubled. At the beginning of 1878 the mileage had in- Germany: creascd to Only 17,109 miles. The railway mileage of Ger- 1835-1876, 1878. many increased from 4,863 miles in 1855 to 8,637 nules in 1865 ; to 17,372 miles in 1876 ; and to 18,828 miles at the beginning of 1878. The decline in 1876 and 1877 was United States : continued in 1878. The railway mileage of the United 1855-1805, 1873. "^ " States increased from 18,374 miles in 1855 to 35,085 miles in 1865, almost doubling, the civil war i^reventing a greater increase ; but in 1873 the large mileage of 1865 was fully doubled, the number of miles then in operation being 70,311. ^Construction in Xu oue year alone, 1871, no less than 7,608 miles were con- 1873-1877. structed. But from 1873 to 1877 only 8,897 miles were constructed, an average of a little more than 2,200 miles in 1803-1873. four years. The average for the eight years from 1865 to 1873 was over 4,400 miles annually. The mileage for 1878 was about 2,600 miles. Iron statistics. To show how rapidly the iron industry alone was devel- oped in the years immediately preceding thebeginning of the tim°ot'' f ''irra'" prescut depression, I give the statistics of the world's produc- tion of pig-iron in each of the years 1855, 1872, and 1^573, as 1855, 1872, 1873. follows: 1855—6,889,906 EngUsh tons; 1872—14,470,358 tons ; 1873—14,706,459 tons. The production of 1855, it is seen, was more than doubled in 1872, a period of only seven- teen years. This progress could not be expected to continue, is??^"""" *""^° ^^^ accordingly we find that in 1873 the production was only slightly in excess of that of 1872. In 1873 production reached its maximum, and since then it has steadily de- clined, the figures given in the beginning of this report IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 95 showing a present annual production of only 13,807,725 tons. ^^SaT%Mm'i«« Stated more emphatically, the annual production of pig- rfeyc««*o)i. iron, which more than doubled between 1855 and 1872, has declined almost a million tons from 1873 to 1878. While the fever for building railroads was everywhere at its height another influence was actively at work to assist in destroying the prosperity of the iron industry by destroying, to a large extent, the demand for iron itself. A revolution involving the general substitution of steel for iron had been SubBtitution of steel for iron. commenced, and so popular did it become that all the lead- ing countries were soon engaged in promoting it. The Bes- semer process and the open-hearth process for converting iron into steel at first helped only to meet a universal de- mand for both iron and steel, but when the merits of these processes became fully known and works devoted to them were established in many places, they gradually wrought a diminution in the hunger for iron, especially iron rails, and contributed greatly to precipitate the depression in the iron industry, and in all industries more or less dependent upon it. The new processes not only rendered useless hundreds . Kendeiedmaiiy ^ * iron establisb- of iron establishments which had been called into existence ™«"*« nseiess. by the wants of new railroads and the exigencies of war, but they gave to the world products of greater durability Ga^e products than iron at approximately the same cost, thus decreasing biiity. the demand for iron ore, coal, and other raw materials which are common to the manufacture of both iron and steel. They did more than this ; they almost wholly destroyed the large demand that had existed for years for finished-iron and for heavy iron machinery for the construction of blast furnaces and iron -rolling mills. We have here four leading causes of the world-wide busi- . Kesnme of the ° lourcaasesof the ness depression of the past few years : Destructive wars ; general acpres- the general substitution during the past twenty years of labor-saving machinery, and of more rapid processes of manu- facture ; the culmination of the fever for building new rail- roads ; and, lastly, the partial destruction of the world's iron industry by the revolution created by the introduction of the Bessemer and open-hearth processes. These causes of de- pression have operated with almost equal force in countries engaged in war and in countries which were not so engaged , in countries which had an inflated currency and in countries which did nothaveit; in countries largely engaged inmanufac tures and in countries only slightly engaged in them. But, of all the countries visited by the hard times of the past few leSt affSi^nl years, those least injuriously affected, and possessing to-day ^peratlSg^-''.™ the brightest prospects for an industrial future, are the two ^Xi ^aflJ'" 96 which have most protected their home industries, the two great republics, ]?rance and the United States. I now reach the proposed inquiry into the present condi- tion of the iron and steel industries of Europe. OondiMono/tte PRESENT CCJ^DITION OP THE EUROPEAN IRON European iron trade. TEADE. ^^™ti'an panic After the Austrian panic of 1873 the building of railroads Check to rail- in the Austrian Empire received a severe check, the pro- waybuildingana ' iron industry, ductiou of pig-iron and iron rails materially declined, and the imports of all iron and steel also greatly declined. The Bessemer steel industry of Austria has been very slowly de- veloped, but its development has almost sufiiced to destroy the Austrian iron-rail trade. In 1878 the country had not recovered from the depression winch began in 1873, but it was adhering, and has since determined, to adhere, to its ProtectiTo t.ariff. protective tariff, through which its iron and steel manufact- urers are supplying the limited demand that exists for their products, and its other mannfacturers are secured the virtual possession of the home market. perity,''™'i-]873- '^^^ Tcsults of the business depression have been far more disastrous in Germany than in Austria. For about two years after the close in 1871 of lier war with France, Ger- many was prosperous. Labor was in demand, and wages Eeaction of 1873. and priccs advanced. But in 1873 symptoms of a decided reaction were manifested, and in that year the prosperity of the German iron and steel industries culminated, and it has Decline. siucc continued steadily to decline. This reaction would not have been so severe as it has been if the German Govern- ment, in an excess of generosity which is unaccountable, Eoniovaiofpio- had not at the beginning of 1S77 removed all duties on for- tectivtj dntiea in..*., ,, . ■ ,t • n n • 1877. eign iron and steel, thus increasing the severity of foreign competition at a time when domestic manufacturers of ii'on and steel were struggling with other causes of trade de- pression. A German statistical authority last year snm- marized as follows some of the consequences to the German iron trade of the reaction which commenced in 1873: iio^n"''iradc'''^and "Between 1872 and 1876 tlio number of iron mines in opefation in contraction 1872- Germany, incluclinf; the Grand Duehy of Luxembnrjj, declined from 1,341 to 1,026, and tlio number of miners from 39,421 to 28,138. "Within tlie same xieriod tlio number of furnaces in blast fell from 348 to 297, and the workmen employed from 26,111 to 20,.'S00. Between April, 1873, and April, 1877, the number of workmen employed by 22 of the princi- pal companies engaged in the iron trade (excluding Krupii) fell from Loss of values. 27,700 to 14,600. Within the same period the value of the stock of the Phoenix Company fell from 16,200,000 marks to 4,880,000 marks; of the Hiirde Company from 15,000,000 marks to 3,210,000 marks; of the Jio- IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 97 obum Company from 15, 000, 000 marks to 3,375,000 marks; oi the BoTt- ^^OondUim^ ^o/ mund Union Company from 41,400,000 marks to 2,070,000 marks; and of iron tradT'^"'^^ the Donnersmarkhtitte Company from 18,000,000 marks to 3,906,000 marks. Of 32 companies, whose united capital amounted to £15,600,000, only six showed any dividend whatever for the year 1876, and the ag- gregate accounts published for that period showed a balance of loss on Loss of values the year's operations of £359,000 on that capital, as compared with a Stei^sts™ "^°" loss of £195,000 for the previous year." A consular report to the United States Government in consular re- -r-r^ ,1. , ,■• J ,■ 11 ports of conlli- May, 1878, stated that in Westphaha at that time all man- tion of German ,. . -. . .,1 1 . •j.t iron tra^e. ufacturers were "living on their capital, working away witn yearly losses, waiting for the arrival of better times." An- other consular report from Brandenburg, written about the same time, stated that "the returns of the great railway companies for the first quarter of the year show again di- minished receipts, both for goods and passengers, and the stockholders in some cases will receive no semi-annual divi- dend." A German newspaper of recent date contains the following statement: "The Borsig Locomotive and Machin- closing of the ery Works, one of the proudest monuments of the iron trade ti™ ana MaoSn- of Germany, are, it is reported, about to be closed for an ^^^ indefinite period. For some time past they have had to be. kept going out of savings, and this the trustee of the Bor- sig estate declines to continue to do any longer. The works have been conducted at a loss for so many years in succes- sion that they threaten to swallow up the entire estate." It need scarcely be added that both wages and the prices of manufactured products have greatly fallen in Germany since 1873. In the beginning of that year, it is stated, a passen- Decline in prf- ger locomotive would bring £3,420, and is now worth only stock. £2,225; first-class passenger cars have fallen from £750 to £450; second-class from £712 to £420; third-class from £402 to £200; fourth-class from £309 to £22. While in 1873 German manufacturers were called on to supply 332 . Orders for roii- ^^ •' mg-stock, 1873, locomotives, 924 passenger cars, and 4,006 freight cars, the i878. orders in 1878 embraced only 68 locomotives, 336 passenger cars, and 1,901 freight cars. The depression in all manu- facturing industries was suijposed to be at its height in 1878. Many workmen were unemployed, and the general distress was very great, but this the government was endeavoring to alleviate. The wonderful recuperative power which France displayed Eecuperative after the close of the war with Germany was illustrated in ^""^^ the revival of her iron and steel industries, but of late much difiBculty has been experienced in maintaining the steel as well as iron establishments of France in operation ;. and, but for the strongly protective policy of the country, 7 p E ^VOL 3 98 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. Condition 0/ wliicli has many forms, the difficulty would have been much iron traic™^"""' Increased, and financial and social distress would have been general. But France not only maintains high duties on Protection and foreign manufactures : she still further protects her home employment of ° r- • t t • t^ native Indus- manufactures by doing her utmost to furnish them with em- triea of ITranoe. , ,., ,.„.•■■,».. t ■, ployment. The building of railroads, for instance, has been greatly promoted by the government, and in the supply of rails and other material for new and already constructed railroads it is insisted that home products shall be preferred. The close relations which the government sustains toward the railroads makes it possible to have its wishes respected. Ifotwith standing the help of the government, however, many iron and steel works of France, chiefly iron-rail mills and blast furnaces, were not employed in 1878. Prices Decline in pii- have fallen to a very low standard, Bessemer steel rails having recently been reduced from $40 to $35 a ton, and ordinary bars at Paris to 147 J francs, or $28.47 a ton. The Wages. wages of labor are also very low. A French journal which is recognized as an authority stated at the beginning of 1878 that "production is beyond consumption; production has been too rapid, and must wait until an equilibrium has been established." It is worthy of note that the French iron and steel and other industries were not stimulated into activity by an Inflated currency, as was partly the case in Austria and Germany, but that they have reached the point of de- velopment stated by the French journalist in defiance of a positive contraction of the currency, resulting from the payment of the heavy indemnity to Germany. Disadvantages French iron and steel makers have had great natural dis- of poor quality of ore and coal, advantages to contend with. Although there is no scarcity of native ore and coal, their quality is not usually the best that could be desired. The coal is generally very impure, and requires to be washed before it is coked ; the ore is not well adapted to the manufacture of steel. Large quantities Importations of of both coal and ore are imported for use in French iron and oro and coal. ^ steel works, and, owing to inland transportation, their orig- inal cost is greatly enhanced. It is only in consequence of low wages and long hours and by the practice of the utmost Eigid economy economy in all details that France is enabled to manufact- m all details. ure iron and steel at prices approximating those which pre- vail in neighboring countries. Belgian won The Belgiau iron and steel industries were not so gener- and steel mans- o ^ tries. ally depressed in 1878 and immediately preceding years as those of Austria or Germany or Great Britain, the degree . of depression they experienced corresponding more nearly to that of the French iron and steel industries. With a IRON AND STEEI- EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 99 great effort, and with the help of orders from the Beleiaii oondUimiofthe ^ ' * *^ European %r ^j(jj England. formidable competitor with other countries m supplying the iron and steel markets of the world. The iron and steel industries of Eussia have not suffered anl^steei indu™ from over-production, as they have not in late years fully *"''''• supplied the home market. The recent purchase in the Puroiiasps in the United United States by Eussia of four iron steamships and forty states. locomotives indicates this truth very plainly, if other statis- tics of Eusisian imports did not. Eussian iron and steel Difficuitios: manufacturers have had much to contend with in the pov- Poverty. erty of the people, in the unsettled political condition of. ■unsettled pout- '^ i i 7 -I ical condition. Eussia, in the lack of suiflcient means of communication, Laoii of laii- . ., ■ways and of m the small consumption of iron and steel, except for rail- swiiedworismen. way and military purposes, and in the want of skilled work- men, especially for the development of the coal deposits of the country. The inducements to embark in the manufact- ure of iron and steel are not such as usually exist in other civilized countries. Eussia is not conspicuously a manu- facturing country, although she has certainly made rapid advances in late years in supplying her own wants. Her export trade in manufactured products is very small, and and^^'"^'im™rta her imports are large. I do not look for Eussia to recover i-^e^- rapidly from the effects of her war with Turkey; but she may be expected to strive hard to supply her own wants for iron, steel, and other manufactured products, and to exhibit a constantly diminishing demand for like products of for- eign manufacture. There have of late been many financial failures in the ranks of Swedish iron and steel manufacturers, and many Sweden. works have been closed. Production has been practically Prodnotion sta^ tionary. stationary for years, although the number of modern iron and steel works has in the mean time been increased, espe- cially Bessemer steel works. But other countries can make Bessemer steel cheaper than Sweden, and but little of this 100 i;«ro''?'n"°(rTOP™*^"°* ^^^^ ^^^ makes is exportPd, and she makes but '™'^«- , little. With the increased use of Bessemer and open-hearth Sweden. Besaomei aud Steel in other countries the demand for Swedish iron has de- open-hearth steel • ■ »_ 1 diminish demand clincd, cveu for her bcst brands for conversion into crucible for Swedish iron. ,^ , ,, ., itt steel. Swedish iron and steel makers are thus placed be- tween two fires ; they are deprived of a portion of the home market through the absence of protective duties, and they cannot make either iron or steel at prices sufficiently low to enable them to become formidable competitors with other makers in foreign markets. I can see but little prospect for an improvement in the Swedish iron and steel industries, Objectionable and none whatever so long as the Swedish tariff remains as present tariit. ^ it is. Italian and The Italian and Spanish iron and steel industries are not Spanish iron ana ^ steel industries, of sufBicient importance to call for further remark concern- ing their present condition than to state that, small as they Small demand, are, thev are not equal to the supply of the home demand pai-tlymetbyim- ' •' t. i. r- j portation. for ii'on and steel. Other countries, however, will probably not be called upon to supply large quantities of these pro- ducts to these countries in the near future, for neither country is prosperous, both having suffered greatly from political troubles and from the want of that industrial en- terprise which characterizes the northern countries of En- large exports rope. In supplying iron ore to more enterprising nations, both Italy and Spain will be likely to become more promi- nent from year to year. Norway, Switzerland, Portugal, and Turkey will not make much iron or steel, nor will they need much from any source. Ebb of prosper- The tide iu the prosperity of the British iron and steel itymBiitishiron . r l u amd .steel indns- industries has cbbcd with the refusal or inability of other countries to buy British iron and steel in the large quantities that were a few years ago required. The exports of these Decline of ex- products havc Steadily declined from 3,382,762 tons in 1872 ''°'*'' to 2,299,223 tons in 1878, and their value has declined from £37,731,239 in 1873, when the highest prices were obtained, to £18,393,974 in 1878. In 1870 the exports of British rails and rail-fastenings amounted to 1,059,392 tons ; in 1878 they amounted to 441,384 tons. During the years intervening between 1872 and 1878 Great Britain greatly expanded her Bessemer steel trade, and the decline in the aggregate quantity and value of her iron and steel exports is therefore all the more significant. As a result of this decline, many of her blast furnaces and rolling-mills have been closed, and Tion-i ail trade not a few of their owuers have been bankrupted. The iron cfioTOiand^^di's^rail trade of Wales and Cleveland has been pronounced by *""'• British writers to be "dead." Of 6,662 puddling furnaces lEON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORKELL. 101 from whicli returus had been obtained at the close of 1878 „ condition 0/ the European there were only 3,616 in operation. Of 977 blast furnaces *™" *™''«- existing at the close of the same year there were only 459 FurnaceB out in blast. The production of pig-iron in Great Britain at- tained its maximum in 1872, when 6,741,929 tons were made ; , Pig-iron pro- ' ' ' ' (luction, 1872, in 1878 the production fell to about 6,300,000 tons, and the is'a stocks of pig-iron on hand at the close of the year amounted to 679,000 tons in Scotland, and to 337,337 tons in Oleve- ciuveiand ran land. In 1873 the Cleveland district manufactured 324,420 ists. tons of iron rails; in 1878 only 21,000 tons were mauufact- ured. The price of Scotch pig-iron fell from 145s. in 1873 raiim price of '■ -"^ " iron, 187a, 1878, to 42s. 3 n -, . sieoi. prosperous. It is simermg to-day from overproduction. In destroyyig the British iron-rail trade it is not clear that it has not commenced to prey upon itself. Bessemer steel rails are now sold at the same prices as good iron rails, a Sheffield firm having recently accepted an order for 25,000 tons of steel rails for the Northeastern Eailway Company Low prices, at £4 9s. 6«Z., or $21.78. Competition between the owners of Bessemer establishments in Great Britain is so severe that already many of these establishments have been virtually works.'"^ °^ closed. 1 have just read in an English journal that " it is a fact that there are works which have not rolled a single rail since Christmas." One result is certain to follow the severe struggle that is now in progress in Great Britain ; not only iron rails but also all forms of manufactured iron and even crucible steel of British manufacture must be driven more and more from British and foreign markets. IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MORRELL. 103 The extraordinary development of the British iron and oondUionofiu *f ^ JHuropean iron steel industries which has been noted has been almost ^^a"**- equaled by the rapidity with which other British industries have been developed since the close of our civil war. These other industries, too, bave suffered from the effects of over- production as severely as the iron and steel industries. During 1878 the total numbers of business failures in Great Britain was 15,059, an increase of 4,037 in comparison with 1877. In the undue development of British manufacturing Undue devei industries and in the subsequent misfortunes which havetSes^" ovei'taken them an inflated currency has had no part, and until recently a protective tariff has had no friends. THE PEESBNT CONDI'I'ION OF LABOR IN EUROPEAN COUN- Condition of labor in Eurove. TRIES. Inseparably connected with the condition of the iron and steel and other manufacturing industries of Europe is the condition of European labor. In proportion as these in- dustries have been depressed so has labor lost its opportu- nities or gone without suf&cient reward. The working pop- ulation of Europe which is employed to-day is in receipt of wages which compel the severest economy in personal and Severest eoon- 1-I-1-I T-i., .in omy necessary household expenses, and which are, with few exceptions, lower than the wages paid to them before the late era of in- dustrial activity and speculation. The number of the un- i^umber of the employed, and of those who earn a precarious subsistence in yondau previous employments to which they are unaccustomed, is in most ^p®"™"" European countries larger than has been known for many years, and is especially large in Germany and Great Brit- ain. But for the maintenance on the Continent of large standing armies, which withdrew many thousands of skilled ^^^ into^the and unskilled workingmen from competition with their fel- armies. lows, the number there would be so great as to endanger the public peace. A few illustrations will sufSce to show the present condition of European labor in both manufact- uring and agricultural districts, but particularly in the former. In France, in May, 1878, the average daily wages of car- France. penters were $1 ; of masons, 75 cents ; of painters, 95 cents ; wages of me- of shomakers, 60 cents; of tailors, 75 cents; ot women em- ''''™^''^' ployed in various mechanical occupations, from 35 to 60 cents; and of children similarly employed, from 10 to 35 cents. At Creusot, where the highest wages ou the Conti- „f^r"„ao™'''''^ nent are paid to iron workers, the net wages of puddlers, in 1878, were about $2 a day, and helpers received 75 cents. 104 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. Condition of la- At the Wast f umaces at Saint Ohamond, in 1878, an ash- bor %n JEurope, t- i i rn^ Wages in rranoo. wheeler received 50 cents a day, an ordinary laborer 65 cents, a fireman 70 cents, and engineers 70 to 90 cents. The average annual earning of French colliers, in 1872, were only 980 francs, or $189.14, and their earnings are now still less. Mmers. i^ X877 the French Mining Department gave the average wages earned by the men employed in aU the coal pits and iron mines in France as being from about Is. 9d. to 2s. 4(Z., or 43 to 57 cents, per day of about 11 hours. In the same year Keport of Mr. Mr. Frederick Brittain, an English commissioner to inquire Brittain. into the ratcs of wages then paid in France, reported that at an iron works visited by him he found the wages of the preceding six months to have averaged 4s. G^d., or 86 cents, per man per day of 11 hours ; at several other iron works he found that the wages ranged from 2s. 6d. to 4s. per day Maohmists. of 11 hours. In the machine shops at LUle he found that the wages paid were 2s. 2^!«■■ petitionvn foreign steel be considered, such as pig-iron, bars, rails, plates, sheets, markatn. and beams, neither of these inquiries can be answered in the affirmative. It is well known to every well-informed person that the oar present low rt . 1 X 1 • J.T • J. 1 prices' the result prices of iron and steel in this country never were so low as of severe homo they are to-day, and that these low prices are the result of '''""P''*'*'™ the severest home competition which has ever been expe- rienced. In the struggle for the possession of the home market which the financial panic of 1873 precipitated and entailed upon our iron and steel manufacturers, they have made use of every resource that science and skill and econ- omy could suggest as a cheapening influence. Improve- improved and •^ °° r- o jr cheapening pro- men tS in machinery and in processes have been made at great cesses. expense; old methods of manufacture have been modified or discarded; search has. been made for better and cheaper raw materials; wages and profits have been reduced. Many Difficulties and m anufacturers have resorted to all the expedients here named, '"^ by which they hoped to keep their establishments in opera- tion, and yet have been unable to maintain their hold on the market, and with the failure to do this have retired from business or been forced into bankruptcy. With the knowl- Oarpresentiow . J. ./ prices exceed edge of this severe competition and its effects before us, it is those of Europe. not a reasonable supposition that prices can go much, if any, lower than they now are. And yet there are many countries in Europe in which both iron and steel are made much more cheaply than in the United States. Competition in these countries has been as severe as in this country; bankruptcy has followed bankruptcy; wages, always lower than in the United States, have been reduced and reduced again. Spe- cial natural advantages, joined to low wages, have combined with a slackening demand to bring the prices of iron andinEmo^eiwbe^ steel in Europe down to a level which has never before been ^mpia"^"™"^"^' reached. Among the natural manufacturing adv'antages referred to. Cheap transpor- . c» i3 7 ^a^^Qjj ju Europe. cheap transportation is most prominent. In the United States our best ores are found at long distances from the fuel , Distance of our ° best ores from the that IS needed to smelt them ; much of the pig-iron manu- f>iei- factured is necessarily made at long distances from the works which refine it into finished iron and steel, and even the finished product is usually transported hundreds of miles before it reaches the consumer. In Europe the ores and fuel P^ximity of -^ 0P6S Q/UUi IU6l lU are usually found in proximity to each other and to finished- g^^ ^ p^"^'^ "^ iron and steel works, or can be cheaply transported. The territorial extent of the leading manufacturing countries of Europe is small indeed when compared with the wide extent 110 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. AT PARIS, 1878. p^uion^foreimi, ^^ ''^^ ^^^ country, and the mineralogical riches of Europe markets. are distributed with remarkable evenness. Hence railroad transportation is not there the tax that it is in this country, and canal and ocean transportation still more cheaply serve the European manufacturer by bringing to him raw mate- Great adTan- rials or taking his finished product to a market. Great tagea of trans- ittj?'t portation in Britain alone has over 4,000 mues of canal, and her lacili- ties for receiving and shipping raw materials and manufact- ured products by sea are unequaled. Eeii ^°^''''™ My distinguished friend, Mr. I. Lowthian Bell, M. P., in his report to his government on the iron and steel resources of the United States, as represented at the Philadelphia Exhibition, saw and recognized the influence of long lines of transportation in adding to the cost of American Iron and steel products. He said : Proximity of " The vast extent of the territory of the United States renders that Great Britain. possible which in Great Britain is physically impossible ; thus it may and does happen that in the former, distances of nearly 1,000 miles may intervene between the ore and the coal, whereas with ourselves it is diflScult to find a situation in which the two are separated by even 100 miles." ished^ kon^'a^n'd '^^"^^ ^^ ^ ivikiok Statement of facts, but I may add to it United '"states" ^°other important fact, which the books of leading manu- inoreaaed one- facturfug Companies wlll Verify, that fully one-third of the avoidawo trana- cost of all the fluished-iron and steel that are made iu the portation. United States is created by unavoidable railroad transpor- tation. If it were possible to make iron and steel in this country without paying this tax to the railroads, there are few railroads tliat would pay a dividend to their stockhold- ers, and the building of new railroads would practically EaHway reve- ccasc, for all our leading railroad companies derive a large nues derived ' o a o therefrom. part of their revenue from the transportation of the ore, coal, coke, limestone, pig-iron, and finished-iron and steel used at or produced by our iron and steel works. With the cost of transportation reduced fifty per cent., and the price of labor reduced to the European standard, this countiy could make iron and steel as cheaply as Europe, but neither We do not result is possible, and neither is desirable. It is not wise the' Buro""ean statesmanship, nor true economy, nor humanity wo^tby of standard. ^.j^g jjame that seeks to cheapen any product by making capital a coward and labor a slave. But labor in this coun- try cannot be made the slave that it is in Europe, if legis- lation would seek to force such a result. Its greater intel- ow'''o'f lai^r licence, its political privileges, and its wider opportunities ■n tho United forbid the degradation. It would speedily reverse at the ballot-box all hostile legislation, and millions of fertile and IRON AND STEEL EXHIBITS: COMMISSIONER MOEEELL. Ill unbroken acres in the West will long afford an outlet to -^jnc"™" «»"»• ° petition m for- surplus labor in our manufacturing districts. «*i?" markets. We will doubtless continue to increase our exports of sucli oar exports of hardware and products as hardware, edge-tools, and light specialties, in tools iikeiy to I .. n ■, ■ , „ ■ . . , . continue. the production of which American ingenuity has given us an advantage; but bulky iron and steel products, which are manufactured with materials and by the employment of skill that Europe possesses in common with ourselves, we we cannot ex- cannot export in appreciable quantities, even to our nearest and stee/pro™ neighbors. A reference to the statistics of American ex- ports will show that we cannot. Our iron and steel manu- facturers will do well to abandon the hope that such a re- sult is possible. The statesmen of the country need not look for these manufacturers to swell our foreign commerce with their products. The home market is all that they can supply under existing conditions, and in supplying it with good iron and good steel at the lowest prices ever charged to American consumers they will find sufBcient employment onr opportnni- for all their energies and perform a service to their country- commerce nMes^ men far greater than could follow an uncertain struggle'""^ ^ mitei. with overcrowded countries for the supply of foreign mar kets. I trust that no man, be he statesman or manufacturer, Groat Britain's will be deluded with the thought that our most formidable to regain posses" manufacturing rival, Great Britain, will cease her efforts to ican market."""^ regain possession of our home markets. Her manufacturers of cotton, woolen, iron, steel, and other products are forc- ing labor to accept as low wages as are paid in the poorest country on the Continent of Europe; and, with the many natural and acquired manufacturing advantages whicli they possess, they will in a little while set at defiance the manu- facturing advantages of all other countries. Temporarily under a cloud, because of the progress made by other coun- tries in developing their own resources, or because of their financial inability to continue the large orders once given to her manufacturers, Great Britain will make a desperate effort to emerge from it by seeking to undersell the whole 'w^iii attempt . " to undersell tno world. Against this fresh assault most Continental coun- whole world, tries, and some British colonies, will defend themselves with protective, tariffs, and if this country would not see many of its leading industries overthrown it must resolutely ad- here to the revenue policy which has developed those indus- tries and which is enabling the country to-day to enter with hope and confidence upon a new era of prosperity. I would not excite unnecessary fears, but my duty to my country- 112 UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS, 1878. peiium'^ "m- ™®^ "would not be performed if I did not warn them of the eign markets, danger whlch wiU Constantly impend over their industrial welfare so long as a powerful rival is able to force its labor to the lowest point of human endurance, and untiringly seeks by diplomatic and other methods to force the products of that labor upon countries which do not want them, and which, Uke Spain and Turkey, will be impoverished if they buy them. DANIEL J. MOEEELL, Additional Commissioner. [In the collection of the historical and statistical information con- tained in this report I have had the valuable assistance of Mr. James M. Swank, the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association, and this assistance I thankfully acknowledge. D. J. MORRELL.] ^'^. »j»*- ^^^TL ^m ■j^.:js^. ■^-k. [^4^^' -J^r, V'M.*„ F.'?3i: