The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane.

  • Kane, Robert, 1809-1890.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    175/492 (page 153)
    and where iron mines of the best quality lie, as it were, above ground, seems a national loss.” Very recently attempts have been again made, and with more success, so that at present there are at work in South Wales, nary temperature; but the final and perfect solution of the problem of smelting iron by anthracite, has been established by Mr. Crane of the Yniscedwin Iron Works, by whom the process has been patented. The improvement which he has made con- sists simply in the application of the hot blast to the anthra- cite coal, and the result shall be briefly stated in his words, extracted from the account read by him to the British Asso- ciation at Liverpool, and the facts contained in which have been fully verified by continued working since. When he used bituminous coal the ton of iron had required in his furnaces the coke produced from a quantity of coal, va- rying from four to five tons. The average consumption of an- thracite has been found to be, per ton of iron, twenty-seven cwt. The work of the furnace with coke from bituminous coal had been from twenty-two to twenty-four tons of iron. On using the anthracite this was raised so as to vary from thirty to thirty-six tons, and once to thirty-nine tons. With respect to quality, Mr. Crane considers, that the iron made with the anthracite is superior to any he ever made before, and his works have always ranked high for the quality of iron they produced. Referring to the analyses of the ironstone of the Leinster district, it will be found to contain in average 38°7 per cent. of iron. It is therefore, much superior to the average ore worked in Wales, and the cost of the fuel per ton of iron, as- suming that the consumption should be thirty ewt. per ton of iron produced, should not exceed, at the pit mouth, where of course, if any where, iron works should be established, 138s. 6d. If we consider all other expenses to be the same as they are estimated to be in Wales, by Dufresnoy, and as we have taken them at Arigna, the ton of cast iron manufactured with an- thracite, in the Leinster or Tipperary coal fields, should not