Iroa, it's Varieties nnd Prodaction--Taie he
579 state Prison Qnestion.
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L
- NEw.foaK sah March, 1913.


TO the Editor of Tie Tribune:


| In your paper of this morning, noticed an ar
| ticle from the New York State Mechanic, re-
specting the establishment OF Iron Works By the
State in Clinton County, in which great ignorance
is displayed and some important mistakes are pro-
! mulgated.


VIII you allow one who has had not little ex-
perience in the manufacture of Ircn, to make some
brief remarks through the medium of your paper,
with view to correct these errors z


The writer of that article commences with tho
modest assumption, that persons who write for
Newspapers should kn0as that! charcoal made iron
is absolutely Indispensable for certain purposes
where really good iron is required, such es
chains, tools, all iron required for steel, sheet
| iron, .wasnn-tires, machinery, sc. &C." If the
writer had used The caution that he recommends
to others, be would have known that nine-tsnths
Of all the iron used in the United States and ninety
nine oneundred,hs of that used in England for the
| purposes he enumerates-except iron requred for
steel are made wholyor in partwith mineral coal.
The best English chain-cable iron is made, and has
been for years. exclusively with mineral coal; and
most OF the American ircn now used at the several
Navy Yards in this Country is also made wholly or
| in part with the same fuel


| Recent discoveries in the use Of anthracite coal
in the preliminary operations of smelling and of
refining the metal at the tunnel-head of the fur
naces, must inevitably destroy charcoal blast
| furnaces. Pudding and reheating with charcoal
has never been pracliced to any considerable ex
tent In this Country--exceps in remote regions
and never can be. 4 few years since, the:e latter

within the last three years, anthracite, where it
was attainable, has been substituted to great ad-
vantage. The time is not distant when ton of
good chain-cable iron, iron of quality suitable
for chains, tools, Sheets wagon-tire machinery,
will be manufactured complete in regions where
mineral coal and iron ore ere found in juxtapo-
sition, at an expense less than the material re-
quircd for ton Of charcoal-ren can be brought
together on the shores Of Lake Champlain-to say
nothing Of the expense OF embodyng those mate
rials into iron. -,


No enlightened iron-master-one who under
stand. his business theoretically and practically,
and who has examined into tho resources OF the
country and the advantages held out in the coal
regions accept sny or ell the Iron Mines
In Clinton County as q ,ift, on condition that he
should be obliged to work them Tor ten years on
scale commensurate with their extent.


Moreover, within the last twelve months, all or
nearly all the Nails manufactured in this country
have been made of American lron-the product
of Mineral Coal. THERE'S single establishment
near this city which has made within eight months
with this fuel more than fifteen hundred tons for
this purpose. TherAmerican iron has lately en-
tirely supplanted the Swcdes for Nails. The
amount used is perhaps twenty thousand tons per
annuti.


Again, tie statement referred to is at fault in
another important particular. We are told that
CONSUMERS in this city are now paying SlOO per
ton for hammered charcoal Iron, &c. can
inform the writer of that statement that many lots
of that same charcoal hammered Iron, made on
the shores Of Lake Champlain, were sold in this
market at less than $50 per ton, and several par
cells as low as $50. hazard the prediction tha,
it must be sold before the end of three years for


less than $50, if it be sold it all. The New.Jersey
charcoal hammered Iron, in bars OF ordinary size,
made by the process in use about Lake Champlain,
can be bought for S47!.
| Now as regards the suffciency of charcoal
| I will merely remark that do not "claim suif
| cient personal knowledge" to speak of the rapid
growth Of wood about Lake Champlain with
| confidence inspired by such knowledge, but
may be permitted to say that the concurrent test'-
mosy of many persons we'll acquainted in that part
of the country is that the growth OF wood there Is
l
extremely slow and protrncted; and have often
| heard this fact advanced-before the utility cs nm
thracite had been ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS the tit
| ness of this region for extensive iron works
| Be this as it may, it is quite certain that the
consumption of 400 bushels ST charcoal Tor every
ton of iron will soon clear any country Tor miles
! around an establishment of any magnitude, and
cause such an expense for hauling as would OF IT.
| self defeat the end contemplated.


/ have not Mr. Cooks Report before me, nor
have seen it since soon after it was published tor
the use of the Legislature Ii struck me as tls-
sue of absurdites and display of ignorance on
the subject of which ii treats; that Mr.. look nad
been sstuFed by the owners of the 81 ocg mine
or o,l,er land spectators. Many of its absurd-
ties have already been exposed in the islbune.
The whole scheme is impracticable, and IL adopt
cd will evnn,uate in total failure should be
glnd to see the State Prison competition removed
that it NAV not interfere conflict with our me
chanics; bu. hope it will be done on some enecl-
i've plan, that its success may insure It's PerhaI
nency. As an iron manufacturer, have no dread
or apprehension of any competition from works on
lake Champain, under the direction OF the state
or Of individuals.
r3.s,ntrns Works pus,i,hed and for sale AZ l ne
Tribune Otfce, wholesale and retail


ALISON'S HISTORY, No. 6..............frce - -,
HECTOR O'HAfLORAN, No H.. ....:'... 90 90
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHf, TO. o.'.. e,
MARTIN H.ZZLEWIr, 8 Nos....... ........... o'
FERDINAND COUNT FATHoM tsy sHloliet)-.. -
rocky MOUNTAINS, No. 1, astoria by irvingJ -


