The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-02-26 00:00:00

THE IRON

WOLVERITAMTON, WEDNESDAY.

Bars were but little enquired after this after-
noon ; merchants keep well stocked. The
smaller buyers, who are consumers likewise,
were doing but little ; and:certain of the largest
consumers are negotiating with the North of
England, whence, judging from the offers that
are being made here, they believe that they can
get certainly a portion of the bars which they
require on more favourable terms than orders
for the same kind could be placed in this dis-
trict. Not less than £8 would have been taken
makers of a certain class of bars this afternoon;
others who for some time past have been quoting
.29 were less rigid in their demands. Very little
business was done in £lO bare,.and very ex-
cellent iron was freely upon offer at £9 10s.
South Wales bars were to be had at from £7 7s
6d to £7 12s 6d. All denominations were easy
this afternoon, yet without much business, and
the works have generally less to do than a week
back.
The absence of orders of much value for
plates of the qualities more generally used, of
which the producers in South Staffordshire are
just now complaining, is perceptible likewise in
North Staffordshire, where the now almost
historic plate-mill at the Ravensdale Works of
Messrs. Robert Heath and Son has been wholly
stopped until trade shall have revived. The
extensive strip and hoop mills of these works
are kept on, and so are the Biddulph and Norton
Works of the same firm. The closing of the
plate-mill at Ravensdale is the more noteworthy,
inasmuch as it was to supply this mill with its
needed puddled iron that Mr. Heath put up the
great plant of ten Danks's furnaces. At one
time certainly nine of these were in operation,
but latterly, owing to a want of trade, only five
have been going. Now all have been stopped,
and with them the eight remaining old hand
furnaces. No more in North Staffordshire than
in South Staffordshire has the making of iron
been lately attended with much profit; and it
must not be assumed that because this Danks's
plant has been stopped therefore the puddling
of iron by machinery at Ravensdale is more
costly than the puddling of iron by the old
furnaces in other works. We are assured that
the difference in working is in every respect in
favour of the Danks, and that the stopping of
the Havensdale plate-mill is due to the large
falling off in the demand for plates, combined
with the position of the mill, which is not so
central as the other less conspicuous plate-mills,
of which Messrs. Heath and Son are the pro-
prietors.
Mr. Stephen Thompson, the nealthy iron and
tin•plate manufacturer, who has retired from the
firm of Thompson, Hatton, and Co.. leaving that
concern to be now carried on by Hatton, Sons,
and Co.' has become the purchaser of the
Latiesfield Ironworks, between Wolverhampton
and Bilston. This concern has seen a great
deal of viciegitude, and in a few years has passed

throaf.,,h many hands. Its revile has no been
high, but Mr. Thomesen, who wrought so great
a change in the Brailley 'rin.plsb Worki whet
he became its owner. will - soon have greatly
improved its status. Beneath it the coal is
understood to be lying intact ; yet the prevailing
depression in the iron - trade hes enabled Mr.
Thompson to become the poseeslor of it on
terms which may NT *reasonably regarded as
decidedly favourable.- .Iran may has hitherto
been produced at Lanesfial, but henceforth Mr.
Thompson will adapt the works to tiu-plate
making, and will here carry on that branch of
manufacture.
Mr. F. W. Gerhard, of Coseley, is continuing
the experiments in whicu he has for some time
been engaged, with a view to the economical
production of iron. Most recently he has given
attention to the lessening of the waste in metal,
which is too often seen in the quality of the tap
and flue cinder which flows from the puddling
and mill furnace respectively. This waste he
asserts arises out of a deficiency of chemical
knowledge on the part of the workers. He com-
municates that he recently had the opportunity
of having some tons of pig-iron and scrap
melted with a compound flux, or fettling, which
he had discovered ; and that the result was as
he had anticipated—that on searching the
residue or slag, he only found occasionally a few
globules or shots of iron. This "compound
flux" not only, he says, prevents a waste of iron
to the extent of from 2 cwt. to 24 cwt. on the
ton, but also contains in addition to its liquifying
properties the economical elements of purifying
iron, which calcined cinder, locally termed
"bull-dog," does not. The flux, Mr. Gerhard
adds, may he obtained " at only a few shillings
per ton." He further asserts that it will enable
oxides of iron (hematites and magnetites) to be
made "in a properly constructed puddling
furnace direct from the ore into wrought iron."
If Mr. Gerhard can accomplish all this, he will
Em doing greet things for the whole iron industry.
In the matter of making iron direct, he would
be solving the problem upon whiat our best
metallurgical chemists are now engaged wherever-
iron4tone exists. We understand that he has
expressed his views to certain loading ironmakers
in South Staffordshire, bit that he declines to
dPm•,n,traite them until his discovery has been
legally protected.