The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-07-16 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, JULY 18th, 1881.

QUARTERLY MEETING OF THE IRON

TRADE.
The midsummer quarterly meeting of the iron
trade of South Staffordshire and other central
districts was held en Thursday in Birmingham,
and in many respects was more satisfactory than
the meeting in June last. A larger aggregate
amount of business was transacted, and prices
tended upwards instead of dowr.wards, as was
the case three months ago. " List " iron was
unaltered at £7 a ton for bars, with the usual
extras for the Earl of Dudley's brands. The
New British Iron Company and Messrs. John
Bradley and Co., who have been quoted 10s a
ton above the list, declared their intention to
adhere to their quotations. There was not much
briskness in the demand for branded iron, and
manufacturers are not very well supplied with
orders. On the other hand the inquiries for
unmarked iron were more numerous, and prices
showed an advance of fully 5s a ton upon those
obtained three months ago. Common bars were
quoted firmly at from £5 15s to £6 a ton' and
best unmarked bars from £6 up to £6 10s. Most
of the second. class firms have sufficient
contracts in hand to carry them over the next
three months, and they were cautious in accept.
lug further orders for long delivery at the cur-
rent quotations. Sheet-iron manufacturers
secured, as usual, the largest proportion of busi-
ness, and they were enabled to maintain the
enhanced quotations which have ruled during;
the past month. Common sheets (singles) real-
ised £7 lOs at the works, being an advance of
from 5s to lOs a'ton. London merchants dis-
tributed several fairly large contracts for galvan-
ised sheets for Australia and New Zealand, and
Liverpool merchants gave out better orders for
cotton-tie hoops for America and Brazil. Local
eagineers and iroufounders ordered pretty freely
of gas strip, girder iron, and specialities for
agricultural and horticultural purposes. There
was a merely nominal demand for nail rods owing
to the strike in the nail trade, and prices showed
no recovery. In the pig iron department there
there was not much activity, and an upward
movement in prices was prevented by the large
stocks in makers' hands not only in this district,
but in the North of England. Makers of all-
mine pig complained of the scarcity of orders,
although prices remain at the very low figures
of £3 for hot-blast and £4 for cold-blast, the
standard quotations during the past quarter. A
few North Stafford makers asked 21 6d to 5s ad-
vance,but were not uniformly successful in obtain
ing it. Common forge iron was in tolerably good
request at prices varying from 40s to 42s 6d, but
the demand is below the production. There is
only one furnace less in blast than at the begin-
ning of the year. About a dozen furnaces alto-
gether have been blown out during that period,
but these have been counterbalanced by furnaces
re-lighted. There was no alteration in the quo-
tations of Northamptonshire or Derbyshire pig,
but West Cumberland hematites were from a
shilling to half a crown a ton firmer. The coal
market was without animation, and prices tended
downwards. Forge coal from the Essington
and Cannock Chase Colleries was offered at as
low as 6s a ton. Official rates, however, were
unaltered.

A number of interesting specimens were Its
usual exhibited on 'Change, and attracted con-
siderable attention on the part of rnanfacturers
and colliery proprietors. One of Wilson's patent
gas producers for firing furnaces of every de-
scription was shown by Mr. B. Dawson, of
Malvern, the local agent. For this invention it
is claimed that there is an economy of fuel,
ranging from 20 to 80 per cent., owing to the
superior combustion ; and among the other ad-
vantages are the entire abolition of smoke, per-
fect control over the temperature, regularity of
work and saving of labour. The producer is
stationary or marine, for the various processes
in the manufacture of iron, for heating steel
ingots, and, in fact, for all the purposes for
which the ordinary firing furnaces can be applied
Mr. John Spencer, of the Vulcan Tube Works,
Westbromwich, exhibited a number of his
specialities of tubes, and fittings for all descrip-
tions of tubes, for which Mr. Spencer has a well-
deserved reputation. The ituseless and General
Iron Company, of Westbrontwich, again showed
specimens of their anti-corrodo tubes and fit-
tings (BariFs patent), which have been several
times previously described in connection with
the quarterly meetings orthe iron trade. Messrs.
Hammond and Co., of London, exhibited a
specimen of the Brush electric light machine
invented in America, but for which they ho:d the
concession for certain of the Northern and
Western Counties of England. The company
undertake to light by this system rolling mills,
foundries, blast furnaces, shipbuilding yards,
collieries, cotton mills, factories, docks, wharves,
railway stations, towns, ctc. It is stated that
after exhaustive trials in the United States pre.
ference had everywhere been given to the Brush
light, 49 out of every 50 lights in practical work
being on that system, and, though only intro-
duced into this country n year, the Brush Coin-
puny have now more lights ruining than all the
other systems put together. The Brush lamps
burn for sixteen hours without any attention,
being regulated automatically by their own elec-
tricity. Messrs. Harris and Pearson, of Stour.
bridge, had on view specimens of their valuable
patent boiler-seating ,blocks, flue covers, and
boiler-covering bricks; and Messrs. Taylor and
Challen, engineers, of the Derwent Foundry,
Birmingham, showtad a number of their excellent
specialities in pulley-blockt, wrought-iron shaft-
ing and the like.