The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-05 00:00:00

"MELBOURNE MARKETS.

"The market has been well supplied lately, and former
prices have barely been maintainel. Prime bullocks, 151.
to 181. ; good ditto, 71. to 101. ; inferior, N. to Cl. ;
wetbers, 13s. to 19s.
" Freights. —To London—Wool, Id. per lb. ; hides, 255.
per ton ; tallow, 655. to 70s. par ton ; oil, 80s. per tun ;
gold, per cent, by sailing vessels ; by steamer.
" Exchange on London—Bank draughts, 3 per cent. pm.;
private bills (with produce hypothecated) 1 to 2 per cent.
if drawn against tallow, wool, or gold.

PRICES CURRENT.
WOOL.

x. d. s. d.

Superior clips
Fair to good 1 4 1 5.j
Low to middling 1 3 1 5
Grease
,
Locks, pieces, broken wool, &c.
H indwashed
Scoured

TALLOW.

Beef
Mutton

£ s. 4. £ N. (1.
.. 37 0 0 to 39 0 0
.. 39 10 0 44 0 0

Station tallow

34 0 0 - 45 0 0

Hides, each

07 6 -

0 15 0

00- 0 0 7
MORT AND CO., Brokers.
Pitt-street, Sydney, June 5, 1856.
Wages have been gradually rising for months past, and
they are now as follows :-
With rations-Married couples, without, families, from
751. to 901. per annum ' • ditto with families, 551. to 651.
ditto; gardeners', 50/. to 601. ditto ; grooms, 401. to 501.
ditto ; stockkeepers, 601. to 701. ditto ; shepherds, 351. to
501. ditto ; hutkeepers, 251. to 30'. ditto ; general farm
servants, 1/. ss. per week ; threshing and cleaning,ls. per
bushel ; haycuttiog, 9s. per ton ; bullock-drivers on the
road, 30s. per week ; ditto, on stations, 255. ditto ; men
cooks, 7ul. to 90'. per annum ; female ditto, 301. to 451.
ditto ; thorough-female servants, 251. to 301. ditto ; house-
maids, 201. to 261. ditto ; laundresses, .30/. to 351. ditto ;
nursemaids, 151. to 201. ditto. The following aro consi•
dered the standard weekly rations-121bs. beef or mutton,
101bs. flour, Ms. sugar, 4 lb. tea.
Without rations--Compositors, is. 43. per thousand ;
ditto by the week, V. 4s. ; pressmen, 41. 4s. to 41. 10s.
ditto; carpenters, 12s. to 14s. per day ; masons, Hs. to
16s. ditto ; plasterers, 14e. to 16s. ditto ; bricklayers, 14s.
to 16s. ditto ; blacksmiths, 16s ditto ; quarrymen, 103.
to 12s. ditto ; woodEplitters and fencers, ss. to 7s. per ton;
fencing by the rod, material to split only, Os. ; labourers
on the roads, Os. to 103. per day-wood, water, and tents
found.

Sheepskins, per lb

BESSEMER'S PROCESS OF IRON

MANUFACTURE.

It appears somewhat inconsistent, until chemistry steps
in and explains the mystery, that notwithstanding the
enormous amount of iron extracted from British ore,

Briton is still obliged to import iron in considerable
quantities from Russia and Sweden when any especial
purity is required. The explanation is simply this
—our country is rich in coal and its derivative coke,
and Sweden and Russia aro rich in wood charcoal.

Coke is a very impure fuel, and charcoal is very
pure ; hence, though we produce cast iron, which is
only another term for impure iron, readily enough,
the problem of turning out good malleable iron in
large quantities, by means of coke or coal, is not a
little difficult. Now, looking at the impurities which
exist in cast ,iron, and by the presence of which it
differs from wrought iron, we learn that they are
combustible, and the processes of iron manufacture
adopted for the conversion of cast into wrought iron
have reference to burning these combustible impurities
away. Hitherto, until Mr. Bessemer devised his pr.).
ce=s, the combustible materials in question did not ad-
mit of being burned away without the addition of other
combustibles, either coke, coal, or wood charcoal, as the
case might be. The new proce.sa depends for its efficiency
on the well-known chemical tact that many substances,
though actually in a chemical sense combustible, can
only be made to burn when a liberal supply of a
supporter of combustion is furnished. Mr. Bessemer,
therefore, takes a quantity of molten cast iron, and
by transmitting through it a liberal supply of at
mospheric air,
_sets up a process of combustion
at the expense of the contained impurities, and by
following out this operation to the end, it is as-
sumed that all extraneous combustible matter will be
burned away. There can be no doubt concerning the
beauty of the theory on which the process is founded
there can be no doubt of the actual demonstration of the
fact that impure molten iron thus treated is purified
readily to a considerable extent. This we consider de-
monstrated by the production of the result which Mr.
Bessemer calls semi-steel. But is it demonstrated that
the final remnant of impurities can be removed by a con-
tinuation of the process I We think not. Without
stating that it cannot be done, there are difficulties in
the way which suggest themselves to the mind of the
chemist, and cause him to look with Borne anxiety to
the final issue. The fact must net he concealed, that
the efficiency of Mr, Bessetner's process carried out to
the final issue of making iron absolutely, or even com-
mercially pure, depends on the maintenance of a condi-
tion of such amount of fluidity that the atmospheric air
injected shall readily penetrate the mass and bubble
through it. Is this condition susceptible of being effi-
clently maintained to the very end ? Every one conver-
sant with the properties of iron must be aware of the cir•
=mimic° that in proportion to its purity so is it,
infusibility ; therefore the air injected by Mr. Bessemer's
process will have to find its way through a molten
mass which continually assumes a condition of greater
solidity. We would ba far from desirous of damping
the energy of an inventor, of denying the theoretical
beauty of the invention, or its practical competence, so
far as demonstration has already been made ; neverthe-
less, would it not be well for the inventor to test the
final issue of his process.by reference t 3 the quality
and quantity of the iron purified to the furthest compe-
tence of the process ? If, indeed, not to say it n she•
mically pure, but iron commercially pure, to the extent
of the best Swedish er Russian, be capable of production
as the result of the new process, the consequences of the
discovery will be gigantic