The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-03-26 00:00:00

PATENT SHEATHING.

(From the Mining Journal.)
We have had an opportunity of visiting the works in the
neighbourhood of Swansea, and we gladly avail ourselves of
the present occaion of noting the result of our observations.
e feel bound to acknowledge the polite attention and the
readiness to furnish information evinced by Mr. G. F. Muntz
(the patentee), on the occasion of our visit, and although from
the nature of the manufacture it is simple in its details, the
advantages must be so apparent to the shipowner, that any
remarks we may make cannot be otherwise than acceptable
to that wealthy and important class. The use of zinc is not
only " progressing," but is likely to compete in the propor-
tion of 40 to 60 with copper in the sheating of vessels.
The works are situated within ahout a mile of the town of
Swansea, immediately in the neighbourhood of the copper
works (on which we shall have occasion to say something in
an early number,) and are at present capable of manufacturing
a considerable quantity of sheathing and bolts—there being
four pair of rollers, with the machinery necessary for draw-
ing rods, worked by an engine of 54i-inch cylinder, Bk-feet
stroke. The metal is a combination of copper and zinc, the
best admixture being found to be 60 per cent. of the former
and 40 per cent. of the latter. The metal is delivered on the
works, and is then submitted in these proportions to the
action of a reverberatory furnace, or melted in pots, from
which it is cast in plates or bars, aecording to the object for
which the metal is required, whether " bolts" or " sheathing."
It is subsequently submitted.to heat, and when, as it appeared
to us, of a " cherry red," is worked in the cylinders or rollers,
or drawn out in rods. The process is in itself exceedingly
simple, and affords little novelty to any one accustomed to
the manufacture of iron. _

Many opinions have been advanced, and doubts expressed,
of the advantages (if any) which this metal possessed, while
its ductility was questioned, and its permanence only admit-
ted when it had been subjected to the test of some years' ap-
plication.
It is satisfactory to find that the results have fully realised
the sanguine expectations of the patentee : one vessel having
made three voyages to India without repairs being required,
and another having been sheathed for the past five years with
the " yellow metal," and now in good condition, while in
the port of Swansea, at the psesent time, two Hamburgh
vessels. the Kate and Anna Louise, have adopted it. In the
instance of the Kate, we take the words of the owner—" He
has effected a saving on a 400 ton vessel of full £80." The
difference in the price of copper and Muntz's (or yellow
metal sheathing, being three-halfpence per pound less, and
the difference in the specific gravity Bto 9 per cent. With
respect to the bolts, we have it on the statements of the ship-
wrights employed, that they are far superior in driving to
those of copper, as possessing more tenacity and firmness.
Such are the advantages of the combination of the two metals
—copper and zinc ; and we may, therefore, hope, that with
these advances in metallurgical science, we shall, whatever
may be the influx of copper ores from foreign climes, be able
still to look to home for our supply of mineral, which shall
furnish not only employment to the population in our mining
districts, but yield, as it has heretofore done, so considerable
a proportion of our national wealth.

`WORCESTER HOPS, MARCH 21.—There was a good supply
of hops at our market on Saturday, a great portion of which
were yearlings and the growth of 1836, though a few long
lots of new, of favourite marks, were disposed of, and realised
good prices. There remained a considerable bulk of mid-
dling and inferior samples unsold at the close of the market,
although the holders of such would have submitted to much
lower prices, could purchasers have been found. Weighed 79
pockets ; during the week 22 pockets. -
From the moment that Sir Robert Peel, on the first day
of the session, answered the corn-law agitators out of the
mouth of their own organ, the president of the chamber of
commerce, at Manchester, the fate of the question might be
fairly considered at an end ; and though a deluge of words
has since been poured out upon it, with the exception of
those of Mr. Villiers and Mr. W. Harvey, on one side, and
those of Lord Ripon, Sir Robert Peel, and Sir James
Graham on the other, little, if any, light has been thrown
upon it. Add to which the overwhelmning majorities by
which the question has been decided in both houses, leaves
nothing even for senseless clamour to vent itself upon. And
this source of agitation, thereforeOlaving failed, it is to be
hoped that public attention will no longer be drawn away
from real evils to grapple with imaginary ones. The wrongs,
for instance, inflicted by the whig poor law, are of the one
class—those of the corn-law of the other.—Morning Herald.