New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-16

puted by any living mortal-lawyer, layman,
or even a New York Judge-till McCunn arose.
--------
ABOUT IRON
Our late account of the improvements recently
made by DR.. VIM. Field of Wilmington, Del, in
the production of Iron, through the cheap and
thorough elimination of Sulphur and Phos-
pborus has moved The N. Y Times to
criticism, of which the exordium is as follows
"The recent and projected improvements in the manu-.
facture OF Iron and Steel last among tho leading
subjects OF commercial and scientific speculation The
SIMPLY to substitute for or engraft upon tho old pro
cesses few radical aud grand nyentlons suoh as %
results Of the last decade. though not yet iuly oe
veloped or appreciated. have wrought numerous anu
revolutionary changes In the treatment anu pOuuVts y,
Iron by increasing the hight OF smelling furnaces rom
80 10 100 feet and other dmensonsiin proportion the
from 20 10 80 Per cent. BY selecting and ap,
portonng nuXes IN accordance win chemlcat laws uo
moved neutrazed The more perfect nllzaSn OF
perfectly, instead Of burning solid fuel with @
loss and by saving the waste heat In regeneraor py
Senenss processes is Of the most useful ana apIy
extending inventions ever applied ID me.auagy IN me
most radical and welestabshed Improvement III imo
treatment OF rOn Is the Bessemer process OF conYerng
crude pig iron into soft steel by decarOurhnB ana Pu
flying II by jets OF air.
The Times proceeds to glorify the processes
of Bessemer, of Siemens, of Martin, and the
more recent Ellershausen Improvement, OF
which 1t says
THE Wrought Iron manufacture has recently. by
OF b6 o dbeSpened & is peculiar means Of
mixing iron ore aud other purifying InhIeIlais MIN
G TRlSn take place III '"0 'uO'0au0"' p'''''' " '
We have long been looking for good pOpu-
lar account'of the Ellershausen process, and re-
gret that this is not clearer. AS we under
stand it, this process is intended to supersede
almost entirely the use of manual labor IN
puddling-hithertO an exactng, expensive pro-
cess-achievng its results much more economi-
cally by mechanical and chemical appli-
ances We will thank any one who will
give us fuller and better account OF
this process.
The Times proceeds to say that
There are three remarkable facts about all really sue
cessul this kind First they are never per
fected at once but they developed by slow, costly
and painful efforts Second, they never at once super
sedo old embarrass Invested capital and es
tabshed business Despite tho Bessemer process. more
puddled iron il made to-day than before. and the
Eershausen process has como IN 70 REINFORCE puudhg
Despite all short cuts In cast steel makns ne vr'Dg
the Siemens furnace IL perhaps more NauaOle 10 ~ tan
to Us great nya oS s aDd gensraI rather than fa
and mted-lsa wise provision for which we ought TO pc
we'll recognize The third fact about inventions that
really constitute progress in manufacture H. that
they arc almost wholly unknown 10 the public. because
they are almost never mentioned by the press
This statement is conspcuOusly ineXact
When the Bessemer process was novel, its in
vontor and his hackers very properly challenged
public attention through the press, and thus
brought it into general use very much sooner
than they otherwise could have done. We
publishing three thousand miles away, and
III. a., otbar pronptiny than nur interaat i'm
industrial progress-copied from the London
journals account after account of their claims,
their trials and their successes. If we thereby
aided them to make fortunes, we helped at the
snms time the public to an early supply OF
cheap Steel and all the return we ask of them
is that they treat further discoveries and es-
pecally those made by Americans with decent
civillty
We have a standing difference with our Brit
ish friends which we hope soon TO bring to the
arbitration of facts. They have taught their
American advocates to insist that Protection is
the bane of impTovement-that an industry
which is prospecting does not invent, nor make
progress nor devise economies. We hold, on
the contrary, that Improvements are developed
by active, vigorous. lire industries rarely by
those that are sickly droopiag, dying And if
Dr. Fields process shall prove what we be-
lieve and trust it will, the public will see that
we have point on them, however they may
deny it.
We cannot find room for a discussion of
the merits of DR.. Fields discoveries. Those
merits are to be tested by Iron masters, not by
the general public. Our former article was
intended to bring them to the notice of the
class qualified by education and experience to
determine their value Suffice it here that we
firmly believe that all we said in commenda-
ton of DR.. Fields processes will be fully justi-
fled by time. We close with certificate from
one better qualified than we arc to give an
opinion on the subject. 1t is as follows:
JoHssTowN Pa July q 1852
This is TO certify that saw 1000 pounds OF pig metal
manufactured into iron by Dr. VIM Fields process and
do that the iron made by his process much
peror 10 other iron, and In the pudding furnace IL
worked easier works like lead and does not stick TO
the bottom Of the furnace and great saving OF labor
the squeeZer works much more smooth than other
iron and when through the finishing rolls looks very
smooth carefully weighed IT, and In the 1000 pounds
B. +. SLICK, Eegh.Master.
Cambria Iron-Works.
We trust this disposes of the caYil we
have heard suggested, that DR.. Fields process
may succeed on the small scale of operations
in q CHEMISTS laboratory but will fail when
applied on the large scale of working furnace.
If they do MT make Iron on large scale at
the Cambria Works, where do theyR We be-
lieve the product of those Works is about
10000 tuns per annum.
The trial of the Rev. Mr. Linn at Pittsburgh,
IL e