Part 13

The fine metal, obtained in the manner we have described, is next broken into pieces, and subjected to heat in a reverberatory furnace. A rapid heat is given at first to liquefy the iron, and is then diminished by means of dampers; the melted mass is violently stirred to expose it to the action of air and heat, by which the carbon is burnt away, and a part of the oxides of iron and the earthy bases combined and vitrified; as the carbon is separated, the metal gradually loses its liquidity, and finally dries, or assumes the consistence of sand: this shows that the carbon is separated, and the iron has assumed its malleable nature. The addition of water aids the oxidation of the several substances, and facilitates the process. The heat is again increased, and the metal collected under it, and rolled together into parcels suited to the action of the drawing machinery, and to the size of the bar that is to be made; these are pressed together, and a partial union takes place among their particles. When they have attained a white heat, they are withdrawn in succession. In some cases, where the number of puddling furnaces is great, they are immediately carried to the rollers and drawn down. But where quality is more regarded than quantity, they are first subjected to the action of the hammer, and finally rolled. The latter process has the advantage of separating more completely the vitrefied oxides, than can be done by rolling alone, but it will often require a second heat, which is given in a forge fire called the _chaffery_. When rollers are used alone, a minute and half is sufficient to form the bar; and a power of thirty houses will roll two hundred tons per week.

The iron in this state is still of very inferior quality, although its external appearance may be good. It is, notwithstanding, sometimes thrown into the market, and this has given rise to the impression that prevails in this country of the bad quality of English rolled iron. It may, however, be used in some cases, where it need not be fashioned by forging; thus, where it requires no more than to be cut into lengths, or where the original bars will answer the purpose, its cheapness may recommend it. Iron for rail-roads is of this quality; and the punching of holes, by which it may be fastened down, is effected by a simple addition of steel teeth, at proper distances, to the last groove through which it is passed. In this form, ready to lay down, rail-road iron may be shipped from England at the low price of 7_l._ 10_s._ sterling per ton; and a similar quality in the simple bar may probably be afforded at about 7_l._ We have never heard of its being sold so low as is stated in the evidence before the Committee of Congress, say 5_l._ 5_s._ There was, however, a period, when an excess of production, caused by a competition between the manufacturers of Wales and Staffordshire, entailed ruin on many of them, and their articles were sold far below the price of production. The price which we have stated is lower than that which has recently been paid in England for rail-road iron, and is that of some shipped from Liverpool, 1st March, 1831, when a considerable fall had taken place.

In order to render the iron which has undergone this process merchantable, it is subjected to the third of the operations which we have enumerated. For this purpose, the bars are made from three to four inches in breadth, and half an inch in thickness. These are cut into lengths, proportioned to the weight of the bar of finished iron that is to be made, and piled together by fours, in a reverberatory furnace, similar in character to the puddling furnace. Here they are exposed to a white heat, by which the four pieces of each pile are made to adhere; they are then withdrawn, and subjected to rollers similar to those used after the puddling process, but of more careful workmanship. The cost of finishing bar iron in this way, when the pig is made by the manufacturer himself, as ascertained upon the spot by Dufrenoy and de Beaumont, is, in Wales, 8_l._ 15_s._, in Staffordshire, 9_l._ 12_s._ The cost of making pig iron in Wales is 4_l._ 7_s._, or about half that of the finished bar iron, and in Staffordshire 5_l_ 2_s._

The iron prepared by the three processes of which we have spoken, although merchantable, and suited for various common purposes, is still far from good. We give the characters by which it is distinguished, from the work of Karsten:--

"The iron prepared in the English manner, appears dense and exempt from cracks and flaws. But this goodness is only apparent; the uniform pressure to which the bars are subjected at every point, masks their defects. If a piece of this kind be taken, that in its fracture appears dense and homogeneous, and it be heated in order to be drawn out under a common forge hammer, it dilates and exhibits numerous flaws, that sometimes increase to such a degree, that the bar will fall to pieces under the hammer. It is probable that the cause of this phenomenon is due to the scoriae, which, in this mode of working, remain mixed in the mass."

The translator adds:--

"It is not however true, that the English method of itself, injures the quality of iron,--experience has proved the contrary: it appears that soft irons lose their harshness in this operation, and become better for many uses."

It may therefore be inferred, that, when the English method is applied to pig iron, that would produce a good wrought metal by the process with charcoal, it will produce one that is equally good by means of coal, but that the latter is capable of hiding the apparent defects of even the worst iron.

The inferiority of the puddled iron is well understood in England, and therefore when it is to be used for chain cables and anchors, it is again heated, and rolled a third time, its price will be then raised to 10_l._ 10_s._ Another quality still superior, is made by uniting scraps of the better qualities that we have mentioned, into loups in the puddling furnace, drawing it in the puddle rolls, balling or piling, and again rolling. Its cost will thus be raised to 12_l._ Even this is yet inferior to Swedes and Russia iron, which sell in the English market from 13_l._ to 15_l._ sterling per ton. For particular purposes in the fabrication of machinery, charcoal is still used in England, in manufacturing a very small quantity of iron, but of very superior quality; this, we have recently understood from good authority, is sold as high as 22_l._ per ton.

Thus it appears that the manufactories of England produce five different descriptions of wrought iron, four of which bear a lower price, and are therefore inferior in quality to those of Sweden and Russia, and, consequently, to the best American iron. No more than one of these, and that the lowest in quality, is usually shipped to this country, and it was the influx of this cheap and almost worthless material, which in 1816 and '17, completely prostrated the American manufacture. Under a protecting duty, it has again revived, but has not reached its former level. New capital has been invested in it under this protection, and it would be a breach of faith suddenly to withdraw it. Still sound policy would dictate that this protection should not be perpetual, provided it can be incontestably proved that it bears so hard upon other branches of industry, as to injure the country through them to a greater extent, than the benefit it derives from the manufacture of iron. But this is far from being the case. The manifest and habitual policy of our government, is to derive its revenue indirectly through the custom house, instead of seeking it in direct taxation. When these duties descend to a level with the minimum expenditure, they cannot be considered burthensome, because they in fact replace revenues that must be drawn from other sources. If, for instance, the iron employed in a specific object, appear to cost more than in some other country, that object may yet be afforded cheaper with us, in consequence of its maker being free from other burthens, which the repeal of the duty on iron, would throw upon him as a necessary substitute. If then our furnaces and forges, when a sufficient capital shall be invested in them under a protecting duty, can afford iron as cheap as it can be imported from other countries, under a minimum of duty, it cannot in truth be said, that this raw material will enhance the price of the articles manufactured from it. Let us see whether there be any reasonable prospect that we shall have iron produced in our own country, which will compete with foreign iron of equal quality, paying a duty of 25 per centum. If this be the case, the profits arising from the present protection, must, in a few years, call forth such production as will reduce the price to a proper level.

The best grey pig iron of American manufacture, superior in strength, and equal in all other respects to the Scotch, is now sold in the New York market at $45 per ton. Good grey iron of the usual character, is worth $35 per ton, and there is no question that forge pig could be obtained by the manufacturer of bar iron, for $25. If it were even to cost $30, it is still cheaper than Staffordshire iron, far less fit for the purpose, can be imported. The Muirkirk iron, so valuable for the casting of machinery, used to cost to import it, at the present rate of duty, $55 and $56. The Bennington furnace commenced the competition with it at this rate, but has been compelled, after driving the Scotch iron from the market, to sell at $45, which is as low as the foreign could be imported at a minimum duty.

Taking the cost of forge pig at $25, the price of converting into bars by charcoal, would be, according to the Philadelphia memorial, $18, and the ton of wrought iron ought to cost no more than $43. We however believe that this cost is far underrated, and that even by the aid of rollers in a part of the process, iron of the best quality could not be produced under $50. This is as cheap as merchantable English puddled iron can be imported, paying 25 per cent. duty. But, even if the pig cost $35, and the wrought iron, $60, it is still cheaper than the English iron, worth in that market 10_l._ 10_s._ can be imported; and the latter is the cheapest which can be obtained in that country, suitable for the manufacture of anchors and chain-cables. At the present moment, however, iron cannot be produced so cheaply, for the forges and furnaces may be considered as in a great measure new, and undergoing all the difficulties of new establishments. Capital above all is wanting, from a want of confidence in the success of the enterprize, growing out of a fear of the repeal of the duty, and the recollection of the former catastrophe; and even credit, so essential where capital is deficient, is at a low ebb. Hence, if profit be made, it rather centers in the capitalist who makes the advances, than in the maker. Thus we have known iron in the bloom, sold at $45 per ton; and, when finished for the market by rolling, bring $100. The latter price, however, could not long be maintained, and has descended to $75 and $80, which still leaves the greater part of the profit to the capitalist.

But we are of opinion, that the manufacture of iron by charcoal is not that to which our country should look for its final supply. It is at best a precarious resource, and its production must diminish with the advance of agriculture, and the consequent demand, while every increase in the price of land must raise the cost. It is then to a total change in the seat and mode of manufacture, that we are to be hereafter beholden for the supply of this first necessary of civilized life. A change will first take place in the sites of the two branches; pig iron will continue to be manufactured by charcoal, and the bar converted by coal. For this the great coal field of Pennsylvania will afford the earliest facilities. No doubt can be entertained that the more freely burning varieties of anthracite will work well in the puddling furnace, as they have been successfully employed in the rolling and slitting of bar iron. When the same species of coal is mixed with charcoal in the blast furnace, it produces excellent forge pig, and thus the two species of fuel may be advantageously united, although the coal alone will not answer the purpose. The value of this coal in the mine and the cost of raising it, is as yet less than that of bituminous coal in any part of Europe, and thus we cannot avoid concluding that when it shall be brought into use, our manufacturers might compete with the English even if unprotected by duty. Our fields of bituminous coal are yet too distant from dense population, and too far removed from easy communication, to be looked to at present, but unless modes be invented by which the anthracite coal can be used without mixture in the blast furnace, these will become the ultimate seats of the manufacturing industry of the United States.

But for reducing the price of iron, by competition within our country, to a level with that of other countries, capital is required, and to divert it to this purpose, the capitalist must feel assured that he shall derive a certain profit from its investment, and that he shall be subjected to no fluctuations in price and still more in demand, from a vacillating course in the government. The establishment of works so perfect as to compete in their manipulations with the English, is a serious business, and till they be established in numbers, we must be dependent on foreign countries for no small proportion of the important article of iron that we consume. A forge for manufacturing puddled iron cannot be profitable unless its machinery be kept in regular employ, for the cost of that will be the same in all cases. This constant employment cannot be given by fewer than eighteen reverberatory furnaces, and the first cost of the works will not be less than $100,000, of which the machinery alone costs $50,000. To supply an establishment of this magnitude with pig, would employ three blast furnaces working with coke, or six with charcoal, the cost of which would reach at least $120,000. The value of the manufactured article would not fall short of a million of dollars, and would require to carry it on a floating capital of not less than $250,000. Thus it appears that a system of works for the manufacture of iron, which should compete to advantage with those of England, would find employment for a capital of half a million of dollars, even with the advantage of credit, and the ready conversion of its securities into cash through the banks. So long, then, as the policy of our government is unsettled, we can hardly expect that so vast an operation can be undertaken either by individual or by corporate funds. A division of the business has been indeed attempted; there is more than one puddling forge in the United States that relies upon the purchase of pig for its supply. These unquestionably do a fair and profitable business, but do not act to the same advantage as they would were the two branches of the manufacture united. The chief difficulty under which they labour is, that they must consult, in their location, convenience in the supply of the raw material, and must therefore neglect what would in the abstract be the most important consideration, the supply of fuel. Thus, at least one of the puddling forges of which we have spoken, is compelled to use imported fuel, and none are situated where alone the nation could derive essential benefit from them, immediately over a rich bed of coal.

It is not pretended to maintain that the present duties on iron are not too high in general for a permanent rate, and that the distribution of their rates is not injudicious. All that we would contend for is, that there shall be no sudden change in the principle, by which a valuable branch of industry would be at once destroyed beyond the possibility of re-establishment. We have been able to discover no argument in the blacksmith's petition, or in the report of the majority of the committee of the Senate, in favour of an entire repeal of duty on raw iron, that does not apply equally to the articles manufactured from it; and we presume that those useful and respectable mechanics would think their principles carried a step too far, should they be made to bear upon the fabrics of their own industry. We are willing, in addition, at once to admit that where the scale has been founded upon improper principles, it ought to be instantly changed.

To attain the first object, as we presume it will not be contended that iron shall ever be imported free of duty, while the nation needs a revenue to meet its current expenditure, let a minimum be fixed beyond which it shall not descend, and which will, evidently, when correctly viewed, place our consumers of iron on an equal footing with those who pay direct taxes in other countries; to this minimum, after a certain definite period, let the duty be gradually and almost insensibly reduced. Less than twenty-five years would probably be insufficient to effect this without incurring a wanton waste of property. We are aware, indeed that our national legislature can perform no act which its successors may not annul, but a hearty concurrence on the part of Mr. Dickerson and Mr. Hayne, representing, as they do, the two great opposing interests in this question, would be a pledge that might be acted upon by capitalists. The expediency of investment would then become a subject of strict calculation, and we do not fear the result.

As to the injudicious adjustment of the scale, the higher rates of duties fall upon articles, which under present circumstances are not capable of being protected, except by actual prohibition. These are the small forms of rod and round iron, hoops and sheets. The introduction of the joint operations of puddling and rolling, has altogether changed the manner of manufacturing these in Europe; they are now, with the exception of sheets, made directly from the pig, by as few operations as common bars; our own puddling forges are adopting the same method, and so soon as they are capable of supplying the market, must drive out the articles of these descriptions, made by those who use merchantable bar iron, and roll it down or slit it. The slitting and rolling mills which are conducted on this last principle, are therefore beyond the reach of support. The inequality in the duty too, is more than the cost of performing the additional operation upon the bar, and is hence rather injurious than otherwise, to the interest of the producers of the raw iron, while it bears with great severity upon those consumers who are themselves manufacturers of hardware. The duty upon these articles should then be adjusted so as to bear the proportion to that upon bar iron, which their values do in the foreign market whence they are derived.

On the other hand, there are certain articles, of which the price of the raw material, whether cast or bar iron, forms the chief value, and which are actually convertible to the same purposes with their base. On these, there can be no question, that every consideration of policy and justice requires that the duty should be raised. Several articles of this description are enumerated by the Philadelphia memorialists, where the fabric is of wrought iron; and it is obvious that there are others, made at a blast furnace from the metal at its first reduction, which might be used as a substance for pig. Such articles, however, cannot be numerous; for iron is, after all, a material of such low price, that it can be hardly wrought into any important species of goods, in which the value of the workmanship will not exceed the cost of the raw article. The _ad valorem_ duty must, therefore, in most cases, be an efficient protection, both to the maker of iron and the manufacturer of hardware. Where however it is not, an easy principle will restore the irregularity; for it is only necessary to collect the duties by weight, and affix to them the same rates which the raw iron pays.

The plan we have proposed, of continuing the present duty for a limited time, is consistent with the policy of all civilized nations, who do not hesitate to grant monopolies for definite periods to the inventers of new processes in the arts, and most of whom give equal encouragement to those who merely introduce them. Our government, indeed, has never adopted the latter principle, but it may well be questioned whether it have not in this way prevented the introduction of many important branches of manufacture. The former has been adopted in its full extent, and its utility is unquestioned. If, then, it be sound and highly profitable policy, to grant a monopoly to individuals for limited periods, thereby excluding our own citizens from advantages which in most cases lie open to foreign countries, much more will it be politic and profitable, to protect a whole class of our own artificers from external competition for a similar period, leaving the price to be lessened by the competition that security, from a change of system, will infallibly create. The usual limit of a patent right having been found efficient in drawing forth inventive talent, an equal duration of protecting duty might be depended upon as sufficient to induce the investment of capital in a business whose processes are understood, and in relation to which strict calculations can be made. But these protecting duties must not suddenly cease; for if they do, a spirit of speculation, both on our part and on that of foreign merchants, would infallibly throw into the market an excess of the article from abroad; and although the importer might not be exempted wholly from the ruinous consequence of the over trade, infallible destruction would visit our own establishments. Such was the case in 1816 and 1817. The losses on the iron trade were not confined to our own manufacturers, but visited the importers, whether British or American, and reached in their remote consequences, but with diminished effect, the forges and furnaces of England. The latter were, however, protected by the whole capital of the merchant, which was annihilated before the ruin could reach them, while the American establishments were directly exposed to it. The adventurous spirit of British commerce, in fact, produced on this occasion an effect similar to that which the people of the continent have erroneously ascribed to the government of that country. New markets are no sooner opened, than loads of British fabrics are thrown in, and necessarily sacrificed; those who see no more than their own domestic misfortunes, naturally ascribe to the policy of the nation, what is in fact the misjudged enterprise of rash individuals. The effect has, however, been in many cases the same, as if the act had been the result of a deliberate national system; for the foreign industry has been often prostrated, while the capital of the British has enabled it to bear the momentary shock, and then to replace its losses by the undivided enjoyment of the disputed market.