L OF FORGES AT THE CREUSOT WORKS.]

The puddler's trade, which is without doubt the most laborious one in
metallurgy, will surely soon be lightened through the use of steam.
Two rotary furnaces actuated by this agent have been in operation for
a few years at Creusot, and each is yielding 20 tons of iron per day.

We have but a court of 130 feet in width to cross in order to reach
the rolling mill. At the entrance to this we enjoy one of the most
beautiful sights that the immense works can offer. For a length of
1,240 feet we perceive on one side a series of rolling machines, and
on the other a row of reverberatory furnaces that occasionally give
out a dazzling light. In the intervals are fiery blocks that are being
taken to the rolling machines, in order to be given the most diverse
forms, according to the requirements of commerce.

The iron obtained by puddling is not as yet in its definite state, but
the rolling mill completes what the puddling hall does in the rough.
Five hundred and fifty thousand tons of iron, all shaped, are taken
from the forge every day. To reach such a result it requires no less
than 3,000 workmen and a motive power of 7,000 horses.

But do not be appalled at the cost of the coal, for, thanks to
ingenious processes, the heat lost from the furnaces nearly suffices
to run the boilers. If we remark that a power of one horse does in one
hour the equivalent of a man's labor per day, we conclude that these
machines (which run night and day) represent an army of 160,000 men
that lends its gratuitous aid to the workmen of the forge. This is
what is called progress in industry.

We have just seen that iron is obtained in small masses. These can be
welded upon heating them to 1,500 or 2,000 degrees. It is impossible
to manufacture a large piece exempt from danger from the weldings.
Cast iron always has defects that are inherent to its nature, and
these are all the more dangerous in that they are hidden. Steel is
exempt from these defects, and, moreover, whatever be the size of the
ingot, its homogeneousness is perfect. This is what has given the idea
of manufacturing from it enormous marine engines and those gigantic
guns that the genius of destruction has long coveted.

Ah, if the good sense of men does not suffice to put a limit to their
increasing progress, bridges, viaducts, and tunnels will take it upon
themselves, if need be, to bar their passage. But, in order to forge
large ingots, it becam