rations of three steel-casting furnaces--"I have found nowhere in
Europe, except in England, workmen able for an entire day, without any
interval of rest, to undergo such toilsome and exhausting labour as
that performed by these Sheffield workmen."

[1] AGRICOLA, De Re Metallica. Basle, 1621.

[2] The Rev. JOSEPH HUNTER, History of Hallamshire.

[3] MUSHET, Papers On Iron and Steel.

[4] M. Le Play's two elaborate and admirable reports on the manufacture
of steel, published in the Annales des Mines, vols. iii. and ix., 4th
series, are unique of their kind, and have as yet no counterpart in
English literature. They are respectively entitled 'Memoire sur la
Fabrication de l'Acier en Yorkshire,' and 'Memoire sur le Fabrication
et le Commerce des Fers a Acier dans le Nord de l'Europe.'

[5] There are several clocks still in existence in the neighbourhood of
Doncaster made by Benjamin Huntsman; and there is one in the possession
of his grandson, with a pendulum made of cast-steel. The manufacture
of a pendulum of such a material at that early date is certainly
curious; its still perfect spring and elasticity showing the scrupulous
care with which it had been made.

[6] Annales des Mines, vols. iii. and ix., 4th Series.

[7] The Useful Metals and their Alloys (p. 348), an excellent little
work, in which the process of cast-steel making will be found fully
described.

[8] We are informed that a mirror is still preserved at Attercliffe,
made by Huntsman in the days of his early experiments.

[9] Annales des Mines, vol. ix., 4th Series, 266.

CHAPTER VII.

THE INVENTIONS OF HENRY CORT.

"I have always found it in mine own experience an easier matter to
devise manie and profitable inventions, than to dispose of one of them
to the good of the author himself."--Sir Hugh Platt, 1589.

Henry Cort was born in 1740 at Lancaster, where his father carried on
the trade of a builder and brickmaker. Nothing is known as to Henry's
early history; but he seems to have raised himself by his own efforts
to a respectable position. In 1765 we find him established in Surrey
Street, Strand, carrying on the business of a navy agent, in which he
is said to have realized considerable profits. It was while conducting
this business that he became aware of the inferiority of British iron
compared with that obtained from foreign countries. The English
wrought iron was considered so bad that it was prohibited from all
gove