d
sufficient to enable him to enjoy the evening of his life in peace and
comfort. He retired from active business to an estate which he
purchased in 1851 in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, where he is found
ready to lend a hand in every good work--whether in agricultural
improvement, railway extension, or the moral and social good of those
about him. Mindful of the success of his Workmen's Institution at the
Glasgow Gas-Works, he has, almost at his own door, erected a similar
Institution for the use of the parish in which his property is
situated, the beneficial effects of which have been very marked in the
district. We may add that Mr. Neilson's merits have been recognised by
many eminent bodies--by the Institution of Civil Engineers, the
Chemical Society, and others--the last honour conferred on him being
his election as a Member of the Royal Society in 1846.

The invention of the hot blast, in conjunction with the discovery of
the Black Band ironstone, has had an extra ordinary effect upon the
development of the iron-manufacture of Scotland. The coals of that
country are generally unfit for coking, and lose as much as 55 per
cent. in the process. But by using the hot blast, the coal could be
sent to the blast-furnace in its raw state, by which a large saving of
fuel was effected.[5] Even coals of an inferior quality were by its
means made available for the manufacture of iron. But one of the
peculiar qualities of the Black Band ironstone is that in many cases it
contains sufficient coaly matter for purposes of calcination, without
any admixture of coal whatever. Before its discovery, all the iron
manufactured in Scotland was made from clay-band; but the use of the
latter has in a great measure been discontinued wherever a sufficient
supply of Black Band can be obtained. And it is found to exist very
extensively in most of the midland Scotch counties,--the coal and iron
measures stretching in a broad belt from the Firth of Forth to the
Irish Channel at the Firth of Clyde. At the time when the hot blast
was invented, the fortunes of many of the older works were at a low
ebb, and several of them had been discontinued; but they were speedily
brought to life again wherever Black Band could be found. In 1829, the
year after Neilson's patent was taken out, the total make of Scotland
was 29,000 tons. As fresh discoveries of the mineral were made, in
Ayrshire and Lanarkshire, new works were erected, until, in 1845