VanNorman's second failure. A Haliburton enterprise fails for lack of capital. of Hamilton) experienced much difficulty in getting suitable iron for the purpose. The charcoal iron formerly made by Mr. VanNorman out of the bog ore was believed to possess the requisite qualities, especially the quality of chilling or hardening when cast on an iron surface, and a contract was made between the parties in which the founders agreed to take all the pig iron Mr. VanNorman could produce at $45 per ton, providing it was found to be suitable for car-wheels. As soon as the contract was signed Mr. VanNorman sent a prospector into the township of Houghton, in the western part of Norfolk, to ascertain if ore could be found there in sufficient quantities to warrant the building of a furnace. The report was very favorable, a blast furnace was erected, and smelting operations began in the fall of 1854. In the spring of 1855 a shipment of 400 tons was made, but not long after Mr. Van Norman was notified by the founders that the iron would not chill, and consequently could not be accepted under the terms of the contract. He visited Hamilton and saw to his surprise that the facts were as represented, and instead of getting $45 per ton for the iron he was obliged to sell it at $22. This was the period of the Crimean war, and business was booming in Canada as a consequence of the great demand for farm products, wheat selling at $2 per bushel. Labor cost nearly twice as much as in former years, horse feed and provisions of all kinds were high, and the iron cost more to produce than it was worth in the market. Under these circumstances the works at Houghton were abandoned, and Mr. Van Norman and his sons lost in this enterprise about $32,000. Between Marmora and Houghton all that had been made at Normandale was irretrievably lost, and Mr. VanNorman's career of over thirty-four years in the blast furnace business ended. The last venture was made in 1882 by an American firm, Messrs. Parry & Mills, who erected a blast furnace on the Burnt river in the county of Haliburton, as stated in the evidence of Mr. Shortiss. They were unable to complete the works owing to insufficient capital. Every effort was made to borrow $10,000 upon the security of the property, Mr. Shortiss says, and although between $50,000 and $60,000 had been invested no financial assistance could be obtained and the enterprise failed. A report on the properties made to Parry & Mills by W. H. Merritt in 1883 shows that the furnace, charcoal and calcining kilns, saw-mill, etc., were well advanced towards completion, and he considered that when the plant and properties of the firm were placed at $65,000 they were valued at a reasonable and legitimate price. "With your exceptional advantages in wood limits," Mr. Merritt stated in his report, enjoyed to no greater extent by no charcoal, smelting works on the continent, excellent water power, proximity of flux, railroad facilities and short distance from market, I have not the slightest hesitation in saying that in my opinion, with ordinary good management, your enterprise will pay handsomely." Yet for lack of sufficient capital Messrs. Parry & Mills were unable to complete the works, and the money and labor they had expended became a total loss. *Joseph Van Norman's memorandum. LESSONS OF THE FAILURES. Has pig iron & Ontario! This is a hapless record of failures; but does it show that the pig iron industry has no future in Ontario? Has the industry had a fair trial under favoring conditions, and were the means taken and the methods pursued in future in all respects such as a successful iron man of the present day would commend or imitate? The Normandale works alone were successful, although not before the projector of them was ruined in getting experience.* Mr. Van Norman profited by John Mason's failure, and as the ore was not difficult to treat he was soon able to apply intelligent methods in his furnace. He was also fortunate in making such uses of the pig iron as the circumstances of the country most required at that time, and doubtless a second profit was made on the farm products which he took in exchange for his own wares. But the magnetic iron ores of Hastings and Peterborough required a different kind of treatment; and although some knowledge of improved processes was gained by Mr. Seymour, Mr. VanNorman and others, it was not equal to the requirements of economic production with small capital and primitive methods in a region so inaccessible by reason of bad roads that the freight cost on supplies brought in from and products sent out to the nearest market town was $4 per ton. Failures les Failures have overtaken many other enterprises since then, in Michigan her and elsewhere, from the operation of the same causes; but they do not prove that success is not attainable under better conditions. † With modern plant, a practical and scientific knowledge of how to treat magnetic ores, adequate capital, facilities for cheap transportation and good business management, the manufacture of charcoal iron ought to be as successfully carried on in Ontario as in New York, Michigan or Wisconsin. It is possible also that the manufacture of coke iron and anthracite iron may be attempted, but until the trade relations between the United States and Canada are more free the freight charges are likely to be too heavy for these fuels to be brought in at a moderate cost. The rapid growth of the iron industry in Illinois, which Free commerce increased from 78,455 net tons in 1878 to 579,307 in 1888, is mainly a result of nomic manufac the greater cheapness with which the raw materials of manufacture can be brought together under a condition of free inter-state commerce. Return cargoes make cheap freights. OUTSIDE SOURCES FOR SUPPLIES. essential to eco ture. The trade tables appended to Section III show that Canada's yearly average of imports of pig iron for the seven years 1881-7 was 60,000 net tons, Canada's yearly and it is computed that if to this quantity be added the equivalent of all consumption of other iron and steel goods imported and the production of our own furnaces products. for consumption the total pig iron requirement of the Dominion is about "Those who begin iron works after me in this country," John Mason wrote to Robert Gourlay in 1817, "will start many thousand dollars ahead of me; everything they want except stone will be had here, the best method of working the ore will be known, and men will be learned to work it." The editor of the Charcoal Iron Workers' Journal, commenting on the failure of the Steel Company of Canada in 1885, said: "It is seldom that pioneers in iron manufacture in any region are successful, and almost every iron producing district in the United States has a graveyard of buried hopes and expectations." (Vol. VI, p. 326.) But the experience of Canada where $2,500,000 was spent in this one enterprise led him to believe that there must be a cause for it beyond the ordinary course of events. iron and iron 275,000 tons yearly. The pig iron made in the country is an inappreciable quantity, and the province of Ontario does not produce a ton.* Our foundries and iron works are largely dependent upon outside sources for supplies, fourfifths of which are imported from Great Britain. The whole of the charcoal iron comes from the United States, chiefly from Michigan, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New York and Alabama, but it does not exceed 15,000 tons a year. Now as it does not appear certain at present that we could safely enter upon the smelting of iron ores with mineral fuel in Ontario, it is all the more important to The outlook for consider the business outlook for smelting with charcoal fuel. Is the home sharcoal pig jon. Car wheels and malleable castings. consumption large enough to make a market for the production of one or more blast furnaces? In view of the cost of production and the market prices, is there a reasonable prospect for investment of the required capital? Is the demand for charcoal iron likely to continue and grow? CHARCOAL IRON AND ITS USES. Owing to its purity, fine quality and strength charcoal iron is used largely in Canada and the United States for malleable castings, and chiefly for car wheels. In the manufacture of these wheels it is of the first importance to secure strength to resist the strains and shocks to which the body of the wheel is subject in travelling on the rails, and sufficient hardness in the tread and flange to stand the wear to which it is exposed. The latter property is given to the iron by the process of chilling, which is produced by making the tread and flange portion of the mould of cast iron. When the molten metal comes in contact with the iron section of the mould it receives a chill, the effect of which is to crystallise it to a greater or less depth if of the right brand. Upon some kinds of iron the chill-mould has no effect, whereas upon others the chill will extend one or two inches in depth. The very hard and brittle iron usually chills most, but the body of the wheel must be tough and strong, and capable of standing strains and blows of every required for car description. Hard white iron chills easily and has a high tensile strength, but it is so brittle that it will not bend, and if exposed to a sudden shock it will break with a comparatively light strain. Then again iron may be too soft and flexible, and have so little strength that it will bend like a bar of lead. The iron which has the two qualities of tensile strength and flexibility combined in the highest degree is consequently the kind best suited for the body of the wheel, while for the tread and flange it must have the chilling Qualities of iron wheels. *Statement of the quantity of pig iron upon which the Dominion government has paid a bonus for each of the last six fiscal years, together with the amount so paid, as furnished by the treasury department at Ottawa: tion of charcoal Montreal. Hamilton. property. Now the experience of railways in the United States and Canada is that the best iron for the purpose is that which is smelted with charcoal fuel, and in both countries little of any other kind is used. In this country we are largely dependent on the United States for our supply, and wholly so in Ontario. The furnaces at Three Rivers and Drummondville, in Quebec, Our consumpproduce 8,000 to 10,000 tons yearly, the greater part of which is used in iron Montreal, where there are two car wheel foundries. John McDougall & Co., who own and operate the Drummondville furnaces, use the whole of their own make of pig iron and import from the United States besides. They melt about 45 tons of metal per day, all charcoal pig. The Montreal Car Wheel Co. obtain their supplies of charcoal iron from lake Superior, Salisbury and other districts in the United States. The Salisbury iron costs about $38 per gross ton delivered at the works, and the lake Superior iron about $27. They use charcoal iron solely in the manufacture of car wheels, and run about 20 tons per day. The Grand Trunk works at Hamilton have used about 1,800 tons of charcoal iron annually for the past eight years, but it is expected that in the near future this quantity will be increased to 7,000 tons per annum. The iron is purchased in Michigan and Connecticut principally, and costs from $23 of the former to $34 of the latter per gross ton, exclusive of duty. The St. Thomas car wheel works when running to their full capacity use 25 to 30 tons of charcoal iron per day. Lake Superior iron costs, laid down and duty paid in that city, $26 per ton; Salisbury iron $38; and the St. Thomas. Southern iron, made in Alabama and Tennessee, about $30. The difference in prices is due chiefly to difference in qualities. "A very important consideration in the making of any castings of charcoal iron," the manager of these works says, "is the re-using of old charcoal iron, such as scrap car wheels. Certain classes of iron when put into service never turn up again as scrap, at least not for a long time, for instance, iron pipe and general iron fittings. Car wheels when worn out are very little depreciated in weight, and are melted over again with the addition of new iron. There is no doubt," he goes on to say, "that charcoal iron could be made to good advantage in Canada, the only obstacle being the large amount of capital required for investment in a plant and the uncertainty of the prices of iron until a permanent protective policy is insured." The malleable iron works of Mr. W. H. Smith's Falls. Frost at Smith's Falls use 1,000 tons of charcoal iron per annum, brought in over the Canadian Pacific railway from northern Michigan. The price fluctuates two or three times during the year, ranging from $27 to $35 per ton laid down at Smith's Falls and duty paid, and Mr. Frost says it may touch as high as $45. Other malleable works in the province are located at Oshawa, Merrickville, Guelph and Hamilton, and they use about 2,500 tons of Other malleable charcoal iron a year, at prices ranging according to the brand from $26 to $36 per ton, including freight and duty. * Sir Lowthian Bell found in America that cold blast charcoal iron was infinitely preferred to metal smelted with hot blast for chilled railway wheels, wrought iron or steel being rarely used under railway carriages. It was uniformly stated, he says, that the cold blast iron wheels take a deeper chill and wear much longer than those made from hot blast, the same charcoal and minerals being used in both cases.-Principles of the Manufacture of Iron and Steel, p. 152. works. drymen on the iron for castings. The total quantity of charcoal iron used is not large, but the statements of several leading foundrymen warrant the opinion that much more could find a market at a lower range of prices. Mr. Copp of Hamilton stated that his firm use the best brands of British pig, costing $23 per ton, and mix it with about one-third Londonderry as the latter cannot be used alone, being a slaggy iron. They do not use charcoal iron at all, but he thinks they ought Opinion of foun- to use it as it makes the most valuable castings. With one-third charcoal value of charcoal iron he believes they could use English and low grade Scotch iron costing $3.50 to $4 per ton less than the best brands, and turn out a strong fine plate. A much finer plate is made now than formerly, and they require the best iron that can be got. "If our machine men," Mr. Copp said, "used more charcoal iron in their castings they would be of a better class, and it would be better for the country. As soon as it is established that charcoal iron makes better work we will all be willing to pay more for it." Mr. Laidlaw, another Hamilton foundryman, also uses the best Scotch iron, costing $23 per ton, but thinks they could use charcoal iron mixed with the Scotch, and that it would strengthen and improve the castings. An agricultural ufacturer's Mr. Massey of Toronto stated that the cost of Scotch and Londonderry irons ranges from $18 to $21 per ton, but in his shops they do not care to use more than a quarter or a third of the latter. Detroit charcoal iron costs $25 to implement man- $27 per ton freight and duty paid, Alabama iron $30 and the Salisbury $36. testimony. "If Canadian charcoal iron," he said, "could be produced for a little more than Scotch or Londonderry, no doubt we could use it for nearly every kind of iron we want to make. It makes a stronger and better casting, and it would be simply a question of the cost. For machinery castings we want the best iron, and the expense is what has kept us from using charcoal iron. I would take charcoal iron at $24 a ton rather than imported iron at $22; I would consider it would be $4 a ton more valuable. Charcoal iron at $4 a ton more would command the market for all strong castings; we could use 2,000 tons of it... The manufacturers of agricultural implements would use it, and if one used it and made better castings competition would compel the others to do likewise. The cheapest charcoal iron at present imported costs $28 a ton, and if the Canadian were less than that it would command the market for charcoal iron." Mr. Massey does not believe that a profit of $6 per ton is made on charcoal iron in Michigan, and thinks they would be well satisfied to make a profit of $3 per ton. tion is a business secret. COST OF PRODUCTION. The question of the cost of production is less easily determined than questions of demand or market price. It has been shown how much of pig iron is required for yearly consumption in Canada, either in the raw material or Cost of produc- its equivalent in the finished article, and how much it costs when imported, with freight, duty and the profits of makers and dealers added. These facts are easily ascertained from public documents and business men. But the actual cost of production is a business secret of the furnace men which few of their number care to divulge, and without full and exact data it can only be ascertained approximately. Besides, the conditions are so variable that the results are hardly ever the same for any two furnaces. Even in the same |