Lewistown Gazette

LEWISTOWN GAZETTE.

Important Discovery in the Iron Trade.

A British journal says that Mr. John Harding, managing partner in the Beeston Iron Works, Leeds, has just patented an improved method of freeing iron or other metal ores from shale and extraneous matter. To those who are acquainted with the mode of winning and preparing it for the blast furnace, it may be necessary to premise that iron ore is imbedded in shale. This must be removed prior to the ore being sent to the blast furnace. Hitherto this has been accomplished by spreading it upon the surface, and subjecting it to the action of the weather until the shale is sufficiently loosened to allow of its being chipped or "napped" off the ore by manual labor. This is a work of months and years, and is not only a long but a costly process, in consequence of the number of men daily employed in spreading, chipping. Mr. Harding's discovery dispenses altogether with the necessity for subjecting it to the action of the weather, and by the application of steam accomplishes in two or three hours that which has previously occupied one or two years.