Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/188

174 Dudley, and are the growth of a century or more of accretion, each decade of the century seemingly adding its independent structure, so that the whole looks like a small village of buildings annexed to each other by narrower roads between them than the public streets of a town. It is truly a representative establishment, embracing in itself nearly all the industries and productions of the district. I doubt if such another can be found in England or the world for this remarkable variety of enterprise. In the first place, the company have sunk seven pairs of coal mines around their works. Most of the good coal they sell, using themselves the refuse for their furnaces and forges. They also own and work their own iron ore. Then from the furnace to the forge, from pig to bar, goes this raw material of their manufactures. The iron, now ready for its hundred uses, parts company for several stages of manipulation, then unites again in infinite shapes and relations. A portion is selected with great care for the carbonating kilns or ovens in which it is, as it were, seethed and saturated with the fire and fumes of charcoal. It now comes out blistered steel, fit for working up into tools that do not require a cutting edge; and a considerable quantity is used at this stage for such purposes. But most of it is now broken up into short pieces for the terrible crucibles or melting-pots of the air furnaces. If any one has