The Principles and Practice of Iron and Steel Manufacture #268072

In what a variety of useful forms do we daily, hourly, meet with it! In stately steamships, whose records of capacity and of swiftness constitute One of the marvels of our time; in the powerful locomotive careering along the iron way; in machinery, ponderous and powerful, or nimbly delicate and deft; in hammer and anvil, in cannon and shot: the pen, the sword, the ploughshare, and a thousand things more, from the proverbial needle to an anchor, are fashioned for us from this most useful metal. Our terrible battleships with their tremendous guns and engines are composed mostly of iron. The newest world's wonders have iron for their backbone. The stupendous bridge which spans the Forth; the Eiffel Tower, of solid yet graceful construction, which rears aloft its fairy-like form, an elegant example of scientific powers and the imaginative genius of French and the Tower Bridge have become possible because of progress in iron (or mild steel) manufacture.