Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . nd spinners hadsometimes difficulty in getting their produce off, and the oldhand-spinners, beaten both in quantity and quality, found theirtrade beginning to slip from them. The story of how theweavers again, as it were, caught up the spinners will find aplace in the next chapter. The steady retrogression ot iron smelting in England isshown by the quantity of iron imported. The amount rosesteadity. From 171
Social England : a record of the progress of the people in religion, laws, learning, arts, industry, commerce, science, literature and manners, from the earliest times to the present day . nd spinners hadsometimes difficulty in getting their produce off, and the oldhand-spinners, beaten both in quantity and quality, found theirtrade beginning to slip from them. The story of how theweavers again, as it were, caught up the spinners will find aplace in the next chapter. The steady retrogression ot iron smelting in England isshown by the quantity of iron imported. The amount rosesteadity. From 1711-i7l8 the yearly average was 15,642 tons;from 1729-1735. 25,501 tons: from 1750-1755. 34,072 tons: from THE r]{r)GRESS OF MANUFACTUBE. 417 1784] 17G1-1766, 48,980 tons. The reason has been ah-eady mentioned,namely, the scarcity of charcoal. The Darbys, father and son,had shown that coke could be used to replace charcoal, and thestory of the recovery of the iron trade is mainly the story of thespread of this knowledge. The difficulty with coke was to getan effective blast. The trompe, a water-blast used in the Catalancharcoal forge, was not of sufficient power. The earliest blowing. COAL \VA(;(ajX.( London Magazine, 1704.) engines were large bellows worked by horse- or water-power, andso arranged, in sets of two or four, as to give a fairly continuousthough not a powerful blast. The water-power, where there wasno natural fall, was sometimes supplied by one of the early formsof steam engine (p. 426). The first improvement in the blast improvedwas due to Smeaton, who built lor Roebuck at the Carron Iron ^^^^*-Works, about 1760, a cylinder blowing engine. The power, aswas customary, was indirect. The engine furnished water whichin its turn drove four blowing cylinders. These were 4 ft. 6 diameter, with tightly fitted pistons. There was a valve inthe bottom opening inwards to admit air as the piston rose;when the piston fell this valve closed and another valve near thebottom
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