teel handled in such masses.

It would be foreign to the purpose of this report to dwell on the many
objects of commerce which are supplied from these works, but it is
safe to say that no proposed work can be of such magnitude as to
exceed the resources of the establishment.

For the preparation of metal for cannon and armor-plates Le Creusot
is thoroughly equipped. The iron is produced on the premises from the
purest imported ores, and the manufacture of the steel is carried on
by the most approved application of the open-hearth system with the
Siemens furnace; the chemical and mechanical tests are such as to
satisfy the most exacting demands of careful government officials; and
the executive ability apparent in all the departments and the evident
condition of discipline that pervades the whole establishment inspire
confidence in the productions of the labor.

The capacity for casting steel is represented by seven open-hearth
furnaces of 18 tons each, equal to 126 tons; and the process of
casting large ingots is a model of order and security. Ladles capable
of holding the contents of one furnace, mounted upon platform cars,
are successively filled at a previously determined interval of time
and run on railways to a convenient position over the mould; before
the first ladle is exhausted the supply from the succeeding one has
commenced to run, and so on to the completion of the casting, the
supply to the mould being uninterrupted during the entire process. The
precision with which the several ladles are brought into position in
succession makes it entirely unnecessary to provide a common reservoir
into which all the furnaces may discharge. By this process the casting
of a 45 ton ingot, which was witnessed by the Board, was effected in
23 minutes.

The process of tempering the gun-tubes was also witnessed by the
Board. The excavation of the pit is, as at St. Chamond, 15 meters
deep, with the furnace at one end and the oil tank (100 tons) at the
other. One side of the upright furnace is constructed in the form of a
door, which, by a convenient arrangement for swinging, is made to turn
on its hinges. Thus, when the tube is raised to the right temperature,
it is seized by the traveling crane, the door of the furnace swung
open, and the tube at once advanced to the tank in which it is
immersed.

All tubes are immersed in oil the second time, but at a temperature
much below that to which they are raised at the first imme