Total............ 19,487,610


The first four countries produce 88.4 per cent, of the world's iron
supply; the first two, 64.3 per cent.; the first, 43 per cent. The chief
consumer is the United States, 29 per cent.; next Great Britain, 23 '4
per cent.; these two using more than half of all. Cast iron wares do not
appear to have been made here in any quantity before 1755; malleable
iron castings being introduced about 1811. The first iron canal boat
made its appearance here July 24, 1787. Iron pots were first tinned in
1779 by Jonathan Taylor's patented process, but we have no date when
vessels of iron were first enamelled, though a French method of coating
them with glass was introduced in 1850 by Messrs. T.G. Griffiths and Co.
In 1809, Mr. Benjamin Cook, a well-known local inventor, proposed to use
iron for building purposes, more particularly in the shape of joists,
rafters, and beams, so as to make fire-proof rooms, walls, and flooring,
as well as iron staircases. This suggestion was a long time before it
was adopted, for in many things Cook was far in advance of his age.
Corrugated iron for roofing, &c., came into use in 1832, but it was not
till the period of the Australian gold fever--1852-4--that there was any
great call for iron houses. The first iron church (made at Smethwick) as
well as iron barracks for the mounted police, were sent out there, the
price at Melbourne for iron houses being from £70 each.--See "_Trades_."

~Iron Bedsteads~ are said to have been invented by Dr. Church. Metallic
bedsteads of many different kinds have been made since then, from the
simple iron stretcher to the elaborately guilded couches made for
princes and potentates, but the latest novelty in this line is a
bedstead of solid silver, lately ordered for one of the Indian Rajahs.