INDUSTRIAL BIOGRAPHY.


CHAPTER I.

IRON AND CIVILIZATION.

"Iron is not only the soul of every other manufacture, but the main
spring perhaps of civilized society."--FRANCIS HORNER.

"Were the use of iron lost among us, we should in a few ages be
unavoidably reduced to the wants and ignorance of the ancient savage
Americans; so that he who first made known the use of that
contemptible mineral may be truly styled the father of Arts and the
author of Plenty."--JOHN LOCKE.


When Captain Cook and the early navigators first sailed into the
South Seas on their voyages of discovery, one of the things that
struck them with most surprise was the avidity which the natives
displayed for iron. "Nothing would go down with our visitors," says
Cook, "but metal; and iron was their beloved article." A nail would
buy a good-sized pig; and on one occasion the navigator bought some
four hundred pounds weight of fish for a few wretched knives
improvised out of an old hoop.

"For iron tools," says Captain Carteret, "we might have purchased