The very first hollow-ware casting made in America is said to be still
in existence. It was a little kettle holding less than a quart.

[Illustration: THE FIRST CASTING MADE IN AMERICA.]

The beginnings of the iron industry in America were none too early.
There came a need for them very soon after they had extended into other
parts of New England, and into New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and
Maryland. In 1775, there were a large number of small furnaces and
foundries. But coal and iron, the two earth-born servants of national
progress which are now always twins, were not then coupled. The first of
them was out of consideration. The early iron men looked for water-falls
instead, and for the wood of the primeval forest. [Footnote: It is now
easy to learn that a coal-mine may be a more valuable possession than a
gold-mine, and that iron is better as an industry than silver. There are
mountains of iron in Mexico, but no coal, and silver-mines so rich that
silver, smelted with expensive wood fuel, is the staple product of the
country. Yet the people are among the poorest in Christendom. There is a
ceaseless iron-famine, so that the chiefest form of railway robbery is
the stealing of the links and pins from trains. There are almost no
metal industries. A barbaric agriculture prevails for the want of
material for the making of tools. The actual means of progress are not
at hand, notwithstanding the product of silver, which goes by weight as
a commodity to purchase most that the country needs.] They became very
necessary to the country in 1755--when the "French" war came, and they
then began the making of the shot and guns used in that struggle, and
became accustomed to the manufacture in time for the Revolution. Looking
back for causes conducive to momentous results, we may here find one not
usually considered in the histories. But for the advancement of the iron