3-070-553 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Iron furnaces at Middlesbrough, [North Yorkshire], 1881. 'In Cleveland last year the output of pig iron was 2,510,853 tons, 33 per cent of the entire make of the United Kingdom...The number [of blast-furnaces] at Middlesbrough is eighty-three...These furnaces are amongst the largest and most approved in the world. They are from eighty to ninety feet high, and the output from each is about 500 tons per week. To Middlesbrough belongs the credit of demonstrating the great advantages arising from the use of furnaces of large dimensions driven with highly-heated air. The modern blast-furnace is a circular monster, towering high into the air. From the bottom, where there is always a lake of molten iron, to the top, there is one great fire, ever roaring and seething; and whenever fuel and coke are tipped in, the black giant sends forth a flaring red tongue and fiercely licks in its food...This year only some 6000 tons have been shipped to the United States; but in twelve months, from September, 1879, the quantity of pig iron loaded at Middlesbrough for that country was 131,087 tons. The whole of this passed the American Custom House, and 26s. a ton duty was paid upon it. The American tariff on pig iron is the highest in the world'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.