LOOKING back to-day it seems incredible that only
forty years ago ( 1870) chemistry in the United
States was an almost unknown agent in connection
with the manufacture of pig iron. It was the agency,
above all others, most needful in the manufacture of
iron and steel. The blast-furnace manager of that day
was usually a rude bully, generally a foreigner, who in
addition to his other acquirements was able to knock
down a man now and then as a lesson to the other un-
ruly spirits under him. He was supposed to diagnose the
condition of the furnace by instinct, to possess some
almost supernatural power of divination, like his con-
gener in the country districts who was reputed to be
able to locate an oil well or water supply by means of
a hazel rod. He was a veritable quack doctor who ap-
plied whatever remedies occurred to him for the troubles
of his patient.

The Lucy Furnace was out of one trouble and into an-
other, owing to the great variety of ores, limestone, and
coke which were then supplied with little or no regard
to their component parts. This state of affairs became in-
tolerable to us. We finally decided to dispense with the
rule-of-thumb-and-intuition manager, and to place a
young man in charge of the furnace. We had a young
shipping clerk, Henry M. Curry, who had distinguished
himself, and it was resolved to make him manager.

Mr. Phipps had the Lucy Furnace under his special
charge. His daily visits to it saved us from failure there.
Not that the furnace was not doing as well as other fur-

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