The Iron and Steel Institute

Abstract

THIS prosperous and useful association held its sixth summer meeting last week, from the 1st to the 4th instant, at Barrow-in-Furness, a town whose rapidity of growth is unparalleled out of America. Twenty-five years ago the village of Barrow, near the southern extremity of the peninsula of Furness, in Lancashire, had a population of barely 200; now the municipal borough extends over an area of about 15,000 acres, with a population of about 35,000. Even fourteen years ago, when the first volume of Chambers' Encyclopedia was published, it seems to have been so little known, or of so little importance, as not to find a place in that useful work. It is now a well-laid-out town, with fine docks, and some of the most important iron and engineering works in the kingdom; while one of the steel works are considered to occupy a leading position in connection with the manufacture of Bessemer steel. This unequalled growth of the town of Barrow is entirely owing to the rapid development of the various industries connected with iron, the mineral deposits of the district being unusually rich.