The unmarked pig iron gives me the willies. This according to Karl Polanyi
was the basis of the slave trade in Africa, the bottom line of commerce by
which all prices in silver, gold, etc., was set.

The Society of Industrial Archaeology had a very interesting article on the
founding of steel, equivalent to Swedish steel, made from magnetically
collecting sand from Connecticut rivers, unfortunately stopped by the
American Revolution.

Interestingly, also, a NY Hudson River iron founder was hired to build the
Confederate Powder Mill, 30 miles from Atlanta, given just brochures from the
Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851. Some historians suggested an end to the
American Civil War by a year or more if General Sherman had found it.

George J. Myers, Jr.