ABSTRACT

The importance of travels to survey the progress of mining abroad was very much the concept of Daniel-Charles Trudaine, who had been in charge of mining policy since the early 1740s and had introduced the important mining legislation of 1744. The published volumes contain reports roughly arranged by theme, and therefore not an unbroken account of the English travels. The English practice of reheating pig iron for casting, rather than casting straight from the furnace was noted, and the use of such cast iron for pump barrels, engine cylinders and for wheels, presumably for use on railed ways. The production of the great cylinders for Newcomen engines for the English as well as the Scottish market was a principal object. Gabriel Jars was always interested in comparative technology, noting that a water-column engine was being suggested for drainage at an English lead-mine, like the ones adopted at the mines of Schemnitz.