There is nothing so unsatisfactory as purchases of inferior plants.
But although this purchase was a mistake, directly considered, it proved, at a subsequent date, a source of great profit because it gave us a furnace small enough for the manufacture of spiegel and, at a later date, of ferro-manganese.

We were the second firm in the United States to manufacture our own spiegel, and the first, and for years the only, firm in America that made ferro-manganese.

We had been dependent upon foreigners for a supply of this indispensable article, paying as high as eighty dollars a ton for it.

The manager of our blast furnaces, Mr.Julian Kennedy, is entitled to the credit of suggesting that with the ores within reach we could make ferro-manganese in our small furnace.

The experiment was worth trying and the result was a great success.