Upon some occasion a blast furnace had attempted to smelt the flue cinder, and from its greater purity the furnace did not work well with a mixture intended for an impurer article; hence for years it was thrown over the banks of the river at Pittsburgh by our competitors as worthless.

In some cases we were even able to exchange a poor article for a good one and obtain a bonus.
But it is still more unbelievable that a prejudice, equally unfounded, existed against putting into the blast furnaces the roll-scale from the mills which was pure oxide of iron.

This reminds me of my dear friend and fellow-Dunfermline townsman, Mr.Chisholm, of Cleveland.

We had many pranks together.

One day, when I was visiting his works at Cleveland, I saw men wheeling this valuable roll-scale into the yard.
I asked Mr.Chisholm where they were going with it, and he said: "To throw it over the bank.