Steel Casting.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5993, 30 July 1887, Page 5

Steel Casting.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAK,

Sir,— 'We notice in your issue of this morning a letter from Mr Waddell referring to our exhibit of steel castings at the Industrial Conversazione, and taking exception to a card on one of them. He evidently has not read the card, or he would not have so misquoted it. "We do not Bay that these are the first steel caatings^ made in New Zealand, but that the particular casting on which the card is placed is "the first steel wheel made in Australasia." By wheel we meant locomotive wheel.

We coul< * scarcely say that the castings exhibited were the first made in New Zealand, because we made steel castings ourselves in Christchurch a dozen years ago, but, like those made by Mr Waddell two years ago, they were not a success. Steel castings have been made in various parts of the Colony, and are now being made both in Wellington and Dunedin. But, while we make no such claim as that indicated, wo make one vastly greater. When we first attempted steel castings the trade was in its infancy, and the possibility of making sound steel castings seemed almost hopeless. It was not till after the Paris Exhibition of 1877, at which the Terre Noire Company had some fine steel castings, that it was considered possible to make them sound without resorting to mechanical pressure during solidification. Since that time considerable strides have been made ; but even now we have no hesitation in saying that there are not a dozen firms in the world capable of making a steel wheel equal in all respects to the one we exhibit. — We are, &c,

SCOTT BROTHERS. Christchurch, July 29, 1887.