An Explanation of the Memorial presented to the
King of Sweeden concerning Improvements in the Iron-
Manufacture by Malachy Postlethwayt Esq:r an Englishman.
In Order to form a clear and just Idea of the true Intent &
Meaning of the said Memorial, it may be necessary to observe, that all Iron,
when first cast from the Ore in Sweeden or any other Nation, is cast into a coarse,
porous, brittle sort of Iron, compared with Forged-Bar-Iron; & afterwards by
other Operations, this coarse porous, brittle Sort of Cast-lron is prepared for the
engrossed, & monopolised to prevent Your Memorialist from
reaping all due Advantage by his Royal Grant for Fourteen
Years, Your Memorialist hath come to a Resolution to make a
Tender of his new Invention to some other Nation more happily
circumstanced than England to carry on those universal
Manufactures to the greatest Extent and Advantage.
Your Memorialist to this End made Application to Your
Majesty's Secretary charged with Your Affairs in England, in
order to be inform'd whether such Proposition would be graci-
ously received by Your Majesty. And Your Secretary having
given Your Memorialist Assurances, that Propositions benefic-
al to the Iron Manufacture of Sweeden would meet with all
due Encouragement, Y:r Memorialist hath been prevailed on to
make the first Tender of his Services herein to Your Majesty.
And should Y:r Majesty be pleased to accept of the
Services of Y:r Memorialist, Y:r Memorialist humbly prays
Your Majesty would be graciously pleased to grant him such
Reward as may induce him to communicate his new Invention
to whomsoever Y:r Majesty shall please to appoint for the sole
Benefit and Advantage of Y:r Majesty's Kingdoms.
And your Memorialist shall pray &:c &:c
Forge, & then hammered gradually into a State of Toughness and Malleability into
the Form of Bars for general Sale; in order afterwards to be worked up, or hamme-
red out into all the Variety of Shapes and Forms requisite for the ordinery Uses of
all Nations.
Of this coarse, porous, brittle Cast Iron is all Iron ordnance made for Cannon
Artillery and the like; as also for all the other Purposes wherein Cast-Iron is made
use of throughout Europe... Now, could Iron be cast at once from the Ore into
any peculiar Form required, of a Quality fully as Tough & as malleable as Forged-
Iron itself, every Person of common understanding must see & dicern, that whatever
Nation possess'd so important a Discovery scarce need have any greater Treasure
to enrich & aggrandize such Nation, than to be the whole & sole Masters of so valu-
able a Manufacture; provided such Nation were possessed of Iron Ore & Wood for
Fewell in due Plenty & properly situaled for Trade.
Bul although it should never be possible to cast Iron from the Ore perfectly
and absolulely as Tough and as Malleable as it may be made by Forging or Ham-
mering; yet if Iron can be cast at once from the Ore more pure, more Tough and
more malleable, & more approaching the Toughness, and Malleability of Forged-
Iron, than was ever done before, in any Nation whatever; such a Discovery must, &
most certainly will, prove an innvaluable Treasure to any Nation, who shall be the
sole Possessors of such a Manufacture; because such a Superiority of Quality will
certainly give a Superiority of Credit & Reputation to such Cast Iron beyond that of
all other Nations: And this is the Whole that is meant and intended by the said
Memorial; and this, 'tis presumed, is amply sufficient to recommend the Discovery