Iron has been applied to numerous useful purposes, by every civilized nation, for thousands of years; but never has it been so extensively employed as at the present period. We have iron roads and iron carriages; the “wooden walls of old England” will probably be made of iron in another century; numerous steam-boats are already constructed of that material; the cushions of our chairs are stuffed with iron in place of horsehair; and not only our bedsteads but even our feather beds (to use an Hibernicism) are made of iron.