Wilkes-Barre Paper - Note upon the Cost of Iron Rails as made in 1866 in a leading English Railway Company’s Rolling Mill

The tabular statement accompanying this note shows the money cost in each of the three departments of manufacture, of 17 leading items, and also the proportion (expressed in a clecimal fraction) which each of these items bears to the total cost. The statement can hardly be taken for more than an average illustration of the clear showing of ratios and of results which may be made by such an arrangement, for not only will these items vary from month to month in any given works, but the methods themselves of manufacture differ widely in different works. It is obvious that such a statement, however useful it may be, must be submitted with but exceedingly little explanation or discussion, or with none at all, for the reason that to enter at any satisfac-