For the movement of iron and steel in factories it is difficult to excel. A consignment of kegs of nails, bolts, nuts, screws, or some other small articles requires removal to or from store, or to vehicle. Under normal conditions the practice would be, either to stack them on trolleys or to pack and sling them from cranes, the loading constituting the adverse factor from the appreciable time it takes. If the magnet be used no such preliminaries of any description are necessary. The magnet is merely lowered, the current switched on, and the next moment as many loaded kegs as can squeeze themselves upon the face of the magnet may be lifted. The attractive effort is sufficient to exert its influence through the covers of the kegs to act upon the metal within. Moreover, if the kegs be small, more than one layer will be found possible of removal at a time, inasmuch as the depth to which the magnetic influence can be exerted--“digging” effort as it is called--has been found to be equal to the diameter of the magnet face. For handling metal waste in the form of turnings or swarf it is far cheaper and quicker than any other known process. When the magnet is dropped upon a pile of such residue and is then raised, it will tear away a huge chunk of the heap--a ton or more of tousled and ragged ribands of steel jostling and clinging tightly to one another and to the magnet-face like a swarm of bees to the branch of a tree. It will successfully handle, and for no heavier cost, swarf which defies handling by any other means, except at prohibitive expense. At a certain steel-works in the North of England ten tons of matted steel turnings were permitted to stand for several weeks in a railway truck in an open siding. When it was decided to unload the vehicle the turnings were found to have rusted and to have settled down into as tightly packed a heap as could be imagined. The normal practice was for men to shovel such material with their forks into the charging boxes, but they found that they could not force their tools into this formidable heap. The mass was surveyed and the hopelessness of coping promptly therewith was admitted. Under manual labour the job would occupy several days, even if it could be successfully handled at all, upon which point considerable doubt prevailed. It was decided to try the magnet. It was brought along on its traveller and lowered into the truck. The winding drum was set going, and there was a fearful snapping and snarling. The magnet refused to release its hold, while the metal, being tightly jammed and packed, offered a stiff resistance to the irresistible attraction of the magnet. But, within a few moments, the magnet tore itself free with some 3,360 lb. of the tangled rusted steel clinging to its face. Within six minutes, and by half-a-dozen lifts, the vehicle was cleared of its ten tons of scrap.