Late in September the Minister of Militia, on the suggestion of the Committee, approved the appointment of David Carnegie as Ordnance Adviser to the Committee, in view of the fact that he had had considerable experience in munition work at Woolwich Arsenal. When the War Office first appealed to Canada for assistance in supplying munitions, little was known of shell manufacturing in Canada. This being the case the Canadian Government decided that a Committee of Manufacturers could better serve the War Office than could the Government through any of the Departments; and then followed the formation of the Shell Committee as originally outlined. The Committee had before them three problems: First, that of securing steel of the requisite character; secondly, the forging of the steel into shell bodies, together with the supply of other component parts, comprising brass, copper, tin, zinc and antimony; and thirdly, the machining and assembling of these various component parts. Up to the time that the request came from the War Office practically no men in Canada, with the exception of those employed at the Dominion Arsenal, knew anything about the manufacture of shells, or the material required for same. The steel hitherto used at the Dominion Arsenal had been supplied by the Crucible Steel Co. of America, and the War Office had stipulated that only Acid Open Hearth Siemens-Martin steel could be employed in shell forgings. As no Siemens-Martin steel was produced in Canada, and if the War Office adhered to their stipulation in that respect the entire steel supply would have to be obtained in the United States, the American makers, feeling sure that this would be done, promptly advanced their prices approximately forty per cent. At this juncture the Minister of Militia appealed to Thomas Cantley, then President and General Manager of the Nova Scotia Steel and Coal Co., as to whether the Scotia plant could not produce steel which would meet not only the chemical but physical requirements of the War Office shell specifications. He at once expressed the belief that they could do so, and immediately proceeded to carry out exhaustive experiments, both chemical and physical, which proved conclusively that the Scotia Company could produce steel as called for by the War Office, and offered to supply it at a price as low as the original price asked by the American works, and indeed below the American price. Within a few days of receipt of the first order by the Shell Committee from the War Office, the Scotia Company supplied the Committee with steel for 200,000 shrapnel shells. The difference in price paid to the Scotia Company and the price asked by the American Co. for the steel supplied on this small order amounted to over $40,000.