This suggestion was a long time before it
was adopted, for in many things Cook was far in advance of his age.
Corrugated iron for roofing, &c., came into use in 1832, but it was not
till the period of the Australian gold fever--1852-4--that there was any
great call for iron houses. The first iron church (made at Smethwick) as
well as iron barracks for the mounted police, were sent out there, the
price at Melbourne for iron houses being from L70 each.--See "_Trades_."
~Iron Bedsteads~ are said to have been invented by Dr. Church. Metallic
bedsteads of many different kinds have been made since then, from the
simple iron stretcher to the elaborately guilded couches made for
princes and potentates, but the latest novelty in this line is a
bedstead of solid silver, lately ordered for one of the Indian Rajahs.
~Iron Rods.~--Among the immense number of semi-religious tracts
published during the Civil War, one appeared (in 1642) entitled "An Iron
Rod for the Naylours and Tradesmen near Birmingham," by a self-styled
prophet, who exhorted his neighbours to amend their lives and give
better prices "twopence in the shilling at the least to poor workmen.
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