EXPERIMENTS ON' WOOTZ. ^ ^| 



XIII. 



JExpfrimenU on Wootz. By Mr. David Mushet. From the 

 Philojbphical Trmifa^ions, 1805. 



1 HE following experiments were made at the reqaeft of Sir ■Experiments oa 

 Jofeph Banks, on five cakes of wootz, with which he fupphed ^^^j^^ 

 me for that purpofe. As the cakes, which were numbered 

 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, were not all of the fame quality, it will be proper 

 firll to defcribe the dilferences obfervable in their external 

 form and appearance. 



No. 1 was a denfe folid cake, without any flaw or fungous Defcnptlonof 

 appearance upon the flat, or, what I fuppofe to be, the upper '°^"^^» "•** 

 lide. The round or under furface was covered with fmall pits 

 or hollows, two of which were of confiderable depth ; one 

 through which the flit or cut had run, <ind another nearly as 

 large towards the edge of the cake. Thefe depreflfions, the 

 efFecls, as I fuppofe, of a fpecies of cryftallization in cooling, 

 were continued round the edges, ^nd even approached a little 

 way upon the upper furface of the wootz. 



The cake was a quarter of an inch thicker at one extremity 

 of the diameter than at the other, from which I infer, that the 

 pot or crucible, in which this cake had been made, had not oc- 

 cupied the furnace in a vertical pofition. Its convexity, com- 

 pared to that of the other five, was fecond. Upon breaking Fraftutei very 

 the thin fin of fteel, which connefls the half cakes together, ^^^' 

 i found it to poflefs a very fmall denfe white grain. This 

 appearance never takes place but with fleel of the beft quality, 

 and is lefs frequent in very high fteel, though the quality be. 

 otherwife good. 



Upon examining the break with attention, I perceived feveraf 

 laminae and minute cells filled with ruft, which in working are 

 never expeded to unite or fliut together. The grain other- 

 wife was uniformly regular in point of colour and fize, and 

 poflefled a favourable appearance of fteel. 



No. 2. This cake had two very different afpefls; one fide Defcnptlonof . 

 was denfe and regular, the other hollow, fpongy, and protube- \^U^ ^t°* ^ 

 rant. The under furface was more uniformly honey-combed 

 than No. 1 ; the convexity in the middle was greater, but to- 

 wards the edges, particularly on one fide, it became flatter. 

 The ^rain expofcd by breaking was larger, bluer in colour, 



and 



