72 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



presents to the British public, in "Engineering," a dense array of 

 tacts and statistics on this subject, mostly well known to intelligent 

 Americans, but some of which are worth repeating even here. 

 The chilled wheel is used almost exclusively in the western 

 hemisphere, in the United States, Canadas, and South America. 

 They are also in high favor in Russia and Austria. Their pecu- 

 liarly striking superiority for mountainous countries, where curves 

 are sharp and grades are steep, renders Mr. Evans sanguine of 

 introducing them on the mountain roads of India. Specimen 

 sets are offered to all the English railways, free of charge until 

 approved, and thorough public tests, by breaking up wheels with 

 sledge hammers, are employed to remove the British prejudice 

 against the article. 320 swinging blows with 28-pound sledges 

 were struck on a chilled wheel, at one of these trials, before the 

 stout smiths could break out a piece ; as many more were struck 

 before \he wheel was broken up ; the hub was not broken. It 

 was then placed under a steam hammer of great power, and de- 

 stroyed. 



The life of the chilled wheel on the Erie Railway is quoted as 

 about 140,000 miles, and there were wheels of this kind in the In- 

 ternational Exhibition of 1862 that had run on Canadian railways 

 160,000 miles. The life of the English wrought wheel, as com- 

 pared with the cast, is practically but little over 30,000 miles, be- 

 cause, after that amount of work, its face is left so uneven that it 

 must be turned true in a lathe, at a cost about equal to that of 

 recasting the iron wheel. The wrought wheel will stand two 

 turnings, and sometimes three, making its total existence, with 

 all the expense of turning, from 60,000 to 90,000 miles at the ut- 

 most. 



The great English objection, the danger of breaking from frost 

 and rough road, is turned against the wrought wheel by the facts 

 of English railway accidents, and by the testimony of the manager 

 of the Moscow Railway, who says that they have tried every class 

 of wheels, and found none to withstand the roughness of their 

 road and the severity of their climate, but the chilled cast wheel, 

 an article made by themselves of Swedish iron and very inferior 

 to ours. They had tried 20 of the German steel wheels, last 

 winter, and broke one-fourth of them. Scientific American. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL. 



A new process is proposed for making wrought iron', which, it 

 is claimed, will save 75 per cent, of fuel, and nearly all waste of 

 metal. The ore, crushed and cleaned, is placed in the furnace, 

 inclosed in sheet-iron canisters, and kept exactly at a reducing 

 heat until deoxidization is completed, when the heat is raised to 

 the welding point, and the canisters are treated in the same 

 manner as puddle balls. The operation occupies 4 to 6 hours. 



Steel Rails. A method has been adopted of uniting iron and 

 steel in the construction of rails, so as to obtain the advantages of 

 steel on the faces, while making the stem mainly of the cheaper 

 nietal. It has been found impracticable to weld the two satis- 



