MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 71 



men being the facility with which the metal will fuse in the succeeding opera- 

 tion. The metal having- been brought to the desired point of decarbonization, 

 is raked out of the puddling furnace and allowed to cool ; these products may 

 be mixed in large quantities to equalize the quality, or it may be drawn into 

 the fire clay crucibles, arranged in furnaces such as are now commonly em- 

 ployed for melting steel ; a little charcoal, or other carbonaceous matter, is to 

 be thrown into the crucibles among the pieces of metal, which will assist in 

 reducing the oxide formed by the previous operation. The fires in the melt- 

 ing furnaces are to be kept up vigorously until the complete fusion of the metal 

 takes place ; it is then to be poured in a fluid state into iron ingot moulds, 

 placed vertically, or nearly so, with open tops, the shape of the mould being 

 such as to give the ingot of cast steel more or less the intended form of the 

 rail ; the ingot being, however, much more massive, in order that it may after- 

 wards be reduced in thickness and increased in length, by rolling, in a similar 

 manner to that already practised in rolling railway bars formed of malleable 

 iron. The raw ends of the steel bars may be cut off and remelted by mixing 

 them with fresh portions of the metal from the puddling furnace. The combi- 

 nation of such a quantity of carbon with the iron as to constitute steel will 

 greatly increase its power of resisting the laminating action of the engine and 

 carriage wheels, and at the same time add to its stiffness and cohesive strength, 

 as compared with malleable iron rails of the same sectional area. In carrying 

 out a second modified process, the puddling operation is continued until the 

 carbon is dissipated as far as practicable, the iron being reduced to a dry and 

 powdery state, when it is to be raked out of the puddling furnace, and after- 

 wards converted into steel by cementation with powdered charcoal in close 

 vessels, after the manner employed in the making of blister steel, or, by pre- 

 ference, by a continuous operation in vertical retorts. In lieu of the puddled 

 iron, small pieces of scrap iron may be used alone, or mixed with a portion of 

 puddled iron, and then converted into steel by cementation with char- 

 coal. 



EOLLIXG EAILEOAD RAILS. 



An invention by Mr. John W. Brown, of Mount Savage, Md., has for its 

 object the rolling of the rails into such forms successively as to cause all parts 

 of the rail to be submitted, in the rolling process, to a uniform degree of 

 drawing and compression, thereby preventing the separation of the head and 

 flange, making all parts of the rail of equal density, &c. It enables rails to be 

 made perfectly sound with crystalline iron in the heads, which is far superior 

 to fibrous iron, as the latter laminates or peels off, as many of our readers will 

 doubtless have noticed on roads that have been in use for some time. 



The present improvement consists in forming a groove or cavity along the 

 centre of the base of the rail after the reduction to form the head has been, to 

 a certain extent, effected by the rollers, but before the further reduction to 

 form the neck is commenced. By the subsequent operation of the rolls the 

 middle of the bar is reduced, to form the neck which brings the rail nearly to 

 the proper shape, drives the metal towards the base, and fills the cavity in the 

 base before mentioned. 



