MECHANICS AXD USEFUL ARTS. 81 



one direction and closed in a direction at right angles to it, till it forms a link 

 which resembles the figure 8, except that the two sides do not cross in the 

 middle. It is then taken by other devices and bent at the middle of its length, 

 and then, by hand, put through another link and placed in another part of the 

 machine, by which its looped extremities are drawn close together, which 

 finishes it. The next link passing through these looped ends secures them, and 

 thus the chain is formed. All the operations are performed with great rapidity. 



HAKDEISTQfG CAST STEEL FOE CUTTING. 



Kieser, of Issy, in Switzerland, prepares admirable hardened razors, pen- 

 knives, &c., from English cast steel, by plunging the blades at a dark cherry 

 red heat into a bath made of fourteen parts by measure, of yellow rosin in fine 

 powder, two parts of fish oil, and one part hot molten tallow ; they are then 

 allowed to cool perfectly, and, without wiping them, are reheated to a low red 

 heat and immersed in water, in the usual way of tempering such articles. 

 The edge of the blade treated in this manner is said to be very fine, and the 

 hardening more uniformly done than by any other process. 



IEOX CHUECHES. 



Mr. Skidmore, a gentleman who is celebrated in England for the extreme 

 beauty and excellence of his ecclesiastical metal works in the Mediaeval style, 

 has excited considerable interest by a proposal to erect churches of iron 

 instead of stone. In the course of a recent address he says : " I will under- 

 take to make a church capable of holding eight hundred, with enrichment 

 equal to a church costing, in stone, 7,000, for one-third less than this 

 amount. If iron is to be considered a material of our age and locality and 

 to be used as our forefathers used every material of their day, giving it its 

 natural expression, adding art and beauty to the constructive form, it would 

 be unlike their actions and unworthy of ourselves to use a new for, consider- 

 ing the facility of its production in this day, and its great and extended use, 

 it may fairly be ranked as a new material, only as a cheap expedient, 

 instead of giving to it that development in Christian art of which it is so 

 capable. The ulterior would afford ample scope for carrying out that floral 

 treatment so much used in the fourteenth century. The iron also would 

 require coating with pigments to preserve its surface, and would form a ready 

 means of illumination ; the renewed use of crystals and gems, as in ancient 

 metal work ; the use of enamels would present facilities which permit to a 

 greater extent even than in ancient work ; the covering of the wall surfaces 

 with tapestry having historical subjects, reredos of brass, or silver and brass 

 combined, are also objects to be aimed at." It is thought that by a liberal 

 use of crockets and finials, executed in sheet or wrought iron, properly 

 foliated, the great objection which has been urged against the use of cast 

 iron for structural purposes can be avoided, namely, the expense of patterns 

 which necessarily involved endless repetition, and thereby to a certain extent 

 either ignored or limited the exercise of the ideal faculty. The mouldings 

 may be cast, but they can also be rolled with due attention to their relief and 



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