CHEMISTRY. 261 



leaving the succeeding operations to be carried out on a scale wholly at vari- 

 ance with the principles he has found so advantageous in the smelting depart- 

 ment. It is true that hitherto no better method was known than the pud- 

 dling process, in which from 400 to 500 weight of iron is all that can be 

 operated upon at a time, and even this small quantity is divided into homoeo- 

 pathic doses of some TOlbs. or SOlbs., each of which is moulded and fashioned 

 by human labor, carefully watched and tended in the furnace, and removed 

 therefrom one at a time, to be carefully manipulated and squeezed into form. 

 When we consider the vast extent of the manufacture, and the gigantic scale on 

 which the early stages of the process are conducted, it is astonishing that no 

 effort should have been made to raise the after processes somewhat nearer to 

 a level commensurate with the preceding ones, and thus rescue the trade 

 from the trammels which have so long surrounded it. 



Comments and Thoughts on the Discovery of Mr. Bessemer. It will be obvi- 

 ous that one principal feature in the process is, that the operator deals with 

 the metal in a state of perfect fluidity a desideratum hitherto unattainable 

 with iron containing only a small quantity of carbon. Hence it cannot 

 merely be procured in masses of any size (whereas the pudcller can only pro- 

 duce 60 or 70 Ibs. in a lump), but it will possess the distinguishing character 

 of all fluids it will be perfectly homogeneous. The texture, composition, and 

 quality will be the same throughout every part of the mass. That the fluidity 

 is really greatly increased, notwithstanding the subtraction of the carbon, is 

 shown by the fact that it is found desirable to diminish the power of the blast 

 from nine or ten pounds to about five pounds during the latter part of the 

 process, as well as by the* rapidity with which the metal runs out of the fur- 

 nace, and its brilliant whiteness. It is impossible to overrate the advantage 

 of having a really homogeneous product. In large masses of malleable iron, 

 procured in the ordinary way by welding together a number of the puddler's 

 blooms, there often occur small knobs and fragments of metal much harder than 

 the rest ; and many manufacturers consider soft malleable iron quite as trying 

 to their tools as hard steel, from the unexpected increase of resistance sud- 

 denly offered by particular parts of the mass, and the consequent unequal 

 strain upon different portions of the machinery. The greater the mass 

 required, the greater the difficulty of obtaining a metal upon all parts of which 

 equal reliance can be placed; and hence, where a very heavy strain, in a 

 direction different from that of the fibre, is expected, strength is often obliged 

 to be sought in an enormous thickness of material. The prodigious weight of 

 anchors is rendered necessary by the impossibility of calculating accurately 

 the strength of the metal in any particular part, so that the size of the whole 

 must be increased to meet the chance of a bad piece of metal occurring here 

 and there. One of Mr. Bessemer's numerous patents is for the application of 

 his invention to the construction of anchors, in which he hopes to attain equal 

 strength with a greatly diminished weight. 



One of the results of the invention will be the curious anomaly that steel 

 will be produced at a little less risk, and therefore at a little less cost, than 

 malleable iron ; for it is obvious that, by tapping the furnace before the com- 

 plete combustion of the carbon has taken place, steel will be produced instead 



