CHEMICAL SCIENCE. 199 



malleability when the addition is of 2.5 per cent. The absolute solidity of 

 tungsten steel exceeds that of all other known steels; for fifteen consecutive 

 experiments with a machine in the Polytechnic Institute of Vienna showed 

 'the highest power of resistance to be 1,393 hundredweight, and the lowest 

 1,015 hundredweight, giving an average of 1,1C8 hundredweight to the 

 square inch; so that this steel exceeds all other kinds hitherto subjected to 

 experiment. 



For the preparation of this steel wolfram (tunsgtate of iron and manganese) 

 is purified by roasting, pulverizing, and washing, and by a final treatment 

 with dilute hydrochloric acid. The purified ore is then placed, in a crucible 

 with coal dust, and heated to redness for three hours. The ore is reduced, 

 and a porous gray mass is obtained, formed of metallic tungsten alloyed with 

 carburets of iron and manganese. This is the product which is used for the 

 preparation of tungsten steel, and it is thrown into the crucibles in which 

 cast-steel is melted. Care must be taken before running the steel into ingots 

 to increase the heat of the fire, for ten or twenty minutes, so as to cany the 

 temperature of the crucible to a bright redness. It appears, however, that 

 the manufacture of tungsten steel in quantity yet presents considerable 

 difficulties, and that it has not yet been practicable to prepare masses or bars 

 of considerable size which are free from faults. 



It is desirable that this application of tungsten should be practically estab- 

 lished, for this would render a great service to mining industry, by utilizing 

 a material of wide distribution, which until now has been banished from the 

 list of ores capable of profitable exploration. 



The only applications of the compounds of tungsten hitherto made, and 

 which have not had great success, owing perhaps to the qualities of the 

 products not being sufficiently remarkable or superior to give much value, 

 or, possibly, because the processes and preparations were too costly, are the 

 following: use of tungstic acid for coloring yellow; oxide of tungsten for 

 coloring blue; and the employment of tungstate of soda in dyeing and calico 

 printing, and as a substitute for stannate of soda. 



INFLUENCE OF THE PRESENCE OF TITANIUM ON THE QUALITY 



OF IRON. 



Mr. David Mushet, the well-known English iron manufacturer, in a com- 

 munication to the London Engineer Journal, expresses an opinion, that the 

 mystery of the excellence of the Danemora and other irons is due to the 

 presence in the iron of a small proportion of the metal titanium. Some time 

 ago, his attention having been drawn to this matter, by the fact that crystals 

 of titanium occur in the hearths of Norwegian blast furnaces, he instituted 

 a series of experiments, which he describes as follows : 



By alloying small quantities of titanium with iron and steel I obtained 

 surprising results, which at once convinced me that I was upon the right 

 track at last. I now had the iron ores of the districts I have named care- 

 fully examined for titanium, and I found that all of them contained titanic 



. ' 



acid, and that whichever ore most abounded in titanic acid, the iron and steel 

 produced from that ore was the most celebrated and valuable. In reducing 

 likewise the ores of iron and titanium I found that a peculiar slag, or scoria, 

 was always obtained, and of such a remarkable character that it was impos- 

 sible, when once seen, ever to mistake it for any other kind of iron slag; and 

 from the color and appearance of this slag I could at length, by experience, 



