200 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



determine with tolerable accuracy the percentage of titanium, and therefore 

 of titanic acid, in any given specimen of titanium ore or titaniferous iron ore. 

 And now the whole mystery of the Danemora iron was at once elucidated; 

 and its explanation is this, the magnetic iron ore from which the Danemora 

 iron is prepared contains a larger percentage of titanic acid than other ores 

 from which the inferior brands of Swedish iron are obtained, and the bar 

 iron obtained is therefore more largely alloyed with titanium. 



Moreover, as titanium is perhaps the most difficult to fuse of all the 

 metals, its alloy with bar iron requires a higher temperature for its fusion, 

 than that required for the fusion of bar iron destitute of su-.-h an alloy, and 

 it is well known that the best Danemora iron, in the state of iron, is more 

 difficult to melt than any other charcoal bar iron. It has also been observed 

 by the steel trade that steel irons which require much melting, i. P., which 

 are difficult to melt, yield cast steel possessing great body, i. e., powers of 

 endurance when made into a tool. 



It will, I am aware.be objected that chemists have as yet detected no 

 titanium in these irons. I grant this; and I will explain why it has been so. 

 Chemists confound the titanic and silicic acids one with the other, and, 

 besides this, the insoluble residuum is likewise a form or compound of tita- 

 nium. I will cite a case in point which completely confirms and proves my 

 position. An extraordinary magnetic iron-sand was brought to England 

 from a volcanic district in the South Seas. Some of this ore was sent to me, 

 and I perceived at once that it was an ore of titanium. On testing it by my 

 processes, I found that it must contain at least eight or ten per cent of tita- 

 nic acid. 



I have from this ore manufactured steel of surpassing excellence; sam- 

 ples of which are in the hands of the fortunate owner of the deposit, the 

 value of which for steel and iron making is incalculable. The analogy be- 

 tween this ore and that of Danemora has already been observed by parties 

 acquainted with the manufacture of Swedish iron; but the explanation of 

 the similarity was reserved for me to give. Until my discoveries upon this 

 subject, titanium has only been alluded to as a pernicious ingredient in iron 

 ores or iron, causing rcdshortness, etc. One chemist alone has remarked 

 that titanium in small quantities does not appear to affect the quality of iron 

 injuriously; and this remark I find in an almost obsolete French work on 

 chemistry. The celebrated Damascus blades are made from iron reduced 

 from a highly titaniferous iron ore. The Wootz ore of India is more titanif- 

 erous than that of Danemora. The Elba iron ore is moderately titaniferous, 

 and so also is the Brush iron ore of the Forest of Dean. Iron alloyed with 

 titanium possesses a degree of body and durability unknown in ordinary 

 bar iron of good quality. First-rate steel can only be made from iron con- 

 taining titanium. There is a spurious, ductile, and easily workable steel 

 which owes its usefulness to the presence of manganese; but between which 

 and the titanic steel there exists as wide a difference, in point of excellence, 

 as there is between common hot-blast Scotch pig iron and the best Shrop- 

 shire or Blaenavon cold-blast iron. 



This difference is well known to the Sheffield trade. Titanium steel has 

 body. Manganese steel has little or none; but it is ductile, and hardens well, 

 and is cheap besides, and can be applied to inferior purposes. Not that the 

 Sheffield steel-makers ever dreamed about titanium; but what they call body 

 is, in intelligible language, rendered correctly by the term titanium ; and to the 

 fact of this metal existing in allpy with Danemora and other Swedish bar 



