68 LitelUgeiice and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ammonia and hydrocyanic acid. The titanic acid which is left pos- 

 sesses the same octohedral form as anatase ; it is artificial anatase. 

 M. Wcehler succeeded in forming cubic crystals by heating a mixture 

 of titanic acid and ferrocyanide of potash in a forge. As to the 

 simple nitruret, it is very easily obtained by heating titanic acid to 

 redness in a current of ammoniacal gas, or of cyanogen or hydrocy- 

 anic acid gas. This substance always possesses a remarkable me- 

 tallic lustre. 



By the same process M. Wcehler has obtained the nitrurets of 

 several other metals, with which he is at present occupied. — 

 L'Institut, Novembre 7, 1849. 



ANALYSIS OF CAST IRON. BY F. C. WRIGHTSON, ESQ. 



The effect of phosphorus in producing what is termed " cold short 

 iron" has long been admitted. That the use of the hot blast occa- 

 sioned an increase in the phosphorus of the iron has, however, so 

 far as I am aware, never been suspected ; at all events, the fact has 

 never been announced. It was with the view of elucidating this 

 point, and also of furnishing more complete analyses of cast iron than 

 had yet been done, that 1 undertook, in the autumn of last year, a 

 series of analyses, the results of which I communicated to the Bir- 

 mingham Philosophical Society ; and they were afterwards published 

 in No. 3 of the ' Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society.' It is 

 necessary to mention this for reference, the results as to phosphorus 

 being partly deduced therefrom. I have endeavoured in the present 

 analyses more completely to establish the fact, that the hot blast 

 increases the " cold shortness" of iron, by occasioning the reduction 

 of a larger amount of phosphoric acid. I have also paid some atten-> 

 tion to the different states in which carbon appears to be combined, 

 which I shall point out; a fact previously noticed by Bromeis and 

 Karsten. 



Karsten states, that if the ore contains phosphoric acid, he has 

 invariably found it as phosphorus in the slag. I have appended a 

 number of analyses of the ores from which the cast irons were made. 

 Phosphoric acid exists in most of them to a considerable extent. 

 They are never smelted separately, but indiscriminately, two, three 

 or four kinds at once. 



Karsten states, that the artificial graphite, obtained by dissolving 

 gray iron in an acid, must be considered as a compound of carbon 

 and iron. He does not, however, give any analyses of this subatance. 

 I have examined some specimens obtained by treating the irons C. I., 

 C. III., H. VII. and H. VIII., and subjoin the analyses of three ; (see 

 p. 74.) I had not sufficient material to complete that of No. VII. 

 Those of the higher numbers contain carbon and iron (besides small 

 quantities of silica, &c.) in nearly their equivalent ratios ; whilst the 

 lower numbers appear to be mixtures of silicates of oxide of iron, 

 &c., with varying proportions of carbon. It would seem, in fact, as 

 though the carbon of the latter had separated from the molten iron 

 in an uncombined state, and that of the former as a carburet. I say, 

 "separated from the iroti," to distinguish it from that which evi- 



