II.—TueE Iron OrEs oF Nictaux, N.S., AND NOTES ON STEEL 
Maxine In Nova Scotia. By KE. Ginpin, JR, L1.D., 
F.R.S.C., Inspector oF MINES. 
(Read 11th February, 1895). 
It is commonly known that in the earlier days of the iron 
industry, pig iron was made by smelting iron ores in blast 
furnaces. The product was either melted again in foundries and 
run into moulds, or, as it is generally termed, used as cast iron. . 
This every one is familiar with as the ordinary form of iron, of 
which a stove may be taken as a sample. Another application 
of the pig iron was for making wrought iron. This was effected 
by driving out the impurities of the pig iron by heating and 
oxidation, until it was practically pure and malleable. Horse 
shoe iron may be taken as an example of this variety. Still, 
another application of the pig iron was to turn it first into 
wrought iron, and then by restoring part of the carbon elimin- 
ated by the puddling process, to produce an iron intermediate 
between malleable iron and east iron, and known as steel. 
It was found at an early date that this latter product could 
be so manufactured as to fill as desired any grade between cast 
iron and malleable iron. It could be nade to combine hardness, 
stiffness and tenacity, or on the other hand, to approximate in 
qualities to the very best malleable iron with certain additions 
of tenacity and strength. The discovery that it was possible 
to produce so useful a variety of iron, encouraged the best 
exertions of leading chemists and metallurgists. The problem 
was the cheap and regular production of steel in any grade 
required, soft or hard, for steel rails, or for those purposes 
requiring flexure and strength combined. With the certainty 
that fortunes awaited the happy discoverer of a commercially 
successful method of making steel, many experimenters labored 
for years, and under difficulties, which do not confront the 
metallurgists of the present day, succeeded partially in making 
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