322 On the AUoi/s of Steel 



and had become plumbag-o. It was soft, sectile, bright,' 

 stained paper, and had every other character of that body ; 

 it was indeed in no way distinguishable from it. The internal 

 part of these plumbago buttons was a crystalline carburet; 

 a portion of it having bsen powdered, and fused several times 

 with charcoal, at last refused to melt, and on the uncombined 

 charcoal being burnt away by a low heat, it was found that 

 the whole of the steel had been converted into plumbago : this 

 powder we attempted to fuse, but were not successful. 



It will appear by the following experiment, that we had 

 formed artificial wootz, at a time when this certainly was not 

 the object of research. In an attempt to reduce titanium, and 

 combine it with steei, a portion of menachanite was heated 

 with charcoal, and a^ fused button obtained. A part of this 

 button was next fused with some good steel ; the proportions 

 we^e 96 steel, 4 menachanite button. An alloy was formed, 

 which worked well under the hammer; and the little bar obtained 

 was evidently different from, and certainly superior to, steel. 

 This was attributed to the presence of titanium, but none could 

 be found in it ; nor indeed was any found even in the menacha- 

 nite button itself. The product was iron and carbon, combined 

 with the earths or their bases, and wa.s in fact excellent wootz. 

 A beautiful damask, was produced on this specimen by the action 

 of dilute acid. Since this many attempts have been made to 

 reduce the oxide of titanium ; it has been heated intensely with 

 charcoal, oil, <§c., but hitherto all have failed, the oxide has 

 been changed into a black powder, but not fused. When some 

 of the oxide v/as mixed with steel filings, and a little charcoal 

 added, on being intensely heated the steel fused, and ran into a 

 fine globule which was covered by a dark coloured transparent 

 glass, adhering to the sides of the crucible. The steel contained 

 no titanium, the glass proved to be oxide of titanium, with a little 

 oxide of iron. These experiments have led us to doubt -whether 

 titanium has ever been reduced to the metallic state. From the 

 effects of the heat upon the crucibles, which became soft, and 

 almost fluid, sometimes, in fifteen minutes, we had in fact no 

 reason to suppose the degree of heat inferior to any before ob- 



