34 Ptocefs for making Cafl Steel from Bar IrotJ. 



C. Cloiiet's procefs, I deemed it of importance to make the 

 experiment that follows : " Gniini. 



Iron imroduccd _ - - ^399 



Carbonate ut' lime, the fame as formcrlv ufed, 1399 grs. 

 From this mixture, by fiiiion, was obtained a very 

 denfc mafs of iron, pollcfled ^f a fmooth radiated (ur- 

 taee, difi'ercnt in every external feature from the reguli 

 obtained in the former experiments. It weighed 1317 



Lofl in fufion, equal to -',th part the oriLnnal weight, 82 

 This extra lofs of metal, however g)"eat, appeared Itill more 

 fo upon breaking tlie button, and deteAing in its interior a 

 conliderable portion of ineorporatcd glafs. From the appa- 

 rent quantity found in this ftate it may be fairly prefnmed 

 that ~,\.\\ part the weight of the iron employed bad disappeared 

 in the fulion. The glafs, in point of eolour, was green, ap- 

 proaching to black ; its fracture^ in point of lulire, refembled 

 the polllh of fine btaek marble. 



Upon fubjccling part of the metal now obtained to the 

 hanmierj it was found foft in the extreme when cold, but 

 in no ftate would ftand the eflecf of (light hammering beyond 

 a low red heat. A piece beat out, heated pretty high, and 

 plunged into water, turned up a rich and uniform (hale, fo 

 as to make its furface refembie tin ; but the fame, when at- 

 tempted to be broken, bent feven times before it parted. The 

 grain then, far from rercmbliiig the clofe uniform grain of 

 caft (leel, prclented a (ilkv fibrous appearance. In tliis re- 

 fpecl it differed materially from the refults obtained in the five 

 former experiments. A bar, ,\ ths fquare, plunged hot into 

 water, and fuflered to cool flowlv, had alfumed a partially 

 cryltallized fraclure, refembliug fome varieties of American 

 red-(hort bar Iroii. In feeking for a folution of the ph:en(<- 

 mcna whieh appeared in this experiment beyond thofe in 

 the former, it may be fuppofed, upon the principles of the 

 theory advanced by C. Clouet, tliat tlie fuperior denfuv of 

 the button w.is in confe()uence of a greater degree of divifion 

 in the fluid : tiiat this, in part, might be oecafioned by the 

 oxygen fet free by the^der.ompo(ition of the carbonic acid : 

 that part of this oxvgcn might leizc upon the iron, and, while 

 thefe conveyed nn unufual degree of colouring principle to the 

 glafs, miglit at tiie fame time account for the great deficiency 

 of metal. 



This fubjecl:, of the c;reatefl: importance to a jult theory 

 of the component parts of the various modifications of iron, 

 will meet a copious inveliigalion hereafter. Suffice it for the 



prefent 

 4 



