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156 © On the Principles of Iron and Steel. 
with which both England and Scotland fo  plentifully 
abound ; their richnefs in iron, and capability of being ma- 
nufaétured ; their contiguity to coal, and the local advan- 
tages which nature may have beftowed, by the addition of 
waters fufficient for turning machinery: thefe would form 
interefting and inftruéting branches of information, and 
ultimately would tend to the advancement of our real in- 
tereft. REIN ee 
It is alfo much to be wifhed, for the improvement of all, 
that the method and order of the new nomenclature of the 
French fchool would pervade every branch of chemical and 
mineralogical fcience; and that the celebrated Kirwan 
would fo far bend as to new model his excellent fyftem of 
mineralogy on thefe principles. 
The metallic fubftance called iron is fufceptible of a 
greater variety of modifications, and poffeffed of more pro- 
perties fingular and ufeful, than any other metal. Iron, 
properly fo called, is malleable. All the other ftates of the 
metal contain certain fubftances in combination with the 
iron, which render it fufible, brittle, more or lefs elaftic, 
&c.- Pure iron is deftitute of foreign admixture, and is 
therefore perfectly malleable. A variety of methods have 
been eftablifhed to produce the metal approaching to that 
pure and duétile flate: in the purfuit of this laudable at- 
tainment the following diftinct modifications of iron have 
manifefted themfelves : 
ift, Crude, caft, or pig iron; 2d, Steel; and, 3d, Mal- 
leable iron. Crude iron is an eager brittle metal, obtained 
by the fimple fufion of ores in contact with pitcoal charred, 
or the charcoal of wood, united with a certain proportion of 
calcareous earth as a folvent or flux: its component parts 
are iron; carbon, and oxygen, Carbon 1s imparted to 
the iron from the fuel which is ufed in {melting the ore; 
oxygen is conveyed to the iron in a twofold manner : it 
exi(ts in the ore in a concrete ftate, and unites to the iron 
previous to feparation ; a portion is alfo communicated ‘by 
the 
