204. Caner fon of Tron into Steel. 
Jution’in caloric, and to obviate any objection which migh’ 
probably be ftarted againft this, by fuppofing that the carbon 
might be conveyed through the porous medium of the earths, 
or the bottle- olafs, before it entered into fufion, I made the 
following experiment :—Having made a mould in fand, I 
poured into it thinly fufed calcareous ftone; and, while the 
fluid was thin, introduced a fmall rod of red-hot iron, fuf- 
pended by a very fmall brafs wire. The dimenfions of the 
rod were fo proportioned to the mould that 5-8ths of an inch 
of a viirid cruft encircled the iron on all fides. The wire 
became fufed and difengaged as the fluid was’ confolidatine, 
fo that every avenue to the iron was completely fhut up. The 
mafs was carefully cooled to prevent fhivering, and as care- 
fully heated, when introduced into the farts in a crucible 
inverted in one larger, and the vacancy betwixt each fhut up 
from air ‘by means of pounded bottle-glafs. A cover was | 
fitted-on, and a violent heat urged for nearly two hours. The 
crucibles were taken out, free from blemifh, and cemented as 
one compact mafs. When cool, I found the metal in the 
interior crucible refolved into a very fine ingot, which proved 
afterwards to be foft fteel; capable, however, of hammering 
and hardening to great advantage. The weight of fteel ob- 
tained was 1157 grains; left, 33 grains, = =; part of the 
whole. The fufed lime, which had formerly’ cooled of a 
pure whitifh porcelain colour variegated with blue ftreaks, 
was now of a fpongy brown colour, exaétly refembling the- 
Java of the blaft-furnace when oxygenated crude iron is. pro- 
duced. ‘This alteration was unqueftionably owing to the de- 
ficient weight in metal having tm part been oxydated by the 
interior air of the crucible, or by oxygen from the furnace, 
and united to the earth in the ftate of a fufed oxyde. The 
great difference in the lofs of metal fuftained in thefe two laft 
experiments muft be fought for in the quantity of iron taken 
up by the flux: im the’others, the folidity and tranfparency 
of the glafs were uncommonly fine; in thefe the flux was 
opaque, dark, and porous, evidently furcharged with iron. 
‘* It will appear from thefe experiments, that we are ftill 
without any fatisfactory or conclufive proof of the fteclifica- 
tion of iron folely by means of the diamond, 
F “ There 
