42 Mr.T. H. Heary on the Composition of Wootz, or IndianSteel. 



YI. On the Composition of Woots, or Indian Steel. 

 By T. H. Henry, Esq., F.R.S.* 



THE high degree of estimation in which wootz has been held 

 in this country appears to rest more upon the supposition 

 that the celebrated scimitars of Damascus were made from this 

 variety of steel, than on any results obtained with it here ; for 

 notwithstanding the late j\Ir. Stodart, an eminent authority, was 

 of opinion that wootz was superior for many purposes to any 

 steel commonly used in this country, the attempts to bring it 

 into use have not been successful, owing, it is said, to the diffi- 

 culty of working it. 



Under these circumstances, it appeared to me desirable to 

 ascertain as accurately as possible the chemical composition of 

 this steel, with the hope of throv.ing some light upon the causes 

 of its peculiar physical properties. 



An examination of wootz was made by Dr. Faraday in the 

 year 1819t- The amount of carbon was not determined by him, 

 the only substances eliminated were silica and alumina; and he 

 obtained in two analyses 00128 and 0-0693 per cent, of alumi- 

 nium. 



From these results IMcssrs. Faraday and Stodart drew the 

 conclusion, that the peculiar excellence of wootz depended chiefly 

 on the small quantity of aluminium combined or alloyed with 

 the steel %, and this opinion appeared to be strongly supported by 

 ingenious synthetical experiments. 



On the other hand, Karsten could only detect dubious traces 

 of aluminium in wootz ; and Eisner § attributed the improvement 

 in the" quality of the steel produced in Messrs. Faraday and 

 Stodart^s experiments, not to the small quantity of the foreign 

 metals, aluminium, silver, platinum, &c., alloyed with them, but 

 entirely to the operation of remelting, and this seems to be the 

 practical conclusion come to at Sheffield at the present day. The 

 fact, however, of the perfectly damasked surface obtained in the 

 alloys of Messrs. Faraday and Stodart so closely resembling that 

 of wootz, seems to militate against the conclusions of Eisner. 



M. Breant attributes the damask of the Eastern blades to the 

 crystallization of two distinct compounds of iron and carbon, and 

 draws a distinction between the oriental damask and that pro- 

 duced by alloys of steel. This opinion is confirmed by the ex- 

 periments of M. Anocoff, a Russian engineer, published in the 

 Annuaire du Journal des Mines de Russie, a few years back. He 



* Communicated by the Author. 



t Quarterly Journal of Science, vol. vii. 



X Annales de Chimie, tome xv. 



§ Journal fur Prakt. Chemie, vol.xx. p. 110. 



