290 Mr. Gill on welding Cast Steel [April, 



Lordship's seat at Chevening, was in the frequent habit of weld- 

 ing pieces of cast steel together without injury to them ; and in 

 this way could unite two worn out millwright's picks into a new 

 and serviceable one ; and that, in order to prove the value of his 

 process, he had broken a bar of superior cast steel into two 

 parts, and caused the smith to unite them again ; and which was 

 done without injuring the quality of the steel in the least degree. 



This information of course awakened my curiosity ; and I have 

 since made it a point to mention the circumstance to any persons 

 of information who have come in my way, to most of whom it 

 was a new fact : amongst the number, however, I have met with 

 some to whom the process was known, and particularly to Mr. 

 Charles Sylvester, of Derby, who informed me that he had fre- 

 quently performed it, and even with greater ease than in welding 

 iron, as the welding heat of cast steel is considerably below that oj 

 iron. And that the chief cause of failure in attempting to do it, 

 was, by persons heating it too much, conceiving that it required 

 to be treated like iron, whereby it had been totally destroyed. 

 That it, however, required a different flux from iron to prevent 

 its oxidation, to which it is extremely liable, the welding sand 

 used for iron being totally unfit for this purpose. He preferred 

 glass of borax, or the greenish-black glass, of which common 

 bottles are made, which consists of sand and alkali only, having 

 no lead in it as in flint glass ; and he thought that if it were to 

 be fused with an additional portion of alkali it would be still 

 better. 



I have also found that Mr. George Scott, an ingenious me- 

 chanic of the house of Cogger and Co. engineers, of Wardrobe 

 Terrace, Doctors' Commons, has known and employed the pro- 

 cess for three years past, and has, only a few days since, thus 

 united four cylindrical rods of cast steel, each four feet long, 

 after being truly turned in the lathe, into one, in order to form a 

 triblet for drawing lead pipes upon of 16 feet in length ; and so 

 perfectly is their union effected that the three joinings cannot be 

 perceived ! 



But what is yet more singular, I have been informed by Mr. 

 Jonathan Dickson, engineer, of Holland-street, Blaekfriars, that 

 two bars of cast iron may be thus united, their ends being pre- 

 viously enclosed in a wrought iron tube and heated to a proper 

 degree, the tube thus serving as a mould to prevent the fused 

 cast iron from falling asunder during the operation. 



In order to promote the success of welding cast steel, I would 

 recommend the employment of a charcoal fire, and the pieces, 

 after being formed of a proper shape for uniting, should have the 

 surfaces intended to be joined filed bright, be coated with borax, 

 and be bound together firmly by bands, hoops, &,c previously to 

 their being put into the fire, and as soon as they are heated suffi- 

 ciently to fuse the glass of borax, or bottle glass, that they be 

 coated therewith on their outsides, either by dipping them into 



