WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 323 



in- tul produced in the puddling furnace, with or without being 

 converted into steel by the ordinary cementation process of making 

 blister steel and shear steel, would have the required amount of 

 tcinile strength, and would therefore pass as a steel. But he 

 (..nsidered a broad distinction should always be made between 

 steel which had passed through the fluid condition and that pro- 

 duced by other processes, because the latter was deficient in one 

 essential quality which was always sought for, namely, uniformity 

 of strength. He would therefore willingly accept the suggested 

 definition of steel and iron according to tensile strength and 

 ductility, if it were confined to metal that had passed through the 

 fluid condition. 



It would appear from the paper that it was immaterial by what 

 process the steel was produced, provided it had been produced 

 from pure materials and would bear the required tensile strain. 

 But however true it might be that the quality of the steel was due 

 to its chemical nature, yet this chemical nature could only be 

 obtained in a uniform and regular manner if the process of manu- 

 facture was in conformity with the conditions necessary to produce 

 the desired result. Such steel, he believed, it would never be 

 possible to produce by the old processes of puddling aud cementa- 

 tion ; and this led him to suggest that the demand for the quali- 

 ties generally associated with steel should be confined to what was 

 known as cast steel. The results of the experiments in testing 

 small cylinders with gunpowder, as shown in the table accom- 

 panying the paper, were most instructive, and appeared to leave 

 very little room for doubt that mild steel must be the proper 

 material for the production of guns. Whether guns made of one 

 block of steel like the old cast-iron guns, or those having an inner 

 core hooped with steel rings, were the best, was a question for 

 gunmakers to solve, and must depend mainly upon the dimensions 

 of the structure. But the results now arrived at sufficiently 

 showed what extraordinary strength and ductility combined might 

 be obtained in constructing guns of a solid block of steel ; and 

 he hoped the Admiralty and the War Office would soon sec their 

 way to affording this system a thorough trial. 



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