IRON 995 



suit into bar by the use of rollers in the place of hammers. The process wasmanaged 

 in the following manner : 



' The pigs of cast iron produced by the smelting furnace are broken into pieces, and 

 are mixed in such proportions according to their degree of carbonisation, that the 

 result of the whole shall be a grey metal. The mixture is then speedily run into a 

 blast-furnace, where it remains a sufficient time to allow the greater part of the scoriae 

 to rise to the surface. The furnace is now tapped, and the metal runs into moulds of 

 sand, by which it is formed into pigs, about half the size of those which are broken into 

 pieces. A common reverberatory furnace heated by coal is now charged with about 

 2^- cwts. of this half -refined grey iron. In a little more than half an hour the metal 

 will be found to be nearly melted ; at this period the flame is turned off, a little water 

 is sprinkled over it, and a workman, by introducing an iron bar through a hole in the 

 side of the furnace, begins to stir the half -fluid mass, and divide it into small pieces. 

 In the course of about 50 minutes from the commencement of the process, the iron 

 will have been reduced by constant stirring to the consistence of small gravel, and 

 will be considerably cooled. The flame is then turned on again, the workmen con- 

 tinuing to stir the metal, and in three minutes' time the whole mass becomes soft and 

 semifluid, upon which the flame is then turned off. The hottest part of the iron now 

 begins to heave and swell, and emit a deep lambent blue flame, which appearance is 

 called fermentation ; the heaving motion and accompanying flame soon spread over 

 the whole, and the heat of the metal seems rather to be increased than diminished for 

 the next quarter of an hour ; after this period the temperature again falls, the blue 

 flame is less vigorous, and in a little more than a quarter of an hour the metal is 

 cooled to a dull red, and the jets of flame are rare and faint. During the whole of 

 the fermentation the stirring is continued, by which the iron is at length brought to 

 the consistency of sand ; it also approaches nearer to the malleable state, and in con- 

 sequence adheres less than at first to the tool with which it stirred. During the next 

 half hour the flame is turned off and on several times, a stronger fermentation takes 

 place, the lambent flame also becomes of a clearer and lighter blue, the metal begins 

 to clot and becomes much less fusible and more tenacious than at first. The fermen- 

 tation then by degrees subsides, the emission of blue flame nearly ceases, the iron is 

 gathered into lumps and beaten with a heavy-headed tool. Finally, the tools are 

 withdrawn, the apertures through which they were worked are closed, and the flame 

 is again turned on in full force for six or eight minutes. The pieces being thus 

 brought to a high welding heat are withdrawn and shingled ; after this they are again 

 heated and passed through grooved rollers, by which the scoriae are separated, and 

 the bars thus forcibly compressed acquire a high degree of tenacity.' But this mode 

 of refining did not produce altogether the desired result. It was irregular ; some- 

 times the loss of iron was small, but at others it was very considerable, and there 

 were great variations in the quality of the iron, as, well as in the quantity of fuel con- 

 sumed. These difficulties, were, however, removed by the introduction of the coke 

 finery by the late Mr. Samuel Homfray, of Penydarran, upon which the puddling and 

 balling furnaces came immediately into general use, with the addition of rollers in 

 lieu of hammers. 



Mr. Cort's first patent, which is for 'rolling,' is dated January 17, 1783; his 

 second, that for 'puddling,' is dated February 13, 1784. It has been attempted, 

 though we think very unjustly, to detract from Cort's merits as an original inventor, 

 by referring to the patents of John Payne, and Peter Onions, dated respectively 

 November 21, 1728, and May 7, 1783. The first was to a certain extent, undoubtedly, 

 a patent for ' rolling ; ' for the bars rendered malleable by a process indicated, are 

 ' to pass between the large install rowlers which have proper notches or furrows upon 

 their surface ; * but there is no proof that any practical use was made of Payne's pro- 

 cess, while that of Cort was almost immediately and universally adopted ; it may be 

 true, therefore, that Cort was the rediscoverer and not the actual discoverer of the 

 process of rolling, but this in no way detracts from his merit, inasmuch as by his im- 

 provements he was enabled to make available that which was previously useless. 

 The same observation applies to the patent of Onions, which to a certain extent anti- 

 cipated that of Cort for puddling. Onions employed two furnaces a common smelt- 

 ing furnace, and a furnace of stone and brick, bound with iron work and well annealed, 

 into which the fluid metal was received from the smelting furnace." When the liquid 

 metal had been introduced into the second furnace by an aperture, it was closed up 

 and subjected to the heat of fuel and blast from below, until the metal became 

 less fluid, and thickened into a kind of paste ; this the workman, by opening a door, 

 turns and stirs with a bar of iron, and then closes the aperture again, after which 

 blast and fire is applied until there is a ferment in the metal ; the adherent particles of 

 iron are collected into a mass, reheated to a white heat, and forged into malleable iron. 

 That the process of puddling is here indicated there can be no doubt, but the actual 



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