894 



STEEL 



tallow be dissolved in about eight times its weight of ether, on cooling the oleiue 

 alone remains dissolved, the stearine crvstallises, and can be rendered absolutely pure 



1899 



by washing with ether. Stearine is a solid transparent substance, easily reduced to 

 powder. At one time stearine was an object of manufacture ; but the production of 

 stearic acid has superseded it. 



We Imported in 1873 the following quantities of Stearine and Tallow: 



STEATITE, or Soapstone (Speckstein, Ger.), is a massive variety of talc. It h;is 

 a greyish- white or greenish-white colour, often marked with dendritic delineations, 

 and occurs massive ; it has a dull or fatty lustre ; a coarse splintery fracture, with 

 translucent edges ; a shining streak ; it writes feebly ; is soft, and easily cut with a 

 knife, but somewhat tough ; does not adhere to the tongue ; feels very greasy ; in- 

 fusible before the blowpipe ; specific gravity from 2'6 to 2 - 8. It is found frequently in 

 small contemporaneous veins traversing serpentine in all directions, as at Portsoy in 

 Shetland, in the limestone of Icolmkiln, in the serpentine of Cornwall, in Anglesey, 

 in Saxony, Bavaria (at Bayreuth), Hungary, &c. The chemical composition of steatite 

 is silica 62-14, magnesia 32'92, water 4 - 94, being sometimes contaminated with and 

 coloured with a little iron, manganese, or chrome. It is occasionally used in the 

 manufacture of porcelain. It makes the biscuit semi-transparent, but rather brittle, 

 and apt to crack with slight changes of heat. It is employed for polishing serpentine, 

 marble, gypseous alabaster, and mirror-glass ; as the basis of cosmetic powder ; and 

 as an ingredient in anti-attrition pastes, sold under the name of French Chalk ; it 

 is dusted in powder upon the inside of boots, to make the feet glide easily into them ; 

 when rubbed upon grease-spots in silk and woollen clothes, it removes the stains by 

 absorption ; it enters into the composition of certain crayons, and is used itself for 

 making traces upon glass, silk, &c. The spotted steatite, cut into cameos and cal- 

 cined, assumes an onyx aspect. Soft steatite forms excellent stoppers for the chemical 

 apparatus used in distilling or subliming corrosive vapours. Lamellar steatite is talc 

 See TALC. 



STEEL (Acier, Fr. ; Stahl, Ger.) is a carburet of iron, more or less freed from 

 foreign matter, and may be produced by two processes opposed to each other : first, 

 by working pig-iron, which contains 4 to 5 per cent, of carbon, in a suitable furnace, 



