STEEL STEELE. 



399 



intense heat that nan be raised, by which the steel is 

 brought into a state of perfect fusion. It is then 

 cast into parallelepipeds about a foot and a half in 

 length. To fuse one ton of steel, about twenty 

 tons of coals are expended ; which accounts for the 

 high price of cast-steel, when compared with that 

 of iron, or even of common steel. Every time that 

 cast-steel is melted, it loses some of its characteristic 

 properties; and two or three fusions render it quite 

 useless for the purposes for which it is intended. 

 It has recently been proved that the steel of which 

 the Damascus blades were made, and which was 

 steel from Golconda, owed the peculiarity which 

 these blades have of showing a curious waving tex- 

 ture on the surface, when treated with a dilute acid, 

 to their consisting of two different compounds of 

 iron and carbon, which have separated during the 

 cooling. It is cast-steel in which the process is 

 carried farther than usual, and which is cooled slow- 

 ly ; both common steel and cast-steel are formed, 

 which separate during the slow cooling. The steel 

 is rendered black by the acid, while the cast-iron 

 remains white. This kind of steel can only be 

 hammered at a heat above that of cherry-red. 



The specific gravity of good blistered steal is 

 7'823. When this steel is heated to redness, and 

 suddenly plunged into cold water, its specific grav- 

 ity is reduced to 7'747. The specific gravity of a 

 piece of cast-steel, while soft, is 7 '82 ; but when 

 hardened by heating it red-hot, and plunging it 

 into cold water, it is reduced to 7'7532. Hence 

 it appears, that when steel is hardened, its bulk in- 

 creases. The colour of steel is whiter than that of 

 iron. Its texture is granular, and not hackly, like 

 that of iron. The fracture is whitish-gray, and 

 much smoother than the fracture of iron. It is 

 much harder and more rigid than iron; nor can it 

 be so much softened by heat without losing its 

 tenacity and flying in pieces under the hammer. 

 It requires more attention to forge it well, than to 

 forge iron ; yet it is by its toughness and capability 

 of being drawn out in bars, that good steel is dis- 

 tinguished from bad. Steel is more readily broken 

 by bending it than iron. If it be heated to redness, 

 and then plunged into cold water, it becomes ex- 

 ceedingly hard, so as to be able to cut or make an 

 impression upon most other bodies. But, when iron 

 is treated in the same way, its hardness is not in 

 the least increased. When a drop of nitric acid is 

 let fall upon a smooth surface of steel, and al- 

 lowed to remain on it for a few minutes, and then 

 washed off with water, it leaves a black spot ; where- 

 as the spot left by nitric acid on iron, is whitish- 

 green. Doctor Thomson gives the following as 

 the composition of cast-steel : 



Iron, 



Carbon, with some silicon, 



100 



The natural steel, or German steel, is an impure 

 and variable kind of steel, procured from cast-iron, 

 or obtained at once from the ore. It has the pro- 

 perty of being easily welded, either to iron or to 

 itself. Its grain is unequally granular, sometimes 

 even fibrous ; its colour is usually blue ; it is easily 

 forged; it requires a strong heat to temper it, and 

 it then acquires only a middling hardness. When 

 forged repeatedly, it does not pass into iron so 

 easily as the other kinds. The natural steel yielded 

 by cast-iron, manufactured in the refining houses, 

 is known by the general name of furnace steel ; and 

 that which has only been once treated with a re- 

 fining furnace, is particularly called rough steel, mcl 



is frequently very unequally converted into steel. 

 The best cast-iron for the purpose of making na- 

 tural steel, is that obtained from the brown 

 haematite, or from the sparry iron ore. White 

 cast-iron does not yield steel, unless its charge 

 of carbon is increased, either by stirring the melted 

 metal with a long pole, and keeping it melted 

 a long time, that it may absorb charcoal from the 

 lining of the furnace, or by melting it with dark- 

 coloured iron. Black cast-iron yields a bad, brittle 

 steel, unless the excess of carbon that it contains is 

 either burnt away, or it is mixed Avith finery cinder. 

 The cast-iron to be converted into steel is then 

 melted in blast furnaces, and treated nearly the same 

 as if it were to be refined into bar-iron, only the 

 blast is weaker ; the tewyre, instead of being di- 

 rected so as to throw the wind upon the surface of 

 the melted metal, is placed nearly horizontally ; the 

 melted metal is kept covered with slag, and is not 

 disturbed by stirring. When the iron is judged to 

 be sufficiently refined, and is grown solid, it is with- 

 drawn from the furnace and forged. The natural 

 steel made directly from the above mentioned ores, 

 in small blast furnaces, is a good steel for ploughs 

 and similar machines ; the best of it is excellent for 

 saws and cutlery. The most esteemed steel of this 

 kind comes from Germany, and is made in Stiria. 

 It is usually sold in chests or barrels, two and a 

 half or three feet long. 



STEELE, SIR RICHARD, the earliest of our 

 modern British essayists, and who, in humour and 

 liveliness of style, has not been surpassed by any of 

 his successors, was born at Dublin, in 1671, of a 

 family of English extraction. He was educated at 

 the charter-house, whence he removed to Oxford. 

 He left the university without taking a degree, and 

 (a thing not unusual at that time with needy young 

 men of good connexions), for some time rode as a 

 private trooper in the dragoon guards. His frank 

 and generous temper soon, however, gained him 

 friends, and he obtained an ensigncy in the foot 

 guards. Being led into many irregularities, he 

 drew up and published a little treatise as a testi- 

 mony against himself, entitled the Christian Hero, 

 the seriousness of which excited much ridicule 

 among his companions, his conduct falling far short 

 of his theory. For this reason, as he himself ob- 

 served, to enliven his character, he wrote his first 

 comedy, entitled the Funeral, or Grief a-la-mode, 

 which was acted in 1702, with considerable success. 

 Through the recommendation of Addison, he was 

 appointed, in the beginning of the reign of Anne, 

 to the post of writer of the London Gazette. His 

 comedy of the Tender Husband appeared in 1703, 

 and his Lying Lover in 1704. In 1709, hel)egan 

 the periodical paper so celebrated under the title 

 of the Tatler, which included a portion of the in- 

 formation of a common newspaper, but, in raciness 

 of humour, and vivacity and urbanity of tone, was 

 not, perhaps, exceeded by the most celebrated of its 

 successors. As it sided with the existing ministry, 

 and was extensively circulated, its projector was 

 appointed one of the commissioners of the stamp 

 duties. In 1711, the Tatler was succeeded by the 

 still more celebrated Spectator, in which the assist- 

 ance of Addison and other eminent writers was 

 more regular than in its predecessor, although 

 Steele, as before, supported the chief burden. 

 The Spectator terminating, he commenced the 

 Guardian, in 1713, and also produced a political 

 periodical, called the Englishman, with several 

 other political pieces of temporary celebrity. His 



