S/fi WILLIAM SIEAfENS, F.K.S. 149 



of the amount of import duties payable in foreign countries upon 

 metal occupying a position near the proposed boundary line, 

 would also lead to considerable inconvenience. 



Difficulties such as these have hitherto prevented the adoption 

 of any of the proposed nomenclatures, and have decided engineers 

 and manufacturers in the meantime, to include, under the general 

 denominations of cast steel, all compounds consisting chiefly of 

 iron, which Jiave been produced through fusion^ and are malleable. 

 Such a general definition does not exclude from the denomination 

 of steel, materials that may not have been produced by fusion, and 

 which may be capable of tempering such as shear steel, blister 

 steel, and puddled steel, nor does it interfere with distinctions 

 between cast steels produced by different methods, such as pot 

 steel, Bessemer steel, or steel by fusion on the open hearth. The 

 forthcoming discussion will, I hope, lead to some general agree- 

 ment regarding this question of nomenclature. 



WROUGHT IRON. While steel is gradually supplanting wrought 

 iron in many of its applications, efforts are being made to main- 

 tain for the latter material an independent position, for cheapness 

 and facility of manipulation, by improving the puddling process. 



Mechanical puddling, like many other important inventions, has 

 taken a long time for its development, and has engaged the 

 attention of many minds, but I will only here mention the names 

 of Tooth, Yates, and Mr. Menelaus, our past President, who have 

 pioneered the road ; and of Danks, Spencer, Crampton, and others 

 who have followed more recently in the same direction. It 

 is chiefly owing, however, to the persevering endeavours of 

 Mr. Heath, and of Messrs. Hopkins, Gilkes, & Co., that the 

 mechanical puddling of pig metal has been accomplished with a 

 considerable amount of success. 



Ah 1 these efforts have had reference to puddling in a chamber 

 rotating upon a horizontal axis, but numerous attempts have also 

 been made to accomplish mechanical puddling by the introduction 

 into stationary chambers of rabbles moved by mechanical power, 

 and by the use of chambers rotating upon an inclined axis, in 

 connection with which latter, the names of Maudsley, Sir John 

 Alleyne, and Pernot, should be mentioned. The principal difficulty 

 connected with the rotary puddling furnace consists in providing 

 a lining of sufficient power to resist the corrosive action produced 



