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ticularly described, from which Mr. Mushet deduces the following 

 general remarks. 



The formation of wootz, he says, appears to him to be in conse- 

 quence of the fusion of a particular ore, which he supposes to be cal- 

 careous, or to be rendered so by a mixture of calcareous earth, along 

 with a portion of carbonaceous matter. The fusion, he thinks, is 

 performed in a clay vessel or crucible, in which vessel the separated 

 metal is allowed to cool. Hence, in his opinion, arises the crystalli- 

 zation that occupies the pits and cells observed in and upon the under 

 or round surface of the cakes. 



The want of homogeneity and solidity in these cakes, appears to 

 Mr. Mushet to be owing to the want of a sufficient degree of heat 

 to effect a perfect reduction ; and this opinion, he thinks, is strength- 

 ened by observing, that those cakes which are the hardest, or which 

 contain the largest portion of carbonaceous matter, and, of course, 

 form the most fusible steel, are always the most solid and homoge- 

 neous ; while, on the contrary, those cakes which are the most easily 

 cut by the chisel, are in general cellular, and abound with veins of 

 malleable iron. If the natives of the country which produces the 

 wootz were capable of rendering it perfectly fluid, Mr. Mushet thinks 

 they would certainly have run it into moulds, by which, he says, 

 they would have acquired a kind of steel more uniform in its qua- 

 lity, and more fit for the purpose of being worked and applied to the 

 arts. 



Some of the cakes here described had, around the feeder, and 

 upon the upper surface in general, evident marks of the hammer. 

 This appearance Mr. Mushet accounts for by supposing, that when 

 the cake was taken from the pot or crucible, the feeder was most 

 probably slightly elevated, and the top of the cake covered in part 

 with small masses of ore, which, from want of a sufficient degree of 

 heat, had not been perfectly fused. These, he thinks, are cut off at 

 a second heating, and the surface then hammered smooth, to make 

 the cakes more fit for sale. Mr. Mushet says he has observed similar 

 appearances in operations of a like nature, where the heat has been 

 insufficient ; and that such phenomena sometimes take place in se- 

 parating crude iron from its ores, when, from its containing an excess 

 of carbon, it is difficult to be fused. 



The division of the cakes, by the native manufacturer, he thinks, 

 is done merely to facilitate its subsequent application to the purposes 

 of the artist, and to serve as a test of the quality of the steel. 



In order to determine by direct experiment whether wootz owes its 

 hardness to an excess of carbon, Mr. Mushet made some comparative 

 experiments upon the cakes, and upon common cast steel and white 

 cast iron. In operations of this kind, he says, he has always found 

 the proportion of carbon best ascertained by the quantity of lead re- 

 duced from flint glass. He therefore mixed a certain quantity of 

 wootz, or of steel, or iron, with three times the weight of pounded 

 flint glass, and exposed the mixture to a heat of 1 60 of Wedgwood's 

 pyrometer. 



