II. THE IRON ORES OF NICTAUX, N. S., AND NOTES ON STEEL 

 MAKENG IN NOVA SCOTIA. BY E. GILPIN, JR, LL.D., 

 F. R. S. C., INSPECTOR OF MINES. 



(Read llth February, 1895). 



It is commonly known that in the earlier days of the iron 

 industry, pig iron was made by smelting iron ores in blast 

 furnaces. The product was either melted again in foundries and 

 run into moulds, or, as it is generally termed, used as cast iron. 

 This every one is familiar with as the ordinary form of iron, of 

 which a stove may be taken as a sample. Another application 

 of the pig iron was for making wrought iron. This was effected 

 by driving out the impurities of the pig iron by heating and 

 oxidation, until it was practically pure and malleable. Horse 

 shoe iron may be taken as an example of this variety. Still, 

 another application of the pig iron was to turn it first into 

 wrought iron, and then by restoring part of the carbon elimin- 

 ated by the puddling process, to produce an iron intermediate 

 between malleable iron and cast iron, and known as steel. 



It was found at an early date that this latter product could 

 be so manufactured as to fill as desired any grade between cast 

 iron and malleable iron. It could be made to combine hardness, 

 stiffness and tenacity, or on the other hand, to approximate in 

 qualities to the very best malleable iron with certain additions 

 of tenacity and strength. The discovery that it was possible 

 to produce so useful a variety of iron, encouraged the best 

 exertions of leading chemists and metallurgists. The problem 

 was the cheap and regular production of steel in any grade 

 required, soft or hard, for steel rails, or for those purposes 

 requiring flexure and strength combined. With the certainty 

 that fortunes awaited the happy discoverer of a commercially 

 successful method of making steel, many experimenters labored 

 for years, and under difficulties, which do not confront the 

 metallurgists of the present day, succeeded partially in making 



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