THE IRON ORES OF NICTAUX, X. S GILPIN. 11 



steel, but managed with more success in designing methods for 

 producing malleable iron by direct processes which, however, 

 could not compete in cheapness with malleable iron made from 

 pig iron puddled by hand. 



At this stage the Bessemer process appeared, and the diffi- 

 culty was solved. Steel could be made with regularity of 

 output and uniformity of composition, and it came at once into 

 commercial competition with wrought iron. At first many 

 difficulties were encountered, not the least of which was the 

 disposition to doubt that a desired standard of uniformity in 

 tensile and other tests could be maintained, Step by step the 

 chemist and the steel maker advanced, this difficulty was solved 

 by an enquiry into the composition of the ores, the fuels, the 

 re-actions in the furnace, while the practical steel maker invented 

 the improvements required in the shape of the converters, the 

 machinery needed to handle it, the linings, etc. Finally, the 

 test requirements for steel rails, girders, etc., imposed by 

 architects and engineers, were easily and regularly met, and it 

 was acknowledged that steel was the king of all metals. Borrow- 

 ing from other elements their properties, it became hard almost 

 as a diamond, or flexible and soft so that it could be pressed 

 without breaking into a dish or kettle. Few people taking up 

 a piece of steel imagine what a long history of investigation, 

 experiment, and down-right hard inventive work it represents, 

 probably the greatest and most important of our generation 



It was found to be a sine qua non that good steel required 

 as its foundation good pig iron. Pig iron that did very well 

 for common foundry purposes, or that could be puddled into 

 fair bar iron, would not answer for the Bessemer process. This 

 discovery called for the best of materials. Some ores were 

 useless, some fuels carried too much sulphur or phosphorus, etc. 

 The limits within which fuels and ores and fluxes were suitable 

 for the Bessemer process were soon defined exactly, and of course 

 the composition of the pig iron to be produced for conversion 

 into steel was defined with equal exactness. The amounts of 

 phosphorus, sulphur, silicon, etc., allowed in the pig iron were 



