396 THE FARMER AT HOMK. 



STEEL. In the Arts, a most valuable metal, consisting of iron 

 combined with carbon. It is chiefly used for edge tools, and other 

 cutting instruments, and from its fine polish is used in ornaments of 

 various kinds. In Chemistry it is called a carburet of iron. Its 

 hardness is greater than that of iron ; and its most valuable property 

 is, that it can be made harder than any other metal, by suddenly 

 cooling it when heated to redness ; also, if it is heated to a lower 

 temperature than redness, and suddenly cooled, it becomes the most 

 elastic of all the metals. It is of a darker color when polished, and 

 retains its polish much longer, not being so liable to oxydate. 



Steel is manufactured by two processes, one in which the steel is 

 made from pig-iron at once in the finery ; this is practised in Ger- 

 many, and is called natural steel. Cemented steel is formed by 

 stratifying bars of iron with powdered charcoal in a close vessel, and 

 by keeping the mass at a brisk red heat for a longer or shorter time, 

 depending upon the size of the bars. This process is called conver- 

 sion. The test of the conversion being complete is its blistered ap- 

 pearance, from which it has been called blistered steel. As the steel 

 in this change does not undergo fusion, all the imperfections in the 

 mechanical texture of the iron will still be found to exist iii the steel. 

 Cast steel is blistered steel fused and cast into ingots, which are after- 

 wards drawn into rods by the hammer, or by rolling. By this change 

 the steel becomes much harder, and of course entirely free from those 

 seams and other defects which exist in the blistered steel ; this is 

 what renders cast steel so much better for polished goods ; for when 

 blistered steel is attempted to be polished, the surface is seen to 

 abound with numerous spots, arising from mechanical defects in the 

 bars previous to conversion. 



Cast steel works much harder under the hammer, and will not 

 bear much more than a red heat, without breaking in pieces under 

 it. This, however, is more especially confined to that commonly 

 made ; since cast steel may be made which will bear a white and 

 even a welding heat ; but it requires a much greater heat for its 

 fusion, and would in consequence be sold at a much higher price. 

 The refuse of blistered or common steel is generally melted into cast 

 steel ; but this is not of the best quality. The best cast steel is made 

 by melting the bars of blistered steel, which, for this purpose, are a 

 little more converted than for ordinary purposes, in order to give the 

 steel a little more carbon than if it were used in the state of blistered 

 steel. The bars are broken into small pieces, for the purpose of stow- 

 ing the greatest quantity in the crucible. 



STOCKING. That part of the clothing of the leg and foot which 

 immediately covers and screens them from the rigor of the cold. 

 Anciently, the only stockings in use were made of cloth, or of milled 

 stuffs sewed together ; but since the invention of knitting and weav- 

 ing stockings of silk, wool, cotton, and thread, the use of cloth stock- 



