No. 199.J 163 



for cutting instruments, particularly the swords called Thaumasia 

 Ziphes, wonderful swords; and by the East Indians, Dama^ct^ B/a'rfe*, 

 made at Damascus, in Syria, before the discovery of the Cape of 

 Good Hope. The celebrated Wootz Steel, which is now imitated by 

 alloying steel with silver or platinum, was exclusively employed for- 

 merly in the preparation of watered metal. Blades of certain sorts 

 of steel, especially the Wootz, after being well hammered and moisten- 

 ed with weak acids, exhibit a beautiful surface of interlaced veiny 

 ramifications." 



Experimen's have demonstrated that steel will retain j^^tb part 

 of silver as an alloy, and is improved thereby. It has also been al- 

 loyed with many other metals, but wilb no decided benefit, excepting 

 platina. 



It has been shown by M. Mushet, that the hardness of iron in- 

 creases with the carbon it contains, till the carbon amounts to one 

 sixtieth of the iron. At this point the hardness has attained a maxi- 

 mum, the metal acquires the lustre and color of silver, loses its gran- 

 ulated appearance, and assumes a crystallized form. If more than 

 one sixtieth oi carbon be added, the hardness of the compound dimin- 

 ishes in proportion to its quantity. 



Cast steel was first made in England about the year 1750, and from 

 that period to the present time, she has supplied a very large portion 

 of the demand for that article, as well as other qualities of steel. 

 England produces very little iron suitable for conversion into good 

 qualities of steel, and has always been under the necessity of import- 

 ing iron for that purpose from Sweden and Russia, at the enormous 

 cost of from $175 to $190 per ton; notwithstanding this, it has been 

 and still continues to be a very profitable pursuit. 



The importation of steel, manufactured into various forms, such as 

 rdge tools, cutlery, springs, &c., into the United States, has always 

 been large. In its unmanufactured form, the quantity imported in 

 1S31, amounted in value to $291,957 — in 1844 it amounted to 



57,462— and in 1848 it amounted to $1,284,937 3 showing a very 

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