568 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



league from Santa Rosa. We saw the cavity whence it was taken 

 lat. 5 cleg. 40 min. north, long, west of Paris 75 deg. 40 min ; 

 height above the sea 2744 metres. The weight of this mass was 

 1580 pounds. The nickel in it was only yVV ^^ ^^^ P^^ cent. 

 Mr. John's analysis of meteoric iron gives us : 



Pallas. Elbogen. Hnmboldk. 



Iron, 90.0 87.5 91.5 



Nickel, 7.5 8.75 6.5 



Cobalt, 2.5 1.85 2.0 



Chromium, trace, none, trace. 



It contains some impurities, especially sulphur and phospho- 

 rus. To conquer these, sal ammoniac is put in, and the salt, be- 

 cause the hydrogen of the sal ammoniac, at a certain heat, unites 

 with the sulphur, and they pass off together. The supposed 

 amount of sulphur in the iron decides the quantity of the salt 

 and sal ammoniac. If rotten bloom iron is in the crucible, a 

 larger proportion is added. The yellow prussiate of potash and 

 the charcoal furnish the carbon. Steel is pure iron, with the 

 addition of a small amount of carbon in perfect combination of 

 the two. The boiling iron in the crucible probably gets its car- 

 bon not so mucli'from the charcoal as from the cyanogen of the 

 prussiate of potash, one of whose two parts of carbon, uniting 

 with the phosphorus present, bursts into flame, and the other 

 part, freed from all engagements, hastens to embrace the iron. 

 Prussian blue, or the red prussiate, would yield just as much of 

 the carbon and make just as good steel, but it is more expensive, 

 while the yellow prussiate is very cheap. The manganese serves 

 merely to form the scoriae — the air tight cover to the melted 

 mass in the crucible. Brick dust does as well, or anything which 

 would as perfectly seal up this chemical marriage from prying 

 eyes I and even from the curious atmosphere. After three hours, 

 the metal was poured into moulds, flowing as freely as cream or 

 molasses from the lips of the crucible in summer. 



In the Province of Eahia, in Brazil, is a mass of meteoric iron, 

 7 feet long, four feet wide, and two feet thick. Weight about 

 14,000 lbs. 



1. Magnetic Iron. — Most of the ores of Sweden are of this 

 family. The magnet belongs to it. Rinman says that these all 

 give red short iron, which is remedied by another melting. 



There is also iron magnetic sand. 



2. Specular Iron. — Primitive form, rhomboidal, gives excellent 

 malleable iron. 



