Review of the Practical Tourist. 223 
heat be not properly regulated during the process, the pile of iron 
bars, as I was told by one of the proprietors, becomes fuséd into a 
solid mass. The surface of the bars, after being withdrawn, is found 
to be covered with blisters, resembling air bubbles half bursting from 
the swollen surface of the metal, which becomes converted by the 
operation into steel. From the peculiar appearance of the blisters 
upon the bars, it is called ** blistered steel,” and sometimes “ steel of 
cementation,” from the process performed; and also “shear steel,” 
from the general use formerly made of it in the manufacture of 
blades of shears. No iron made in England is equal to that impor- 
ted from Sweden for the purpose of being converted into steel. 
**To make cast steel, the bars of blistered steel are broken into 
small pieces, from which the imperfect portions are carefully exclu- 
ded, and the remainder are put into crucibles about eighteen inches 
deep. Each crucible is set into a small furnace, about twelve or 
fourteen inches square, and two feet in depth. Many of these fur- 
naces, each containing its crucible, are arranged side by side. About 
forty pounds of the fragments of the bars of steel are put into each 
ove, and immediately covered up closely by a luting to exclude the 
air, until the metal becomes melted ; after which, it is poured out in 
a fluid state into moulds to form ingots. Hence the name of cast 
steel is given to this new product. The ingots are subjected. to 
theaction of hammers and rollers, to rediice a into bars like 
ah iron, in which state it is prepared for use.’ 
The author visited Birmingham, and after describing the various 
manufactories and workshops of the place, he adds, 
~“One of the wonders of Birmingham is the manufacture of a pin, 
which has been often mentioned by writers on political economy, 
to demonstrate the benefits resulting from the subdivision of labor. 
This simple, little article, which occupies so important a station on 
the toilet of a lady, in the course of its manufacture, passes, in de- 
tail, through nearly as many hands as the complicated mechanism of 
@watch, One person is employed to polish the wire; a second, to 
cut it into suitable pieces, each of the length of two pins, and a third 
Person takes several of these pieces between the thumb and fore- 
finger, and applies them toa circular steel grinding-wheel or rasp. 
pieces of wire, for a dozen or more pins, are thus sharpened at 
once by the operator, who dexterously causes all of them to turn 
simultaneously between his thumb and finger; whereby the 604 
are rendered perfectly round and acute. A fourth person divide: 
- €ach of these pieces in the middle to form two pins, and slips on the 
