766 REPORT—1863. 
guineas per pound for it. The discovery of the English method of making 
cast steel is due to Benjamin Huntsman, of Attercliffe, who appears to have 
arrived at it by a series of experiments. He was a clockmaker, and desired 
to improve the quality of steel for clock springs. He was born in some 
part of Lincolnshire in the year 1704, and although his family are said to 
have been German, he must have become thoroughly Anglicized, as he was 
a strict Quaker. In all probability, this discovery was made before the year 
1760, as it had become public previous to his death, which took place in 
1776, at 72 years of age. This process was first introduced into this locality 
by the late firm of Messrs. Crowley, Millington, and Co., at the beginning of 
the present century, probably about the year 1810, who were next followed 
by Messrs. Spencer, of Newburn. Afterwards, Messrs. Cookson and Co. 
erected cast steel melting-furnaces at their works at Derwentcote; and 
within the last few years, Messrs. Fulthorpe and Co., of Dunston, commenced 
this branch of the steel-trade. Cast steel is produced by breaking the 
blistered steel into small pieces, and placing the same in crucibles or melting- 
pots capable of containing 36 to 40 Ibs. weight each, two of which are 
placed in each melting-furnace. A plentiful supply of coke is now filled 
into the furnaces, and by the aid of a strong draught of air an intense white 
heat is obtained, and kept up for three or four hours, according to the nature 
of the steel required. When it is ascertained that the steel is perfectly 
melted, the crucibles are taken out and their contents poured into iron 
moulds conveniently placed near, and left to stand until in a cool enough 
state to be taken out as cast-steel ingots. These ingots are afterwards 
reheated, and hammered or rolled, or it may be both hammered and rolled, 
according to the description of article for which it is intended to be used. 
To produce large ingots, a number of crucibles, containing liquid steel, are 
brought out of the furnaces, quickly following each other, and a continuous 
stream is kept flowing into the mould, There is scarcely a limit to the size 
of ingot that may be made in this way, as was evidenced by the monster 
block of steel exhibited by Krupp, of Essen, at the International Exhibition 
in London last year; but great risks are run of getting an unsound ingot, 
as the least delay in getting out every crucible of steel in perfect order might 
cause a cessation of the stream, and thus make an unsound casting. In the 
year 1839 a great improvement was made in cast steel by Josiah Heath, by 
the introduction of manganese. 
Having described the various processes that the several different kinds of 
steel undergo in its manufacture, it may be useful to notice some of the new 
methods that have been tried in the neighbourhood. 
The method of making steel by the cementing or converting process, as 
already described, may be called the indirect method, because the object of 
the process is to deprive, in the first instance, the pig iron of the whole of its 
' earbon, making the product as nearly as possible a pure malleable iron, and 
afterwards imparting to it again the necessary quantity of carbon to make it 
into steel. The new methods seem to aim, for the most part, at making steel 
by a direct process, without depriving the pig iron of the whole of its carbon, 
and without reducing it into a malleable iron condition. This is effected by 
extracting a large portion of carbon, but taking care to leave in a sufficient 
quantity to make steel, the object being to save the great waste of metal 
attending the puddling of iron, as well as the actual cost of that process, 
Of these last methods the Uchatius process is one that was extensively ex- 
perimented on a few years ago at the Newburn Steel Works, and the follow- 
ing is a short description of the manner in which the process was carried on. 
