ON THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL. 767 
Pig iron, of a first-class quality, was melted in a reverberatory furnace, and 
run into a tank filled with cold water, where it was reduced into granules ; 
this granulated cast iron was mixed with pulverized oxide of iron and some 
alkaline earths, and the whole put into the ordinary steel melting-crucibles, 
and then placed in the furnaces, to which heat was applied in the usual way 
until it was brought into a fluid state. By this method it was thought that 
the degree of hardness of the steel was capable of being regulated by the 
size of the granules and by the quantity of oxides used; but after a great 
number of experiments, at a cost of little under a thousand pounds, on 
attempting to work it in large quantities, it was found that the product was 
so uncertain in the qualities necessary to good steel, that the process was 
altogether abandoned. This irregularity of the produce was probably caused 
by the uncertain quantity of carbon in the pig iron used. 
A method of making “ puddled”’ steel has been tried in this locality, but 
without success. This process was a patented invention of Riepe, a German, 
and consists in puddling cast iron in a furnace constructed specially for the 
purpose, until it is observed to be in the condition of steel. This state is 
found to exist when a particular form of bubble appears on the face of the 
metal. 
The Bessemer process of making steel has also been introduced into the 
district, at Tudhoe, near Ferryhill, but with what success the writer is not 
able to say. The operation, as is generally known, consists of blowing 
atmospheric air through a mass of melted cast iron until the carbon and the 
whole of the impurities of the iron are burnt out of it. This process was so 
ably described by Mr. Bessemer himself, at the Meeting of the British Asso- 
ciation at Cheltenham, that it is unnecessary to give a detailed description 
of it here; but it may be mentioned that he commenced by extracting only 
a portion of the carbon, intending to leave a sufficient quantity to produce 
steel, but the difficulty of adjusting the exact amount finally led him to 
extract the whole, and afterwards restore the exact quantity requisite by 
adding a measured amount of highly carbonized cast iron. Experiments in 
making cast steel from the Taranaki sand from New Zealand, and also from 
another similar sand from the coast of Italy, have been tried at Newburn, 
with a result of getting an excellent quality of steel; but, although yielding 
about 51 per cent. of metal, the cost of its production, without including 
anything for the sand, was so great, that it would not answer commercially. 
It may be mentioned that this description of metallic sand appears to possess 
the remarkable property of not becoming oxidized when kept in a moist 
condition; and the writer would call the special attention of chemists and 
metallurgists to the fact, with the view of arriving at (what would be an 
invaluable discovery) the production of iron or steel that would not be sub- 
ject to the destroying action of the oxygen of the atmosphere. 
The articles manufactured from steel in this locality are very numerous: 
amongst which may be mentioned railway axles, tyres and springs, piston- 
rods, motion-bars, and files for engineers’ use, rings for Blakeley guns, shot, 
&c.; the great bulk of tonnage being railway-springs of various kinds— 
buffing, bearing, and traction, in the laminated form, as well as the volute 
spring originally made in this country at Newburn, and of which there have 
been many hundreds of thousands made within the last few years. The 
rings supplied for guns made in this district have been pronounced by the 
consumers superior to any others. A firm, in this locality, has been appointed 
makers of springs for Mr. W. Bridges Adams’s patent for the application of 
circular springs between the tyre and the frame-wheel for all kinds of rolling 
