]72 report — 1865. 



for the passage of trains, they were turned the other way upwards, and when the 

 second side of the iron rails were worn as far as the safety of fhe traffic would 

 allow, the worn-out rail was replaced by a new iron one — the same process being 

 repeated as often as was found necessary. Thus we find, at the date of the last 

 report on March 1st, 1865, that seven rails had been entirely worn out on both 

 faces. Since then another rail has been worn out up to July, making sixteen faces 

 worn out, the seventeenth face being in use on August 22nd, when the steel rail 

 that had been placed opposite to them was taken up in the presence of the writer, 

 and, by the kind permission of Mr. Woodhouse, was placed on the table before the 

 meeting. The first face of the rail only has been used, and this is now become 

 much thinner than it was originally, but, in the opinion of the platelayers, is still 

 capable of wearing out another half dozen faces. Taking its resisting powers at 

 three more faces only, it will show an endurance of twenty to one in favour of 

 steel. 



Mr. Woodhouse has ascertained, by careful and continued testing for twenty- 

 four hours at a time, that an average of 8082 engine tenders or carriages pass over 

 the steel rails every twenty-four hours, equal to 16,164 wheels every day for 1207 

 days, making a total of 9,754,974 wheels passed over the rail. Subject to this 

 excessive wear, the rail appears to have been reduced 7i lbs. per yard, hence for 

 every grain in weight of steel lost by abrasion, no less than 371 wheels had to pass 

 over it. Another steel rail, put down also in May 1862, at a place much less sub- 

 ject to wear, has had four faces of iron rails worn out opposite to it, and still ap- 

 pears as if very little used ; this rail was also placed on the table. An iron rail wears 

 out by the giving way at various parts of the imperfectly welded mass, and not by 

 the gradual loss of particles of metal, as in the case of the steel rail, which no 

 amount of wear and tear seems capable of disjointing. It must be borne in mind 

 that this enormous endurance of cast steel is not owing to its hardness or brittle- 

 ness, as some have supposed, for, in fact, Bessemer steel possesses an extreme de- 

 gree of toughness. There was before the Meeting an example of this fact ; one of the 

 same quality of steel rails having been attached at one end to the main driving shaft 

 of a steam-engine so as to twist it while cold into a long spiral, measuring 9 feet in 

 length at top and bottom, and only 6 feet if measured along the centre of the web. 

 A single glance at this spiral rail will, it is presumed, dispel any idea of brittleness 

 that may have been entertained. 



In conclusion it may be remarked that cast steel is now being used as a sub- 

 stitute for iron to a great and rapidly increasing extent. 



The jurv reports of the International Exhibition of 1851 show that the entire 

 production of steel of all kinds in Sheffield was, at that period, 35,000 tons annually, 

 of which about 18,000 tons were cast steel, equal to 346 tons per week ; the few 

 other small cast-steel works in the country would probably bring up this quantity 

 to 400 tons per week as the entire production of cast steel in Great Britain. The 

 jury report also states that an ingot of steel, called the ' monster ingot,' weighing 

 24 cwt, was exhibited by Messrs. Turton, and was supposed to be the largest mass 

 of steel ever manufactured in England. Since that date a great change has been 

 made, for the largest Bessemer apparatus at present erected in Sheffield, at the 

 works of Messrs. John Brown and Co., is capable of producing with ease every four 

 hours a mass of cast steel weighing 24 tons, being twenty times larger than the 

 'monster ingot' of 1851. 



There are now seventeen extensive Bessemer steel works in Great Britain. At 

 the works of the Barrow Steel Company 1200 tons per week of finished steel can 

 easily be turned out, and when their new converting-house, containing twelve more 

 five-ton converters, is completed, these magnificent works will be capable of pro- 

 ducing weekly from 2000 to 2400 tons of cast steel. There are at present erected 

 and in course of erection in England no less than sixty converting vessels, capable of 

 producing from three to ten tons at a single charge. When in full and regular ope- 

 ration these vessels will be capable of producing 6000 tons of steel weekly, or equal 

 to fifteen times the entire production of cast steel in Great Britain before the in- 

 troduction of the Bessemer process. The average selling price of this steel is at 

 least £20 per ton below the average price at which cast steel was sold at the period 

 mentioned. With the present means of production, therefore, a saving of no less 



